One week

I can't believe it is only one week until my surgery now. I am totally freaked out about it. I'm still worried whether I need it done or not, and I don't want to change my routines. I'm worried about the strain that this might put on my marriage. I'm worried about the recovery, whether it will be easy for me or last forever. I'm worried that this won't fix my knee problems, or it will make my hip problems worse. Too much to think about and I have to make it through another week of work. I hope my husband can help distract me this week...

Pictures

I finally had my sister take some pictures of my knees.

4 weeks

It's about four weeks to my surgery now. Getting a little scarier to think about it, because I really have to plan for it now. I emailed my principal yesterday because my days off request hadn't been approved yet. I'm also sorting out who will be around to help me that first week. My husband has the day off for the surgery to take me and help me out. Then hopefully my mom will be able to come up the next day to help. After that--I don't know if I will need or get help. My sister is still living with us right now, but her new job is during the day. So I will be home alone with two crazy dogs a lot. I don't even know where to begin planning for when I go back to work. My classroom is on the first floor of the school building, on the opposite end of where my students' rooms are. Plus, their classrooms are on the 2nd floor. Thankfully there is an elevator, but I will have to procure the elevator key each morning and give it back each day before I leave. Right now I pull small groups into the hallway to work and many times we sit on the floor. That will not be a possibility for me in April...so I have to figure something out for that.

As for knee pain...it is definitely increasing. This week was the first week that I've really needed pain pills daily, and they do not last me all day. I could not go to my favorite gym class on Wednesday night because of knee pain, and had to push myself to go for the rest of the week. I want to strengthen as much as I can in the next month to hopefully make my recovery a lot easier.

6 weeks...

Yesterday marked 6 weeks until my knee surgery. Eek! I don't really want to think about how close it is. My legs are really sore lately, so I know I need the surgery, but it's still scary. I've been keeping up with my exercise and working hard at building my muscles up. I've also been sticking by my diet and have lost about 8 pounds so far.

Update

I went back to the gastroenterologist today to go over my blood work. Everything came back fine. If I have any other pains, I'm supposed to call. He thinks I could still have problems with my gall bladder and there is another test that he could do to check. He just wants to stay conservative for now and I'm okay with that. I haven't had any major pain since around the holidays.

I also got the cost for my knee surgery this week. The doctor is going to cost $9000, hospital is $10,000-15,000, and the anesthesiologist is $900-1200. I called the insurance company to find out my responsibility. I have the $500 deductible for the year and then a $1000 out-of-pocket maximum. So I shouldn't have to worry too much about the surgery costs.

Next step...buy some awesome millennial crutches...I'm going to be spending a lot of time with them for the next few years.

Still going!

It's been awhile since I updated, but I am still going on my diet! So far I've lost about 5 pounds and 2 inches off my belly. It's tough sometimes, but I keep planning ahead on what to eat so that I don't cheat. I also joined a gym last weekend and have worked out 5 days so far. I've found that the elliptical machine is good for my knees, but causes some pain in my hips. So I tried the bike one night, and that was killing my knees but great for my hips. I'm going to have to find a happy medium between the two to keep from hurting myself. I did a class this morning called Sweating to the 80's. It was grueling, but great. I would have never pushed myself that hard alone. I did almost 100 push-ups and I did do 100 crunches! My knees and hips are a little sore now, but not more than after a day at work.

I haven't heard anything from my doctor about my MRI results (done on December 22nd) or anymore information about my surgery. I want to find out more about my recovery plan and the costs. I've started getting updates from my insurance on how much was covered for my MRI, ultrasound, and blood work. The ultrasound and blood work were pretty well covered, but I found out that CDI is out-of-network, so I'm going to be paying out of pocket for a lot of the MRI. I'm going to have to keep that in mind for next time, because I already know I'm going to need to have one on my right hip in the future. So I plan on calling my insurance company on Monday (yay- day off work!) to hopefully talk down some of my bills. Then I need to call the doctor to find out what is going on with my MRI and surgery planning. I'm going to the Pacers game and staying downtown to watch the Colts game tonight, I hope my body is ready for it! Nights out are always really hard on my knees, even when I wear tennis shoes! I'm ready to be able to wear some cute boots or heals out and be able to walk all night.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is celebrating the new year and new changes! This is going to be the year I get my life back. My husband and I are starting a new diet called the Flat Belly Diet. We just started it this morning and I already feel more energized and happy. It involved a lot of picky shopping to get started and eating some weird things. But overall we are guaranteed to see results. I'm also making other changes. I got the new Wii Fit Plus, and I plan on getting on it at least every other day. I did it this morning for a half an hour and got a great sweat on. I'm also stopping taking my Lexapro (anti-depressant), so that all those side effects that are ruining my marriage can stop. My goal is to keep this good feeling going throughout the year, no matter how bad my hips and knees are hurting me.