Mike's Patellar Tendon - 3/30/10

Mike ruptured his Patellar Tendon playing Church Basketball a few weeks ago (March 13th). He wasn't going to play but he got a call because the team wasn't going to have enough players, so he went. He jumped to steal a pass around center court and came down with his knee cap out of place. At first they thought he dislocated it, but he wasn't that lucky. He took an ambulance to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray where I met him. His right knee cap was about 6 inches above his knee. Gross. He was in so much pain and the shots the nurse was giving him weren't helping. They managed to get an x-ray and the Doctor diagnosed the Patellar Tendon Rupture, and told us surgery would be on Monday at TOSH. What? They want to cut him open after one x-ray? Seems a little fast. The ER straightened out his leg, put him in an immobilizer brace, gave us a prescription and sent us home

Go here for more info from wikepedia.

Mike's knee

Monday March 15th, TOSH wanted us to be there at 12:30 pm and Surgery would be at 2:00 pm. Mike was anxious since he has never had surgery before, not even wisdom teeth. Lucky us the surgeon was running 2 hrs behind schedule. Dr. Holmstrom was really great though he explained what they were going to do and drew diagrams all over his pants to help explain. They were going to open him all the way up, stitches everywhere, drilling 3 holes through the knee cap so they could pull stitches through, eww. Poor Mike. Mike asked the Doctor if he would sing to him since his Birthday was the next day. Ha Ha! The Doctor didn't sing.

Once they finally took Mike in the Surgery went well. The recovery didn't go so well. I waited forever, glad my Dad was hanging out with me or I would have gone crazy. The hospital was deserted, we were the last ones there. I was worried that everyone had gone home and left Mike in a bed somewhere on his own. I finally got a hold of a nurse who said Mike didn't come out of anesthesia very well, they had to give him a nerve block because he was in so much pain. The nurse let us back finally and we thought we were almost ready to take him home. Wrong. Mike's oxygen keep dropping really low and they watched that for quite awhile before they decided to admit him. He was not happy about that because he didn't want to be in the Hospital for his Birthday. Luckily they said he could go home once his oxygen levels were stable. So at 11:55 pm we were leaving. We almost made it a 12 hr day at the Hospital.

Mike's Birthday was pretty miserable, his pain meds weren't helping. I had to drive back to the hospital to get a different prescription. The new meds weren't working either, he finally started taking ibuprofen and that helped. He said this was the worst Birthday he has ever had.  He did want to have a Birthday party still so I had to throw that together, having visitors around helped lift his spirits though.

Now we are a couple weeks in and we know a little more about what to expect. He won't be able to drive for 90 days, will be using crutches for at least 90 days, might be able to jog around 6-8 months. He was off work for two weeks and has started back part time this week. It's really rough because he can't bend his right leg at all so he has to prop it up on another chair or something. Hopefully next week when we take him back to TOSH for his appointment they will put him in a brace that will start allowing him movement.

Also wanted to thank all the friends, family, and neighbors who have visited, brought meals and treats, called and sent cards. Thank you so much. It has been a very difficult and without all the help we've had I don't know how we'd have made it.