Mitchell finally gets his surgery

Hey! It happened!

After an incredible amount of appointments and booking and waiting and scanning, this week I had surgery on my knee. We'd been prepping the weekend before as I'd been told I'd need someone to come with me and then take me home and supervise me for 6 hours afterwards. Since Emily was starting work at 4pm she would be able to do at least the surgery supervision as long as it was the morning but we didn't get a time slot until the day before! We had some friends who'd volunteered to help out if they were needed but in the end the surgery was booked for 8am so we needn't have worried. Once we were there I signed a few forms and almost immediately had to say goodbye to Emily and head through, I got into a gown and they set up a drip going into my hand (on the second try). I was then waiting for slightly longer than an hour with the only interesting thing that happened being a bubble going down my IV which apparently isn't actually a problem as I thought? The nurses didn't worry and I certainly didn't see any effect of it other than anxiety as I watched it go into my hand.

Finally I met the anaesthesiologist and my surgeon, I was a bit worried as Emily wouldn't know I'd been waiting for an hour so would just think the surgery ran long but figured there was nothing I could do at that point since those people were going to be in the surgical room with me. The nurse introduced herself, she was actually from Wales, I asked when she'd moved to the US. Then my memory ends, I don't remember being given any anaesthetic or counting down like they do in the shows but apparently I did, no idea if I had a mask for gas or it was via the drip. I also apparently changed my mind and some point in my memory gap did impart to the doctor that my wife was going to be worried about how long I was in there and that it was important he tell her. Emily spoke to the doctor once I was out and while I was waking up was getting all of my instructions. I woke up in a recovery bed and outside of being very chatty and feeling tired without managing to fall asleep didn't seem to have had much hangover of the anaesthetic. The next 2 days I had half days at work, I kept my crutch with me but honestly didn't seem to need it and every hour I have to do stretching exercises but it feels much better already! Friday the bandages came off and while it was odd seeing the old blood and the stitches they're very neat and the 3 holes very small. I even managed to climb some stairs! 

Saturday we had a dinner party for Sandra's birthday and our international group was very excited to see me without a crutch, some people that have arrived in the time I've been on a crutch actually had to reassess how tall I was, we think because I've mostly been sitting whenever I spoke to them! The dinner was lovely, Sandra had prepared everything and if she ever wants to change career she'd make a hell of a chef. We ate and hung out in her garden by the pool and it was a lovely time. 

We'd also chipped in with everyone else to get Sandra a surfboard as she's practicing surfing with rental boards most weekends recently, she tried it out in the pool and did manage to stand up for a second before she fell in.

On Sunday it was super hot, reaching 40C, Sandra had invited us back for a pool day as part of extended celebrations and a few of us took her up on that. We spend the day eating leftovers and hanging out in the pool (I only dangled my feet in as I the pool could be an infection risk). Emily took a few tries standing on the surfboard and even despite my bias I think we all agreed she did the best. It was great to spend such a hot day relaxing and the pool was really helpful to cool us off.

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