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A long journey for a knee recovery

I've missed blogging regularly over the last month. I've been caring for Dustin and our two boys with not much time left to do anything else. Over a month ago, August 16th, Dustin hurt his left knee while playing in a league basketball game. After x-rays, an MRI, and several doctors visits we found out the prognosis and it wasn't a good one. He tore his acl and meniscus and the only cure: surgery.
Dustin's doctor (who also happens to be the doctor for the Sacramento Kings basketball players) said reconstructive surgery was definitely necessary. Before he had a surgeon operate on his knee he wanted to get a second opinion just to be certain he was making the right decision. He is so active, going to the gym almost every day, playing in basketball games weekly, running around with the boys, going for daily walks and just being an energetic daddy he wanted to be certain that he could have a full recovery and get back to his regular activities with no problems. So, he went to another knee specialist who actually said that his knee would correct itself over time, no need for surgery. Well, that wasn't really helpful in going to the surgery table 100 percent confident with that being the right choice! So, a third opinion was a must!

Dustin's mom works in the medical field and knew of a specialist in the Truckee area near where she lives. She was able to set up an appointment with him so we traveled up to Truckee, she joined us at the doctor and was such a huge help. Our third specialist was the tie breaker and his advice was definitely to have surgery... ...So, bright and early September 8th I brought Dustin in for the surgery with Dr. Marder. Here's a picture of him right before getting his anesthesia, he's none too thrilled, poor guy! I remember waiting in the waiting room and every minute feels like hours when your husband (or anyone you love) is having surgery! After two hours Dr. Marder came out and told me that he's just waking up and the procedure went fantastic. Praise God! He handed me a DVD (they recorded the procedure) and showed me several pictures of his repaired acl and other parts of his knee (which by the way they had to drill away 1/3 of his knee in order to get to the acl) I wasn't really prepared to see pictures and forgot every single word he said after that, I was only focused on keeping my breakfast down!

This was Dustin's bed and position for 23 and half hours of the day for three entire days, you can imagine just how stir crazy he got (actually since he was on pain meds, I think I was a bit more anxious and stir crazy than him). For those three days both Alex and Isaac did pretty well with understanding daddy had a big owie on his leg and couldn't get up to play. They brought him books to read, watched movies together and ate snacks ~ hence the pudding all over Isaac's face. It's been a few weeks now since surgery and Dustin has finally started to walk again, even if it is with a limp. He's been going to physical therapy and is in phase 3 (weeks 3-6) of his rehabilitation. There's a total of 7 phases (weeks 16-24), but a total of 12-18 months 'till basketball is recommended. We are so very grateful for a smooth recovery road there so far! God is so great to be answering our prayers and I know that He is healing Dustin. All he wants is to be able to run around with the boys again, he could care less about playing sports, in fact right after the injury happened he said that basketball was totally not worth all of this and he doesn't want to chance the possibility of this happening again. His sole motivation to recover is Alex and Isaac. I can only imagine his pain as Alex runs through the house shouting "daddy, get me!" and all he can do is sit there, every day he asks to go to the park with daddy, or go search for lizards, the list could go on, a two year really has a hard time grasping the situation.
For a few weeks when Dustin couldn't move around I felt like a single mommy of three! After caring for him I have a new appreciation for nurses, it requires constant care and patience! I know that God gave me the extra strength I needed, I really can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!!