Nick's Surgery

The fearless leader of our wolf pack hurt himself skiing recently. The Beta wolf (me) has done her darnedest to pick up the slack and lead our little wolves by her lonesome, but it's been tough. So tough in fact, that I was actually angry at Nick for injuring himself. Which I realize is crazy, since it is certainly not his fault - accidents happen. But our Alpha usually returns from his escapades unscathed. 

For the curious, Nick was skiing and his knee just gave out after a normal landing. Nothing exciting or dangerous to report. He kept insisting that he'd be back on his feet in no time, but his knee cap was clearly not in the right place.

This is where it comes in handy to know some friends in the medical field. Nick went in on Tuesday and his surgery was scheduled for Thursday. The diagnosis: a ruptured patella tendon.

He basically ripped his knee cap off the tendon that holds it in place. He also had some bone fragments floating around and some insane swelling.

As you can see, his left knee (if you're looking at the picture, it's his right) looks like my knee normally. Fat and swollen. (FIST BUMP FOR ALL YOU FAT-KNEED GIRLS. ALSO, THANK YOU REGINA GEORGE FOR POINTING OUT THAT MAN SHOULDERS AND SUCKY NAIL BEDS ARE ONLY THE BEGINNING OF A WOMAN'S PROBLEMS)

Surprisingly, Nick was a little nervous, but they gave him some juice (READ: DRUGS) for that. They used a human cadaver in his surgery which is pretty legit if you ask me. I was so grateful my mom volunteered to watch the kids so I could look away when they drew Nick's blood and not get near him when they inserted his IV. Basically, I'm the worst wife ever. You're talking to a woman who gave birth naturally to avoid a 12-inch epidural needle in my spine. Hospitals give me the creeps and they smell horrible. But beggars can't be choosers and we were thankful for such an exciting date! Who knew we'd have to meet in pre-op to have a romantic rendezvous. JK, we mostly watched youtube videos and I took awkward pictures of my patient. 

Nick's nervous face.

On second thought, that hairnet makes me wish we could have skipped the youtube videos.

Also, Nick's drugged face.

The surgery went swimmingly and I felt so reassured since we knew half the people in the operating room. (THANK YOU SMALL TOWN) We're a little over a month post-op and Nick's barreling away at recovering better than Chuck Norris. He has ditched his crutches and hardly walks with a limp (still has the brace on). He won't be going to Bolivia to climb this July like he'd hoped, but I signed him up for some senior citizen water aerobics, so he will probably be doing backflips around Joan and Charles in the pool. I'm still trying to forgive him for messing up my hiking schedule this summer! I had so much planned and now ... I've got a crip for a hub.

Its a good thing he can rock a hairnet.

Oh, and some of you requested more videos since I posted that short one on Instagram.

You're welcome.