I just received a call from the Recovery Room Nurse. Pam is out of surgery, but is not going to be going back to her room tonight. She has a problem with sleep apnea, and they don’t want to take a chance with her having problems in the night due to the anesthesia. She is FINE. Nothing to worry about, it’s merely a precaution. I spoke with her for a few moments and she is kind of out of it, so best she sleep.

I would only be allowed to go in the recovery room for 5 minutes, so I’m not making the hour and half drive tonight. I will go tomorrow early and spend the morning with her.

The nurse did not know what the doctor did in the operating room. I’m not sure if they pinned her leg, did ligaments, or the extent of damage to the femur. The doctor will be back to see Pam early in the AM so I’ll be there for that and see what is going on.

UPDATE: Pam called at 8:30 – she had not remembered we spoke earlier! haha She said that she is doing fine. She thinks they did some ligament repair too, but she doesn’t really remember much. They have told her she must get her sleep apnea looked at, and they’ll send her to a study later. Anyway – she seems in good spirits. They have given her control over her pain meds, so she doesn’t have to request any, she just has to press a button.

When I arrived at the hospital this morning, the surgeon, Dr. Lempke was consulting with Pam. He is going to be performing the surgery today, and she should be in the operating room as I’m typing this. (Scheduled for 12:00 noon.) The surgery should take one and a half to three hours, depending on the damage, plus 2-3 hours in the recovery room. (UPDATE: the phone just rang, before I posted this message, and they said Pam has just now gone down for surgery – it’s 12:50 PM.)

He told us that he studied the MRI (something the Surrey doctors had not been able to do) and told us that the damage to her ligaments was not as severe as first thought. The MCL seems to be fine. He said that when you get this kind of knee injury the MCL is rarely hurt; it would get hurt by impacting the knee, not hyperextending it as Pam did.

The other ligaments are stretched badly, the PCL the worst. But apparently, if you’re going to have a bad ligament, the PCL is the “best” one to have damaged. That’s the best news – the MCL/ACL tears are the worst, most painful injuries, and toughest in terms of rehab, so it seems she’s avoided that at least.

He will pin the broken tibia back together (that’s the bone below the knee), repair any damage to the femur (the bone above the knee) and reposition the knee. If any ligament damage is very severe, he will repair that. But he said that usually they want the bones to heal first, then worry about the ligaments later. He felt that the knee itself was not nearly as shattered as the Surrey doctors felt. Pam will be put in a metal knee brace, not a cast. She will not be allowed to “weight bear” on the leg for six weeks, but can use it to balance.

He said she will be in the hospital 3-7 days post surgery, depending on how well she recovers. She should be able to get up and move around as soon as she can deal with the pain, in just a few days.

She should be back in her room around 5 or 6 this evening. I’ll be heading back to the hospital when she awakens, and I’ll post an update around 9 this evening to let you know how the surgery went.

It’s nice she is in an actual room, not warehoused along a wall, like she was in the Surrey Emergency room. I’m still a little concerned about the bruising along the back of her damaged leg, but hopefully the surgery will let us address that better. She has a compression bandage on her right leg, to prevent blood clots.

She was a bit woozy today, but in pretty good spirits. Knowledge is power, as they say, and it’s a great relief to know that the injury, while severe, is not as bad as first thought. Dr. Lempke is a younger man, and very upbeat. He was very communicative and answered all the questions we posed to him. It was nice to be able to talk about things when you have all the information, instead of guessing!