Daniel's surgery

As most of you know, almost 2 weeks ago, Daniel had some pretty major surgery done to his knee. He had a procedure done that is called autologous chondrocyte implantation or ACI. In a nutshell, they take a cartilage sample from his knee (they did that in March when they scoped his knee), grow the cells in the lab, and then go back in and insert them. They also lifted his knee cap to give him some more room so hopefully everything will quit rubbing together. If you want a more detailed description, along with some cool pictures, here is a link that does a great job describing ACI.

Because of the extent of the surgery, we spent three nights in the hospital. Kenna and Dane went to spend some quality time with Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Mercy (Thanks guys!) so I could stay in the hospital with Daniel. The pain meds that they were giving him were making him very hot. We had the thermostat set down as low as it could possibly go and I was sitting around wearing a sweatshirt, socks, and covered up with 3 blankets and he was STILL hot. So the nurses went to find a fan and this is what they found....

...it loudly got the job done! :)

After three days we got to come home and Daniel was very glad to be able to sleep in own bed. He has to wear a lovely brace and be completely non-weight-bearing for 6 weeks.

For the first week, his foot was HUGE! They had wrapped is leg so his knee wouldn't swell and mess up the incision so all of the extra fluid went down into his foot. Once they took the original bandage off of his knee, his foot and leg got MUCH better!

His has to use the CPM for 8 hours a day every day. He has done this before but I am sure it is still pretty boring!

We got him all set up with snacks, books, TV, computer, etc.

After Kenna came home from the Boyd's, she went to spend the week with my parents in Muleshoe so Daniel could have a little time before he had a two year old wanting to kiss his "owie". Hopefully they will post some pictures of their adventures soon! Thanks everyone for all of your help during this !