Knee Surgery

On September 23rd, 12:34 PM:

   I was playing in a basketball tournament at Kennedy Middle School. Shockingly, this event turned into devastation at the rebound of a shot. I was going for the rebound of the basketball, but so were others. As I reached for the basketball in mid-air, I bumped into another player. With this cause, I lost my balance, resulting with a fall at a bad position. My heart pounded with fear as questions just swept through my head: What will happen to my knee? Will I be sent home? Is anything broken? I hope it's OK. A few minutes later, I realized that I had heard a crack at the time of the fall. With all that could happened I still managed to stay clam as my friends got help.

   In a few quick days, after seeing many doctors, of all kinds,  it was already decided that the best option was to get knee surgery. This made me tremble with goosebumps for a week before, at a birthday party, I heard about another person's surgery. Before he told me about it, I always thought surgery was painless because the patient would be asleep the entire time. It turned out that the body would hurt after the surgery. This discouraged me from getting surgery.

Day of The Surgery, 4:20 AM:

   The surgery was early in the morning, so that I wouldn't have food in my stomach before the treatment. The night before, all I could due was roll around in my bed because I could thought of nothing besides the next morning.

   Ever heard of the saying: "Love at first sight?" Well, I had a "fear at first sight." After arrival, I was placed on a bed with at least 20 huge tools behind me. Some were sharp and others were just plain big. My mind drifted off to thinking what the worst outcomes were. That didn't help at all. The IV nurse finally came and stuck a needle into my hand. You can still see the recent IV shot on my right hand. My left hand has something similar to my right hand. I think it is an IV shot from 6 years ago. I remember that when I was in China, my grandma took my to get IV shots every time I got a cough or cold.

   I soon learned that medications were put into the IV instead or eating them. This was a big relief because I am not able to swallow pills. Putting medicine in through tubing would be much easier. Even the anesthesia was put in with this! From the start, I worried: "What would happen if I don't fall asleep even with the anesthesia?" Until later when I found out the liquid was to continue flowing until the surgery was over. I thought it was just a one-time injection, making patients fall asleep without a designated time or waking up.

I fell asleep really quickly. All I saw was an add-on devise fixed on the tubing. It looked small and flat, seemingly connected to something else. But I didn't know much because I didn't have time to look around. During the surgery, as I anticipated, I felt no pain because I was entirely at rest. Later, I woke up being really dizzy. I opened my eyes but was forced to close them again due to how tired I felt.

   When I opened my eyes once again, I was in a smaller room where I would stay for the night and a whole day afterwords. I felt fine then, able to open my eyes and sit upright. A nurse was there kindly to treat me with ice chips, which were good for my stomach at the time. Soon enough, my parents were there with me. Right away, I knew the knee surgery was a success. The most uncomfortable part was my throat. While  I was unconscious, the smart surgeons put a tube down my lungs so I would have my supply of air. It felt like having a cough, but not coughing. My voice was scratchy and I was barely able to speak.

   Drinking a soup for lunch made me feel better. The cranberry juice tasted terrible with its sourness. It was like drinking lemonade with a sore throat. But, I liked it better than water and ice chips, and drank it all. The later resting all went as expected, although not the best. Going home was the best part.

   Dr.Kliman told me the reset of the knee went great. I have a fine time at the hospital. Hope you won't have this experience!