Knee Surgery?

Mother’s Day was a happy day. It marked the one year anniversary of Jill coming home from the hospital (after spending 47 days in the NICU). To help me celebrate Mother’s Day she started giving me kisses for the first time on Saturday night. I love her kisses. It is really cute. Katelyn made me a beaded necklace. Bryan bought me roses and watched the girls so I could plant my garden. And we met my parents, sister and her family, two brothers, and a nephew for lunch after church.



Mother’s Day was definitely a nice break from everything. Lately, it seems like every week is another medical emergency. Last week was my turn. I hurt my right knee in high school. It tends to bother me once or twice a year. I usually put a wrap on it. Hobble around for a few hours or days then it gets better. This has been going on for the past 17 years. In college, I went to a specialist; he thought there was some loose cartilage, but the MRI results never showed anything. Anyway, my knee has been bothering me a lot for the past few weeks. Last Tuesday evening it got so bad that I couldn’t even walk across the room. Any movement was intense pain. It is definitely a humbling experience when you have to have your husband help you into bed and take you to the bathroom. For the next 12+ hours the pain was this bad….I told Bryan that I would rather go through child birth again (especially if I could have an epidural). On Wednesday, Bryan stayed home from work to take care of the girls and me. He drove me to an orthopedic surgeon and I had an MRI. This time the MRI showed that there was some loose piece of matter floating around, extra fluid on my knee, and a knee cap that has a tendency to slip out of place. I wore a knee/leg brace for a few days. On Friday, I was able to walk on my own. It is looking like surgery is probably the only real solution. But I might try a few physical therapy appointments first.


My main dilemma is who is going to take care of the girls. My brother-in-law came over last Thursday to help out so Bryan could go back to work. I’m managing right now. But it is hard going up and down stairs and being on my feet all day. It looks like the recovery time for the surgery is anywhere from 2-6 weeks. For up to six weeks, I’m not supposed to kneel or squat down. Jill is more mobile now. She scoots everywhere. With this whole knee issue, I hope I can keep up. I’m a little nervous carrying her around. I feel like my knee could go out again at anytime.


Anyway, I learned that since she is on Medicaid she might qualify for some home health services. Unfortunately, the whole process for getting approved is a bit of a headache. The paperwork could take a month or even longer. When I called Medicaid to try to explain the situation (“I’m Jill’s primary care giver, it looks like I will need knee surgery, her care is complicated with the feeding tube...”), I was told that I am one of 750 clients. She cannot treat my case like an emergency or she will have to treat every other case like an emergency. Then she went on to say things like “Don’t you have a husband that can help?” My response: “My husband has to work or we won’t have health insurance.” Her response: “Don’t you have a mom?” My response: “She just has a stroke a few weeks ago.” At which point, I started crying on the phone. I am constantly being told how delayed my daughter is from all the doctors and therapists, etc. Usually things don’t get to me, but this lady got to me. She had an uncanny way of making me feel utterly alone in the world. Anyway, the conversation went on and she gave me the number for another Medicaid worker so I could start the whole paperwork process. So I called the other lady, explained the situation and asked if it was possible for the forms to be emailed to me since I may need to have surgery at anytime. That was on Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. I never received anything in my inbox so on Monday morning I called again. The forms were mailed. I understand that things need authorization, but I don’t understand why the process has to be so exhaustingly inefficient.


Well, it looks like I will be hobbling around for awhile. I hope my knee holds up until I can figure out some sort of plan for the girls’ care. Then I will probably schedule the knee surgery.