Recover From Meatball Surgery In Less Than A Month

As I lay in my Indonesian hospital bed fighting back tears post-surgery, after my doctor showed me my mangled knee for the first time, I did not think that there was any way I’d be able to bounce back.

I wanted to go home, curl up in my Dad’s lap while my Mom made me hot tea (most likely with honey & whiskey) and my sister braided my hair, and pretend that this whole bike-accident-leg-infection-emergency-surgery-hospitalization thing had never happened.

But it did happen.

Wishing it away was never gonna make it so. I had an important decision to make. I could either:

• Continue being all emotional and defeated, running away from SE Asia and giving up
• Decide to fight back and do whatever it took to get myself healed so that I could begin loving Balinese life again

When I took the time to stop being all mopey and weak, the decision was obviously quite easy to make. Between a bullish (and let’s face it, stubborn) nature and a resolve to get back the elated happiness I felt being here pre-motorbike-accident, I knew the time was coming for me to fight and recover.

In less than a month after a digestive surgeon (you get whatever you can take here…I figure if he can splice together intestinal tracts I’m good with him doing some superficial leg surgery) sliced into my knee four times with a scalpel and drained out all the infectious liquids, I was cleared from continued medical treatment.

As I sat in my final follow-up appointment, my doctor explained my recovery process. “I didn’t want to scare you that morning in the hospital, but you leg infection was…bad…” he said hanging his head and shaking it from side to side. That is universal doctor language for “I wasn’t sure if you were gonna make it out of surgery with a leg.”

“Yet in less than a month you are walking and no more infection and swelling down and skin shedding like snake. You have healed faster than any patient I have treated with this injury.”

Then he said what has become both a chuckle and badge of honor for me.

“You like to win at everything, don’t you?”

How does one bounce back with such ferocity?

• Attitude Is The Most Important Thing – You hear that all the time from people who accomplish great things or overcome serious adversity. That their spirit pulled them through it. I almost roll my eyes even doling this out as the first piece of advice. Yet as cliche as it may seem, it is vitally important to recovery. You must force yourself to be happy, see the positives in your situation, and push through when you you honestly don’t feel like you have anything more to push with. Otherwise a bad situation will chew you up and spit you out. I definitely felt myself get crunched by misery’s sharp pointy fangs multiple times during this process – but I never let her really crush me.
• Laugh – Is there a better medicine? Even when I was crying talking to family on Skype or laying flat on my back in excruciating pain, I tried to keep things light for the people around me. I didn’t want anyone else getting bummed out about my bum knee. In trying to make sure everyone else was ok, I made myself ok.
• Surround Yourself With A Great Support System – Being in a foreign country on the other side of the planet, I will admit that I was worried if I would have to go through this alone. That was a totally foolish assumption. Between the doting nature of my housemates (“the boys”) when I first got out of the hospital to my friends Tom & Dian who took me in to their home for a week and went to all my doctor’s appointments with me without hesitation to “the girls” who stopped by whenever I was alone at the house to make sure I wasn’t feeling alone to Tanner (the friend I got in the motorbike accident with) and the couchsurfers texting me every few days to see how I was doing, I found that the people I have surrounded myself with here are great people.
• Reach Out Across The Ocean When You Need It – Yep, I needed my Mommy & Daddy after this happened. I talked to them at least 3-4 times a week by Skype. And my sister. And my bestie in Portland, Melissa. And my SPIRLBFF Jenny, who also sent me the most adorable hot pink teddy bear (Recovery Bear) that I sleep with every night. Don’t judge, Recovery Bear is a great snuggler, and sometimes in situations like this you really need someone to snuggle with.
• Know What Is Going On With Your Treatment – When I was released from the hospital I took one look at my 1500 MG antibiotic dose of amoxicillin and saw a huge problem.  I’m allergic to amoxicillin. Like anaphylactic shock allergic. Even though it was noted on a separate bright red hospital bracelet, my IV bags, my hospital record, and my patient folder, the pharmacy still prescribed me a medication that might kill me. Fortunately the hospital continued to be amazing and sent a driver up to our house with a corrected dose of erythromycin, which would not kill me and instead would heal me. (Note – This is not an Asian hospital thing, you hear about this stuff happening all the time in Western hospitals as well.)
• Commit To Your Treatment – Every time I went to meet with my doctor, I brought a notebook with questions that had come up during the week between visits. When I got assigned my physical therapy exercises, I went online and found some additional ones. Then I created a Google Doc (I know, you are shocked by this) to track my exercise completion and notes on how I felt or any milestones from the day. I could rattle off to anyone what my assigned healing tasks were for the week.
• Don’t Be Afraid To Push Yourself – During my second check-up, I went in armed with one question after talking to my parents: Could I increase my antibiotic dose to kill off the infection faster? My doctor checked a few things and sent me to the lab to get a blood test checking my cell count and kidney functions. When all was clear he increased me to a dose of 3,000 MG daily of erythromycin. He warned me I would be tired, nauseous, and not feel great while I was on the dose. And he would only put me on it for up to 10 days. Did I really want all that? Oh, you better believe I did.
• Be Willing To Acknowledge When You Are Overwhelmed and Need To “Slow Down” – The other nugget of wisdom my doctor gave me during my final appointment was not medical advice, but instead life advice. “You need to learn to slow down sometimes.” Like yesterday when, after 4 days of running around Seminyak without crutches, I was so exhausted and sore I slept for 8 hours the night before then 6 hours during the day then 9 hours last night. Or if I had listened to Dan the first five times he told me I should go to the hospital. You know, things like that.
• Look For Positives – I still have my leg. I’m healing like a rockstar. I have great friends helping me, making me laugh, and reminding me I’m not alone. I can feel my family’s love 12 hours into the future. I have a hot pink teddy bear to snuggle with at night. I’ve lost considerable weight and the crutches totally worked on some of my upper arm toning (if you are looking for a new fad diet the massive-leg-infection-major-knee-surgery-high-dose-antibiotic plan really works, though I personally would recommend against it). I finally got down to the Bukit. I am very fortunate to work with people who were willing to let some of my responsibilities slide for a bit so I could recover like it was my job.

Today, March 21st, is one month from the day of my surgery. I’m writing this sitting in my favorite non-villa office space (Grocer & Grind café). I have no stitches in my knee and am not hobbling around on crutches. Sure I can barely bend my knee more than 70 degrees (way up from 30 degrees two weeks ago!) and I still limp around eliciting stares and whispered comments, but I’m here and continuing to push through.

After all, what other option is there?  😉

photo credit: otisarchives3 via photopincc