So, I had knee surgery.

Hello everyone! As you may have noticed, I haven't been active on the blog recently (save for posts that are automatically scheduled to post at 5 AM). This is because I had some knee surgery on Tuesday morning.

In the car on the way home, still wearing my surgery swag. (Pardon pulling the photo right from Instagram--I've been bedridden all week and not up to taking real photos.)

I have what my Doctor says is plica - a buildup of tissue in the knees that easily become enflamed. I've been dealing with painful knees my entire life, and only in the past two years has it gotten so painful that I've had to see doctors about it. I was first diagnosed with patellar tendonitis, and as a result was given pain medication to ease inflammation of the tendon. Unfortunately, whenever I would try to wean myself off the medication, the pain would come back. In addition, I've been to physical therapy several times to strengthen the knee, but to no avail. In the meantime, I had lived for two years with constant chronic knee pain. 

Finally, when the same pain started happening in my other knee, my Doctor gave me an ultimatum: he told me that I could have surgery, or I could deal with the pain for the rest of my life. 

Being only twenty and already depressed enough that I could no longer walk extended distances, run, dance, or climb stairs without suffering and needing to rest for the next few days, I knew what the right decision to make was. I was terrified, of course--but I had hope that my quality of life would significantly improve afterward. 

Has it yet? I'm not entirely sure. I've spent the whole week bedridden, hobbling to the bathroom on crutches, being uncomfortable all the time, taking intense pain medication, sleeping for maybe two hours at a time, getting migraines, and vomiting. I start a summer full of physical therapy on Friday (today) and have a followup appointment with my doctor next week. However, I was able to hobble over to a different room in the house to sit on a different sofa for a little while yesterday. Little victories!

Hello, toes. 

In the meantime, I'll post updates as I see fit. Thanks for your patience and your continued support! 

Also, shoutout to my mom and dad who's been here to wake me up at awful hours to take medicine and have been coercing me to eat when that's the last thing I want to do. You guys are real pals. Thanks for dealing with me! 

Thanks, everyone! See you soon,

Em