"You should've seen that from my angle!"

Day 1 after surgery

Day 13 after surgery

It’s definitely been a tougher week.
 
Farther into rehab, it’s getting harder. As I use my leg more and in brand new ways, muscles I’ve never fired before are learning how to work and I’m faced with some new pains.
 
But on the other hand, I’ve been very blessed to not be in nearly as much pain as I was last time I had this surgery. I think all of us in the Ellis Clan can attest to the fact that this time around is 100x better.
 
This rehab process is new and long to us. We’ve never stayed inpatient for an extended period of time before.
 
Mom and I have our hospital life down to a routine though.
 
Each day, I go through 3 hours of therapy. 2 hours of PT and 1 hour of OT. We fill our in between time with lunch, naps and lots of card games of War.
 
This much therapy in one day is something I haven’t experienced in a long time so it’s an adjustment, especially since I’m still getting used to my “new” leg.
 
I’ve said this before, but this surgery is definitely more of a mental battle for me because I’ve been down this road before and it wasn’t pretty.
 
As the swelling has gone down, I am starting to feel my newly straight leg and the metal rod that’s now placed in there. Part of me keeps remembering the nightmare that was last time.
 
I have to tell myself daily that I’m in way better hands and my outcome is already vastly different and better.
 
The first two days after surgery, I think I asked my mom and dad 1,000 times: “It’s actually straight this time, right?”

Now seeing that it is, comfort and excitement is slowly filling me up.
 
I keep joking that I’m bionic again and all my nurses joke that us CP kids have pain thresholds that they can’t even imagine.
 
I may have a high pain threshold, but I can't look at my scars yet.
 
I thank Jesus for my high pain tolerance daily but he definitely didn’t give me the stomach for dried blood and bruising.
 
But once they’re cleaned up, I will be taking cool scar story suggestions.
 
My motto is every scar needs a good story.
 
For example, there’s one on my foot that my brother and I decided looks like a shark bite.
 
Thus, we tell everyone that I got it fighting off a Great White in the ocean. What do you mean it’s from orthopedic surgery?
 
~

I’ll  end this post with some comic relief.
 
Get this image in your brain:
 
Mom is pushing me in my wheelchair down the hall, I’m holding my afternoon cup of coffee. Two nurses are coming towards us and another one coming down the hall to our right. Naturally, as one of them was my nurse today, we stop to talk to them.
 
Well, I guess Mom had a momentary brain lapse and thought that the levers on the wheelchair handles that recline the back of my seat, are brakes.
 
She presses them and I go flying backwards, my coffee goes up in the air.
 
Soon enough, we all can’t stop laughing and the nurse coming from the right says: “You should’ve seen that from my angle!”
 
One day and one spilt coffee at a time, we’re getting through this.

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.