My husband had his knee surgery on Monday, and it went far better than we had hoped. They didn’t have to do as much to his knee as we had thought they would, and it’s looking like the recovery process is going to be a lot faster and easier too. The surgeon is considered one of the best knee docs in the world, and his pt program is highly regarded, so we’re excited to be working with him. They had my husband in pt within 3 hours of surgery. Then we went back yesterday for two pt visits, one at 9am, the other at 5pm. In between visits, he’s in a machine that moves his leg constantly, going from a straight leg to a bend of 50 degrees, and back. We also have a little automatic ice machine that’s keeping his knee chilled to prevent swelling. Overall, we’re feeling great about the whole experience. The people all around us in the pt room yesterday were from all over – a couple from Europe, one NFL player, a lady from California… we didn’t meet anybody else as local as we are (the hospital is about a 3.5 hour drive from our house). Luckily, we’re not having to drive back and forth every day, because my husband’s sister has a condo in a town about an hour from the hospital. I’d much rather drive an hour each way than 3.5, especially when the day starts at 9am and ends at 7pm and it’s snowing. So we’re feeling very lucky and grateful to her for letting us use the condo.
We knew we’d be up here Mon – Thurs, so I worked extra hours last week in order to avoid having to take vacation time this week, and we planned carefully to avoid having to spend any more money than necessary. Both the town where the hospital is and the town where we’re staying are expensive resort communities, so we wanted to avoid eating out or passing time window shopping, etc. We went to the grocery store before we left home and spent $30 on food. On Sunday night, I made a lasagna and froze it, then on Monday night I was able to cook it after we got back to the condo, and that lasted us for two nights. Yesterday, we had 6 hours between pt appointments, so we set up a little nest in a quiet corner of the hospital lobby. We had my husband’s various equipment running the whole time, as well as the laptop so that we could get work done, and our cell phone charging nearby. I had bread, almond butter and bananas in the car, so I was able to make sandwiches for us. The hospital staff were quite amused by us – I think they’re a little more used to the jet set crowd that goes out for $50 lunches between appointments. But we enjoyed our day, got a lot done, and spent almost no money.
Today and tomorrow we get to do pt in the same town where we’re staying – the hospital has a clinic here, and the surgeon at the hospital doesn’t need to see us again for a month. So we’re having a much more mellow day today. I took the dog snowshoeing this morning, then we went to our first therapy session and were able to just come back to the condo afterwards. We go back again this evening at 5, then we’ll be able to come back here for dinner. I’m in the middle of cooking a lentil/tomato/roasted pepper sauce to go over pasta, which we’ll eat when we get back this evening.
Since we’ve been here, we’ve spent about $25. We did have one trip to subway, and we bought a gourmet hot chocolate mix for a hospital employee who went out of his way to help us over the last couple days. We bought ice for the cooler that’s keeping my husband’s knee from swelling, and I bought us each a little piece of chocolate from a fancy chocolate shop – everyone needs a treat now and then. But overall, we’ve managed to maintain our frugal lifestyle just fine.
We’re looking forward to getting home tomorrow night and hoping that my husband’s recovery continues to go as well as it has been so far.
Frugal Dad says
Hope the recovery goes well. I had shoulder surgery last year for a torn rotator cuff and it still bothers me on occasion – usually when I try and do things the doctor advised against. Us men are pretty hard-headed when it comes to that kind of stuff, you know?
FrugalBabe says
Yep, I know that Frugal Dad. As we were leaving the hospital right after the surgery, we saw someone on fancy forearm crutches who was hopping down four steps at a time with his crutches. My husband commented on how cool those crutches were and how he’d like to do that with his aswell… good thing you men have us women around to keep you safe :)