A Different Kind of Normal

I've been in Wake Forest for exactly two weeks and I absolutely love it. There is not a single regret in my mind and although these last two weeks have been nothing like what I anticipated, I love the new normal that is becoming a part of my new life.

I love that my apartment is slowly becoming my home. I love that in just about two weeks, my roommate will be here for good and we can go buy furniture and other decorations for our apartment. I love that I have the ability to knock on the wall in my room and know that Adam and Kimber are right there. I think the thing that I love most is that I am fully confident that the Lord has me here for a very distinct purpose and I can't wait to find out what all that entails.

Over these past two weeks, my life has been different. I guess that is a good word choice. Day three was the one that shifted everything. I would say that it was really Day 11 that changed my thoughts about the entire situation. That was the day I was told surgery was going to happen on the knee. To be completely honest, as much as I didn't want surgery to happen, I knew that it was going to happen. Looking back now, I'm glad I decided to go forward with the surgery and here is why. The day of the actual injury when I saw the doctor in the ER and he said that I had broken my kneecap and that what had happened was a sliver of my kneecap had come off, he told me that ideally it would just attach back to something in my knee. I don't know about most people, but the thought of a part of my kneecap just attaching somewhere that it doesn't belong did not sound like the best option to me. However, I am not a doctor so what do I know. The meeting with the orthopedic doctor put the theory from the last doctor to rest. After he looked at the x-rays, he told me that in fact my kneecap was not actually broken. In reality, my kneecap was just dislocated, but when that happened there was a piece of bone that had come loose and was just floating around my knee. He gave me a few options, option one was to just leave the piece in the knee. It would probably all be okay, however, it could at any time get caught in something and cause my knee to lock up and do further damage. I'm thinking no on that option. Another one was to do an MRI and to see how big the piece was and where exactly it had come from. However, he said ultimately he wanted to get that piece out regardless of the size, so all the MRI would do is give us the information and cost me more money. Needless to say we did not do the MRI. The final and best option for me was to go ahead and just do surgery without the MRI and get the piece out. The only real problem was the fact that not knowing a lot about the piece of bone and where it came from left a little bit of ambiguity about the surgery, nothing to be worried about though.

So, the surgery was set for Thursday morning. It was anticipated to be about a 30 minute surgery, but it took about a little over an hour. The piece was a little larger than a quarter and thus had to be broken up bit before removing it through the knee scope and the knee was a little inflamed with some blood around the kneecap. Everything went well and I went home less than an hour after it was all over. I was told that I could remove the main bandage on Saturday and I will get my new knee brace on Monday!

I took off the bandage this morning and it was so nice to let my knee breathe for a change. I am still sitting and thinking about why I have to be a klutz and why the Lord chose this as one of the first things for me to deal with in my move to Wake, but I do know that He is sovereign and His plan is much greater than mine. His hand has been in this from the beginning and I've already seen ways in which this accident is already shaping my time here in Wake. I've been so blessed by my new friends at Richland Creek Community Church and I'm excited to get plugged in at that great church. So, thank you Lord for the new normal that is becoming my life here in Wake.