Well, I hope I can now truly say that the worst part is behind me. Although I know the recovery from my knee injury will be grueling and often painful, I'm hopeful that the
hardest and most painful parts are in the past.

The surgery

It went well and, in my opinion, it was a huge success. I say this because my knee injury was downgraded from potentially catastrophic to just plain bad. To me, this is great news!

The doctors left the IT band to re-attach on its own, the fracture was well lined up and will also heal on its own, and they repaired my MCL and my PCL. My LCL and ACL were both strong enough that they left them intact.

The surgery was still three-and-a-half hours in length -- this is because two ligaments still take a long time to repair, but also because the PCL is so hard to get to and hard to fix. I woke up an hour after surgery freezing cold, with my teeth clattering away. As soon as I saw Dr. Litchfield, who did my surgery, the first thing I asked about was how many ligaments they had to fix. When he told me it was only two instead of the possible three or four I was so happy!  

The following week

The day after the surgery I was in rough shape. I didn't expect it to hurt so much and struggled with the pain that first morning. We were able to "catch up" to the pain after about six hours, and then I was more comfortable and started to improve with each day.

I spent three days and two nights in the hospital. I hope I won't have to go back anytime soon, but I was treated extremely well and I have to say that good nurses make all the difference. They can truly be a godsend.

Once back from the hospital (after a drive that made me feel rather nauseous) I did a lot of sleeping in the first few days, averaging 16 hours a day. I'm now staying awake more and getting more energy with each day. My appetite since my fall has been rather small (after the surgery it took me about four days to get back to more normal eating) and I've lost around 15 pounds -- a shocking amount to me, though I guess my leg muscles probably weighed something like that.

Surprise visit

On Thursday night a huge crowd walked over from Chicopee Ski Hill to surprise me on my parents' doorstep. When I got to the door they broke out singing 'O Canada.'  I was extremely emotional at this show of support and hearing the anthem I'd hoped to be singing on the podium in Vancouver.

Back to school

On Friday morning I visited my old school that had adopted me for the Olympics. This too was an amazing event, and it was so wonderful to see all those kids and even a few teachers who I'd worked with when I was a student there.

There were about 500 kids awaiting me, cheering a chant they'd made up! It was great to be there and let them know that I will come back from this. CTV and ET Canada were both in attendance, so it was quite the show -- even though it was a short talk since I'm still not up for too much just yet.  

Torch relay update

I'll be running (actually wheeling) the Olympic torch in New Westminster, B.C., on Feb. 9  at 10:55 a.m. PT. I'm set to go for a distance of approximately 300 metres along 8th avenue, from Moody Park Arena up to 5th St.

I'd love to see some of you there if it works out with your schedules.