Zach's Super Fun Weekend in the Hospital

My Darling Husband is in the hospital for his third solid day. Here's how it went down:

Wednesday night, Zach started saying, “Man, my knee really hurts,” but couldn't point to a specific moment when he injured it.

Thursday he went to work and, as usual, walked the two miles that is part of his commute. By the time he got home, he could barely walk for the pain in his right knee. We iced it, raised it, rested it, wrapped it, but it kept getting worse.

Friday Zach worked from home and continued the same treatment to no avail. The knee kept getting worse and swelled up. He also started shivering and spiking a fever. We made an appointment to see his doctor the next morning.

At 10am on Saturday, the boys and I dropped Zach at his doc. He called later to say he was being sent to the ER across the street. I made a bunch of phone calls and lined up friends to watch the boys and joined him at the hospital. My parents offered to come down from Michigan to stay with the boys and I took them up on it.

In the ER, they drained his knee and tested the fluid. It showed signs of infection. No one has been able to discern how it got infected: it's had no trauma, he's had no cuts or scrapes on it, he's had no other infections. They gave him some antibiotics, he got an x-ray, and an orthopedic doc took a look at him. They decided he needed a surgical procedure to wash the joint out and prepared him for that.

He was in the operating room by about 7pm and was out before 8. Everything went well. Zach was chatty and happy when I saw him. They sent him to a room, he settled in, and now he's just healing, resting, getting antibiotics, and waiting to see if anyone can figure out why the heck his knee got infected in the first place. For awhile everyone kept saying, “maybe tomorrow” to the “when can he go home?” question. But it looks like for really reals he can get outta here tomorrow, which is Tuesday.

My parents and our friends have been so helpful - watching the boys, bringing us food, calling to check in. I'm very grateful tonight - that it wasn't something scary and worse, that I'm not working and can be here without too much stress, that it was fixable, that the medical staff are smart, that we live close to the hospital, that Zach's knee will heal completely, that my parents don't live too far away, that we have an amazing church community praying for us and caring about us.... We are blessed!