Sophomore Lynsey Chediak waited 15 years for the surgery of her life. She got it, but now she’s realizing recovery is going to be a lot harder than she had anticipated.

Chediak had her major surgery on August 1 for a condition called arthrogryposis, a disease of the joints. The purpose of this surgery was to permanently straighten Chediak’s leg. Previously, she has had three knee surgeries, a foot surgery, and a surgery that repaired a collapsed lung right after she was born.

This time when the doctors cut into Chediak’s left leg they expected to find substantial muscle tissue. Instead, they found that the leg had very little. For her entire life, Chediak had dragged her left leg, and therefore never built up muscle tissue.

They also found her bone to be much softer than expected. Consequently, Chediak had to have a cast put on, which wasn’t the original plan. She was supposed to wear an immobilizer (a brace that holds the knee bone straight), but instead the doctors left the operating room to ask Chediak’s twin, Grace, what color cast Chediak would want when she woke up.

“Pink,” was her reply.

Chediak woke up surprised about the cast and in significant pain.

A few days after the surgery, Chediak’s leg started to spasm uncontrollably and frequently. This result was so unexpected that the nurses didn’t know what to do. Because the leg was in a cast, she couldn’t bend her leg to relieve the spasms. Chediak took Valium to relax the muscles, but this didn’t solve the problem.

Chediak’s leg continued to spasm for the next few weeks after surgery because her leg wasn’t accustomed to being stretched.

The doctors didn’t initially expect Chediak to lose feeling in her leg, either. When she got her cast off, Chediak noticed that she had lost complete feeling in the left side of her leg and top of her foot.

It has been more than two months since Chediak has had feeling in parts of her leg.

“I’m hopeful feeling will come back,” Chediak said.

The doctors originally said if Chediak had the surgery in August, she would have to use crutches for the first week of school and then she’d be ready to walk.

Instead, Chediak had a wheelchair for the first month of school.

In the beginning of October, Chediak switched to crutches for half the day, but she said it’s been a slow, stressful process.

“I’m afraid to use crutches at school because I’ve already been knocked down twice,” she said.

It’s also really tiring going from sitting down in a wheelchair for over two months to standing up with crutches.

As a result, Chediak sometimes leaves school at lunch to rest.

Chediak says the hardest part of the recovery process is not being able to depend on herself. “I can’t even go to my room by myself because my wheelchair can’t fit through my doorway,” she said.

At school, Chediak depends on friends to push her around and carry her books.

“A lot of times Lynsey needs help getting to the lunch line and maneuvering around backpacks,” sophomore Linden Beck said.

Chediak still experiences a lot of pain at school, and she can’t take medication.

“I can’t take [Vicodin] at school because it makes me loopy,” Chediak said.

In the meantime, she’s been taking Tylenol and Advil. But now the doctors have realized that the combination of the two medications has been hard on her stomach.

Another downside is the migraines Chediak gets when the drugs wear off in the middle of the night.

At home Chediak wears a Dyna-Splint six to eight hours a day. This brace is spring-loaded and is designed to straighten her leg.

Before the surgery Chediak’s leg was 40 degrees bent. After the operation it was only seven.

Chediak is hoping to be up on her feet by Halloween by going to physical therapy three to four days a week.

A team of trainers is helping her regain muscle in her leg through exercises designed especially for her.

“Physical therapy makes everything so much better. In a week I could bend my knee,” Chediak said.

But Chediak’s pain and recovery blips were just speed bumps compared to the ultimate result.

“It was amazing to stand up for the first time and actually have both feet touch the ground,” she said.

“I wouldn’t give that up for anything.”