Help after Knee Surgery

Ever since I was 13 I have had serious knee problems.  My right knee cap has a nasty tendacy to pop out and fall to the side, requiring me to manually put my  knee cap back in its proper place, a rather painful and traumatizing experience.

I wanted to post some pics of what it looks like but I latest about 2 seconds on image search before I was overcome with anxiety and phantom pain.    Besides, do I really want to subject you to that same image.   NO!  I do not.

Just before the July 4th holiday, it came out in my sleep.  Now that is quite a wake up call.  I had to use my left leg to straighten out my knee, forcing the knee cap back in place.  I was unable to sleep for the rest of the night for fear it would come out again.

Then, less than 48 hours later, I bumped into the trailer hitch on the truck, even though I was being extra careful, and down I went.  Again I had to force it back into place.

My knee has come out no less than 20 times since I was a kid, and normally I am just fine within a day or so.  You know take an Aleve and move on.  I have always been careful with my knee.  I avoid most sports, ice, slippery floors, knee level obstuctions, twisting my leg, dancing, swimming and oh so many things that would cause even a slight slipping of the knee.  

But this last time was different.  After 2 days the swelling and pain was still present.  This was not normal.  I knew something serious was wrong so I made an appointment with my doctor.  She sent me to have an MRI and to the orthopedic surgeon.
The surgeon told me the bad news, I had basically zero ligament on the inside of my knee to hold it into to place and the only option was surgery.  
He is going to rebuild my ligaments from part of my hamstring.
Actually this was great news.  After 3 decades of this, I am finally going to have a way to make my knee work like a normal person.  I could walk normally. I could stop worring about children hitting it accidentally. I could walk on marble without fear.  I could play sports.  I could run, I could swim, I could learn to swing dance.  But most importantly, I could live without the fear of my knee coming out in my sleep, and I could finally sleep normally.

This was a wonderful thing.  Finally! Finally normality.  That was until we started talking recovery time.  

1 month on crutches and a knee brace with very limited range of motion.
3 months in a knee brace and PT
6 months for recovery.

Great, except I have to drive to work and I drive at work.  While my employer is willing to do light duty for me, I just can't drive to work with the knee brace, which puts me on short term disability(STD).  
That means 60% of my regular income for at least a month.  60% when we are already struggling to make ends meet.  60% when now I will have more medical bills on top of paying for the thousands we already have because of my daughters appendectomy a few months ago, and other medical issues we have had all year which tapped our savings as well.

On top of that Amy, my wife, has PKU, a rare metabolic disorder that requires a very expensive specially made food and powder supplement to keep from literally losing her mind to early onset dementia.

So that is where I am now.  A thing I have so desperatly wanted for years is finally attainable, but it will break us financially when it happens.

All we need is enough to make up the difference in what I am going to get in STD to get through the recovery process.

So there you have it, my story, or at least part of it.