(Note to the squeamish- there are pictures of my knee and the incision sites at the end of this entry)
FRIDAY (1 DAY POST OP-PT)Less than 24 hrs after surgery and I was out to the door to my first physical therapy appointment. The first real pain came as I was filling out my paperwork in the waiting room with my leg down on the ground. The rush of pain came on so fast and I started to feel sick. As soon as my hubby got a chair under my leg and elevated it things started to get better.
Once I was back in the table area they got to work taking off my dressings. I can imagine that I was quite a sight with my leg all wrapped up and the huge brace over it. There were probably 15-20 people in the table area. I became very aware that everyone was staring at me and my hubby verified it wasn't my imagination. Everyone wanted to see the dressings come off. It stung as she pulled them off because they were stuck to the stitches. I probably would have held up better emotionally had it not been for everyone staring at me. I shed a few tears and just wanted everyone to go back to what they were doing. Once the dressings were off people stopped paying attention. My hubby said it was as if I was the car crash and everyone in there was driving by and couldn't take their eyes off the scene.
The rest of PT was uneventful. I was able to do straight leg raises. I was pretty stoked about that. I hadn't expected to be able to do those for at least a few days. They had me doing ankle pumps, knee bends and extension exercises. I bent my knee to 60 degrees! I finished with icing and one of my least favorite things in the whole world....STIM! I was happy to go home after that. Well, we stopped at Dairy Queen first and then went home. It was well deserved!
(On a side note...the surgeon told my hubby post op that my ACL had started to reattach itself to another part of my bone. He said that if I was older and not as much of an active athlete that my ACL would provide enough stability with it's ability to regenerate without going through surgery. I guess it's nice to know that my body has good healing powers.)
(WEEKEND- POST OP DAYS 2 AND 3)I survived the weekend. Just sitting on my butt a lot and sleeping on the couch. It's just too much effort to move everything up to the bedroom, including myself. The stairs scare the crap out of me. I still haven't showered because I haven't been given the clearance by the surgeon. I will see him on Monday. I'm starting to gross myself out. My daughter helped me wash my hair in the kitchen sink. That helped a little, but I still feel gross.
On Sunday (Mother's Day) I decided to scale back my pain meds. Instead of taking 2 every four hours I decided to only take 1 every four hours. The pain meds are awesome for controlling the pain, but they basically knock me out within a 1/2 hr after taking them. I don't want to be asleep all the time.
We spent Mother's Day afternoon on the couch playing Wii. Kinda hard to play some of those games while sitting in a reclined position. But it was fun...we made the best of it.
MONDAY (POST OP DAY 4- APPOINTMENT WITH SURGEON)The appointment was short and painless. I had expected to do some exercises with him, but that didn't happen. First order was getting the ace bandage off and shipping me off to x-rays. They took x-rays as soon as the surgery was completed on Thursday and then again today to make sure the surgical screws were staying in place. All looked good. Then the doctor had me make a quad muscle and I got the thumbs up. He said I was already ahead of the game in terms of quad strength. That was good to hear. Then he had me straighten and push down onto his hand. He said it was ok, but not great. Something to continue working on. Then he asked me to bend my knee. Yeah...not so much. He said "ahhh...now we have homework". Gotta get to work on that!
And that was it (except getting my clearance to shower....I can now stand to be near myself). Continue with PT and come back to see the surgeon again next week. Pretty sure that's when I get my stitches out.
TUESDAY (POST OP DAY 5)I've been feeling sick and I'm fairly convinced it's from the pain meds. I'm taking some of the strongest stuff there is and I know that has to mess with your system after awhile. I've been nauseous, sleepy and constipated. I haven't been eating the greatest and that's bugging me. It's not for lack of being hungry. I start out fine whenever I try to eat, but then my stomach turns about half way into the meal. Some I've been able to finish and others no where close. We have an amazing group of friends from our Taekwondo school that have been bringing dinners everyday. They all look, smell and taste amazing (at least to start). I just wish I could finish a meal. My family has certainly been eating like royalty and loving everything! So, I've decided to spread my pain meds out even further and see if I can tolerate more time in between. And thus enjoy eating a little more and savor some of our left overs! We'll see how it goes.
Pictures were taken one day after the surgery.
The stitches came out on May 19th (surgery was May 6th). It felt great to get them out. They were really starting to pull and pinch. I was shocked to find the stitches I had for the largest incision were all internal. The outer layer was only covered with sterile strips. So when it came time to take the stitches out all they did was tug on one end and pull the entire string out. It felt like a worm was being pulled out from under my skin for a split second. Very weird, but not too painful. (Picture to the left was taken right before they pulled my stitches out)
