2nd day post-op

Slept a little better last night, I've slowly weaned myself off the painkillers, I'm currently 6 hours and no pills... Hopefully I'll be able to eat better as my appetite has slowly gone downhill. I've also taken off the large bandage covering my knee and checked out the incisions. Quite gross!

1st Day Post Op

I hardly slept at all last night as the nerve block and anesthetic slowly wore off. However the cryocuff + pain killers helped. My leg has feeling again and standing up no longer makes me sick. The pain killers make me very drowsy. I'm able to eat more foods now which is good as my stomach has been whining non-stop.

I have my post op exercises / instructions to do. However, it doesn't mention anything about bending my knee, which I find a little odd. Most of the blogs / post-op rehab I've read consists of bending your knee asap.

My brand new ACL!

I was up at 5:45am to get to the hospital at 7. Surgery was at 9. I met 5 different people before surgery: the surgeon, the doc, the nurse, the anesthesiologist and his assistant. I had a nerve block and lots of drugs. At one point I kept looking at the air duct, and I thought it was moving and couldn't stop staring at it. After that I woke up in the recovery room. I had quite a bit of pain under my leg so apparently they might have missed the back side of my leg for the nerve block. They gave me some morphine and I was good. I was still pretty drowsy after waking up and had some issues standing up as I would start sweating heavily and felt very nauseous. Once I lied down again I was fine. Because of this I didn't leave the hospital until 3:30.

Because of the nerve block I couldn't feel the front half of my leg, which was kinda weird. My mom, being a physiotherapist, was able to hook me up with a cryo cuff! which has made icing a lot easier (although I didn't feel the cold at this time)

My girl Alice has been great at taking care of me and hooking me up with food! Although it's tough to eat at times.

All systems go!

I've received a call from the hospital with instructions on what to do / not do before tomorrow. Looks like everything is an "ok to launch!". No midnight snacking and no morning tequila shots!

My leg is feeling pretty good. It's hard to believe it's been 7 months since the injury. I've lost some enthusiasm over the past month or so, but now that the day has come I can feel it creeping back.

Breaking News!

I just received a call from the surgeon. Apparently new research has shown that the ACL is a myth and doesn't exist hence why it didn't show up on my MRI. Woohoo! But apparently they still need to remove part of my hamstring because "We planned to take it out, so let's take it out" so I'll still require surgery and the 6 months of rehab. Doh!

Here's the article debunking the acl myth: ACL Enlightenment provides relief to millions of injured athletes who tore nothing

9 Days to go!

9 days to go and I can feel my knee's anticipation! It'll be somewhat sad to go back into using crutches again, not being able to bend my knee fully, icing my knee again... but at least this will be the last time (hopefully!).

And I was so close to touching my toes, maybe an inch away. Currently up to 200 lbs on the quad slider (10 times 3 sets), and 75 lbs for hamstring curls (10,7,7 reps)

My pre-op physical had a funny diagnosis: Healthy ACL tear. I suppose he meant "Healthy minus the ACL tear"

Party #2

April 3rd is my surgery date, which means I'll hopefully be playing Ultimate Frisbee again Oct 3rd.

Although I'll miss playing in the summer, at least by June I should be walking normally again and can still enjoy the warm weather (and possibly do my physio outside)

Surgeon

Met with the surgeon today. Waiting time for surgery is 3-4 months. However, since I'm considered a "healthy" individual, I've been put on the cancellation list.

On the plus side, he said it's only a 6 month recovery period after surgery before I can play ultimate again.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease

So after many phone calls I'll be meeting the surgeon on Jan 27th. Hopefully surgery won't be too long after that.

Waiting Game Continues

Still waiting for a surgeon to call. My doctor has emailed the surgeon asking if I can be put on the next placement. Hopefully something will turn up!

Physio continues once every 3 weeks, with most of the work over those 3 weeks in my hands. I've got about 10 different exercises I spread out during the week. On the plus side, I am coming ever closer to touching my toes for the first time in 10+ years.