Me & My New ACL

Well, I am finally back.  My ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair took place on 9/29/11.....surgery went well according to the nurses and surgeon.  I was a bit incoherent, so I'm not too sure of the specifics, but I will be sure to get them at my 1st post-op appointment.  One thing I learned last year from my thyroidectomy, was that I do NOT do well with anesthesia.  This held true yet again! Let's put it this way, I was the 1st of the morning surgeries and the last to be discharged.  I won't go into details, I'll just say it wasn't pretty!  Here are a few pictures of my knee from surgery day.  And yes, I did get a pedicure for the occasion!

The weekend was tough.   My knee was feeling good, pain was manageable thanks to my fantastic husband, who made sure I had constant ice and that my pain meds were given to me with saltines at exactly 4 hour intervals as prescribed.

Apparently, I am no better with pain meds than anesthesia because by Saturday I was so violently sick and dehydrated that I should have gone to the hospital for some IV fluids.  Luckily, with the help of some Herb Ox Chicken broth we managed to get me back from the edge.   Coming back from what feels like death is a slow process.  Keith was sent out for more chicken broth, white pasta, white rice and saltines.  I fought the nausea all day Sunday, even after cutting my pain meds dosage in half the night before.   The mandatory bland diet was wreaking havoc on my body as well.  White carbs and sodium are things  I rarely consume and my body must have been thinking "What the heck is she doing to me!"   I took my last narcotic pain med Sunday morning and refused to take anymore.  I would rather be in pain than deal with the nausea.  I swapped to Naprosyn that afternoon and it was the best decision I could have made.

By Tuesday, Cabin Fever was in full swing and I went for my 1st supervised drive with my Dad to pick up the kids at school.  Wednesday was my 1st day driving on my own and God it was wonderful, pouring rain and all!  Today is officially 1 week post-op and my knee is feeling great....my knee is up to 90 degrees on the CPM machine,  I can weight bear with the crutches and I am only taking Advil during the day and Naprosyn at night.  My follow-up appointment is tomorrow morning and I'm very excited.  If all goes as expected I will be able to lose the crutches and brace. I'm also hoping that I'll get the okay to hit the ARC trainer on 0 incline and low resistance.  If not, I'll resign myself to the Upper Body Bike and a good upper body workout, although my arms and shoulders should be looking good after all the stairs I've been doing with these crutches!