The day after ACL reconstruction

Thought I would add my experiences to the web of how my recovery from ACL reconstructive surgery is going. I had read others who have kept a dairy online and it helped me prepare.

I tore my left knee's ACL playing softball 2 months ago. I also hava a bucket tear of the meniscus. I had arthroscopic surgery to repair both on Monday, June 9, 2007 at 9am. They used the patella tendon graft. It is now Wednesday, June 11th at 4:30 am as I start this diary.

The Surgery:
Got into the surgery center and after signing a bunch of forms was taken pretty much immediately to pre-op where they shave the knee, hook up an IV and a heart monitor then walked me down to the operating room. An oxygen mask was put over my face and before I knew it I was waking up in post-op. It was around 1:30 pm when I woke up. I had brought in a knee brace and cryo-cuff that the doc had given me a week prior and they where already on my knee when I woke up, all ready to go. They checked my heart rate and pulse for about another half an hour while I was still a bit groggy. after that I was taken to another room where they got me a coffee and a couple of vicodin (I was dying for my morning coffee ... no drink or food prior to surgery). They also got me a couple of Popsicles to eat. A buddy showed up to take me home at about 2:30pm. I had crutches to help me out but found I could immediately put weight on the leg. Got back to the house where me and my buddy sat out on the porch for a while ... my leg really didn't hurt much at all.

The First Night:
The knee was not hurting at all and could easily bear my weight in the brace without the crutches. I sat down to watch some TV. By about 5pm I started to get a bad migraine headache (yeah, I get those sometimes). I started to feel a bit nauseous by about this time but I am not sure if that was due to the anesthesia or the vicodin or the migraine, but it wasn't too bad. I did not eat that night. I kept the cryo-cuff cold and kept a strict regimen of vicodin every 4 hours.
Didn't sleep to well that night, waking up quite often, but that was partially due to the migraine.

The Next Day:

Still not much pain in the knee when I woke up. Took out the garbage in the morning using just a single crutch for extra support. I cut the vicodin down to once every 6 hours to see if more pain came up. I spent most of the day watching TV and emailing friends that I was still alive. Spent some time out on the porch reading. The doc doesn't want me to drive while I am on the vicodin so I am stuck around the house for a while anyways. Kept the leg iced and elevated. Took a shower by wrapping a garbage bag around the leg to keep the dressing dry. Ate three good meals today, all the nausea is gone. I do have pains in my triceps and stomach muscles but I feel that is due to doing sit-ups each time I need to get up (I am a bit out of shape). One thing I did not expect is that my throat is very sore due to the tube they put down it during surgery. I should have got some throat lozenges prior to surgery to have around.

By about 10 pm my knee is starting to hurt a bit more, especially where the incision was made to take the patella tendon. This is probably due to the reduction in pain meds.

Now:
It is 4:30 am Wednesday morning. Just woke up and the knee is hurting quite a bit more and it is getting harder to bear the full weight on it without crutches (I still can but I do feel some pain now). So I have started to keep the crutches nearby.

All-in-all so far, this has not been a bad experience. I had feared being bed ridden for days after the surgery or not being able to hold any weight on the knee which would have made even getting a drink from the fridge a chore on crutches (as I live alone). I'll try to keep this up over the next few months to keep track of my recovery. Well time to get this leg elevated again ...