My second visit to the physical therapist

I missed my scheduled 'second visit' last week (mis-read the time) so today was my second visit. My measured flex of my leg was 120 degrees and zero straight. My therapist says I don't need to do my stretching/flex exercise for now since I've already reached the one month goal. I'm not sure if this is because it could be dangerous, or she wants my therapy to be drawn out longer? I'm just going to proceed as I have been doing because I seem to be doing well and see no reason to slow down my progression. I've been leaving my brace off at night/bed and my leg has been feeling much better. I still walk around with the brace, most of the time locked.

My first visit to the physical therapist

First, I was scolded a bit for walking into therapy cuz my sheet given by the doc said I was suppose to only have 25% weight first week, 50%second week and so forth. I'll use crutches a bit more for now or as needed, but not all the time.
Testing me, my flex on the leg was 116 degrees bent and +1 straight. I guess I also was suppose to be sleeping with my brace locked, but I wasn't (didn't know??). Even though I seem to be doing things wrong my leg seems to be much better then everyone expects.

The bandage is off and stitches have been pulled. It is now 13 days post-op. I have 2 days/week scheduled with the therapist and I hope to get through this asap.

I'm driving.............

I started driving around 8 days after the surgery. I drove around my parents yard to make sure all felt fine, then decided I can now be more mobile. I've been walking around with the brace locked in the house, but use crutches on longer walks. If I stand up too long the knee will start to throb a bit, but still I don't use any pain meds. I can bend well past 90 degrees but don't start physical therapy until Wed, 3/24.

Problems contacting the doc

Trying to get physical therapy scheduled, and need to replace my knee brace. I've been calling the doc for 4 days and I finally was able to talk to someone about 30 minutes ago. Tomorrow I'll get a brace replacement and paperwork to get my therapy started. I haven't been taking pain pills now for about 1 1/2days but I might just start. The knee is beginning to bother me, maybe because I've been walking around the house on my leg? Doc says to stay off my leg until I get my new brace.

It has been a few days

So far things are not all bad. I was expecting a lot of pain after the nerve block wore off, but so far it is tolerable. I was suppose to start moving my leg after the block wore off but my knee brace broke. At this point I can't lock my brace so I have to be careful and I hope to get it replaced next week. I'm feeling some pain on the front of my knee below the knee cap where the patellar was removed when I lift my leg. I can move my leg around 45 degrees I'd guess, not sure how that stacks up to normal?
I believe I'll be starting physical therapy next week so we will see how that goes. I'm keeping lots of ice on the knee whenever possible too.

The work has been done

I arrived at 9:30am to begin the procedure. The operation started around 11:15am and concluded somewhere around 1pm. I finally left at 3:30pm. They gave me a nerv block so I really can't feel anything in my leg from the hip down to below the knee. That is suppose to last 24-30 hrs so real pain won't arrive until that point. My biggest problem was nausea and even though I was very hungry I couldn't eat anything. I'm not used to taking medicine, or pills so my stomach doesn't handle all these pills well. So far so good... I'm keeping ice on the knee and keeping it elevated as instructed. I'm getting around with crutches which was kind of hard at first because my balance was not great for awhile with all the drugs.



Admittance to the facility, the nurse is giving me the rundown of what is going to happen. She was to put the IV into me and check my vitals, etc.











They gave me some really cool clothes to wear.


















IV inserted, the fun-juice begins to flow.
















Surgery took 1hr 40minutes. I believe I took an hour before I woke up which is what I'm doing in this photo. They still have me hooked up to keep track of my vitals and so forth.


























Got myself dressed, still feeling woozy. Glad it is all done.























My Chariot.















And my ride back to Yakima where I will be hanging out for a couple weeks, or however long it takes for me to get to a point where I can drive and go up/down stairs.

Tomorrow is the day

Got the word to show up tomorrow at 9:30am. Should be fun......

Where to find a new ligament?

Patellar tendon or Hamstring? Reading and reading on the net I get pro's and con's for both methods. I decided to go with the Patellar and after I made my decision I quit reading any further. Both sides have good pro and con and all the reading on this just gives me a headache. 7 days till the surgery.

9 days till the knife

Aprox. 2 months ago I tore my ACL playing basketball. At the time I had no idea this had happened as I thought I just hyper-extended my knee, or maybe tore a meniscus? After letting it rest for 6 weeks I tried to play BBall again but the knee kept popping out of joint whenever I tried to jump, or move sideways quick.
Finally I made my way to the doctor who said it appeared my ACL was gone. An ex ray and MRI confirmed the diagnosis so I'll be going in on March 11 for the surgery.