You Did What??

I tore the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), the medial meniscus in my right knee on 6-2-09 when I slipped/fell backward off a 10" step. A microfracture of the femoral condyle was also discoverd. I felt a very painful pop on impact and another pop when up-righting myself again. It's a very common injury to both pro and weekend warrior athletes. I tore the meniscus in this same knee in 2007. I'm an active woman and a delivery person for a major company so it is imperative that I'm 100%. This is the story of my ACL surgery on August 18, 2009. To start reading from the beginning click and at the bottom of the page there is a "newer post" link.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Hours 24 - 48

  • 25 hours - I got up from a 2-hour nap and can say that the nerve block has definitely worn off. I had quite a bit of pain when I got out of bed so I upped my morphine pump drip for the next 30 minutes. If the pain continues like this I'll take a Vicoden since the Oxycontin doesn't seem to be making a difference. First I need to eat something so off to the kitchen for some oatmeal.
  • 31 hours - The pain is pretty consistent now despite the morphine drip and the Oxycontin. It's a throbbing pain. Over the last couple hours I've had a twitch in the quadriceps muscle on the outside of my knee it doesn't last long. It's hard to tell if there is new bleeding or if it's old blood that's being re-wetted from the icing. The spot is much larger than when I left the hospital, but certainly isn't gushing.
  • 34 hours - The pain has leveled off and isn't as bad as earlier. I'm taking an Oxy and turning the morphine drip off for a while
  • 36 hours - My brother calls and wakes me up. I'd been asleep for an hour. I feel very loopy; way loopier than yesterday when I took the Oxy. I turn the pump back on and talk for about 1.5 hours. It's funny though, I feel like I can doze off, but that I can't sleep very long.
  • 41 hours - It's 3am and I'm awake again. The morphine pump is still on. I so want to take the dressing off since it's starting to bother me. I went downstairs and collected the supplies to remove the dressing, but decide to wait a little longer
  • 46 hours - Ok that's long enough plus I need a shower! I removed the blood caked ace and gauze. The incision points look like they normally do except that this time I have 3 rather than 2 as with the meniscus surgery. Showering wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I sat on the edge of the tub and lowered my injured leg into the tub, removed the brace and turned on the water on the tub only. With the tub water running I shaved my legs... ahhh. Then stood up, hung my morphine pump outside the shower, pulled the curtain and turned the knob from tub to shower. It was a little awkward, but over the past 48 hours I've gotten good at balancing on one leg. To get out I just reversed the process. I feel much better! I had one incision that keeps bleeding a tad so I applied a Band-Aid and some gauze over it then rewrapped my leg with a clean ace bandage.

    

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