Day 16 - out come the sutures

Today the sutures came out and I got to talk with Stacey, Dr Anderson's assistant. We discussed the puffiness which is mostly located above the knee now. I asked her about the hole on the outer side of my knee above it. I was pretty sure it was from the guide thing that is used to thread the new acl in since it seemed to be in the right alignment and sure enough that's what it was for; Stacey assured me that Dr Anderson wasn't drunk and that was just a slip. LOL.

I asked her about the soreness on below my knee on the outside too. She didn't know why that was sore and bruised. Hmm. Ok.

I asked her about using the crutches for only another week and she said that with micro fractures that they'd like to have the patient on no weight bearing for at least 4 weeks so the fracture scars over. If it doesn't scar over properly it can lead to arthritis. This was enough to convince me that I'll have to hobble along for just a little longer than originally anticipated.

As for the brace, I'm following the instructions correctly. Locked straight when up and about and ok to let it bend when just sitting around. Once the quadriceps get going better the PT people will advise me on opening up the flexion and allowing me to toe touch and walk with it on while using the crutches or even just one crutch. The reason being that they don't want to risk slipping of the acl if the quads don't fire correctly. Ahh, ok. I told her about the PT people wanting me to have it open and walk on it. She asked me if they knew I have a micro-fracture. I told her they did and that I have to remind them of what I can and can't do. I told her that they were pretty aggressive.

My next orthopedic appointment is September 23, which is 5 weeks post op.