ACL reconstructive surgery and all that comes with it

Page 3: The ACL Surgery

Monday June 9th, 2008

Just a little over 100 days since the original knee injury. It was quite a wake up call for me. I weighed 252 lbs, which was 50-60 lbs overweight. I knew that my weight played a large factor in suffering the ACL injury, so I spent the 100 days between the injury and the surgery losing weight and getting in better shape with a prehab routine.

On the day of surgery I weighed 222 lbs, 30 lbs lighter than when I suffered the acl injury. So far, I believe this really paid dividends when it came to recovery.

I knew that it was a day surgery. I was in the hospital at 6am and scheduled for surgery at 8:30am. Everything went well during the surgery and the surgeon came out and told my wife and I how everything went. Of course, I don't remember any of it.

I checked out of the hospital at 2:30pm and could have been out a couple hours sooner, but either the morphine or anesthesia made me sick, so I had to stay a couple hours longer. My wife drove me home that afternoon and I immediately went to bed. I was still feeling pretty dizzy, but not nautious.

I was sent home from the hospital with:

• Pictures of my knee during surgery
• Instructions for physical therapy excercises to do on my own
• A polar ice machine
• Prescriptions for a pain killer (percoset) and anti-inflamitory
• Directives to use my CPM machine as much a possible, at least 8 hours a day
• Instructions to walk with crutches, weight bearing as tolerated.

Nighty, night....I don't remember much of the rest of the day.