what a pain...

post op day 1

Today was my first day of recovery after the ACL surgery. After that pretty decent sleep in the hospital, I got a ride home with my parents and went up to my room feeling pretty upbeat. I thought I was going to be a lucky one.

Throughout the day I continued feeling pretty good. My appetite was perfectly normal. I was able to "scoop" or use my healthy leg to maneuver my splinted leg onto the couch or the bed. I was easily able to crutch around, up the stairs, to the bathroom, around the hallways of the house... I've been trying to elevate and ice when I can, though I don't think I'm icing as frequently as others do. It's unclear how to ice when my knee is wrapped securely in bandages.

As for medication, I'd taken two percocet equivalents in the hospital at 8:30. The packaging says to take 1-2 tablets every 4-6 hours as needed. So I took 2 tablets four hours later at 12:30. Soon after I took them, right when Wendy was by for a visit, I began feeling clammy and unwell. I lay down and slept, and an hour later was feeling pretty okay again. I then decided it might be better to take one table every three hours, so I took one at 3:30 and again fell asleep for about an hour after that. At 6:30 I took another one and I'm now starting to lose track of what I did.

Later in the evening I started to feel the pain coming on. Up until this point, you must realize, I had not really experienced any pain at all. It was still rather numb around my knee and though I felt some discomfort I never felt pain.

Twice during the day I followed Dr. Mark's plan for physio exercises post surgery day 1. These included pressing the back of my knee down into the ground, 2) bending slightly and pressing my heel into the ground, and using a towel to pull my thigh up and create a bend. This straightened out leg does not particularly want to do a thing like bending.

Now I feel pain. It is surrounding the front of my knee cap, I guess where the patellar tendon was removed, and despite the two percocet tablets I took at 11:30, it never really diminished. Or maybe it did. I can't quite remember. With one hour to go until another round of pills at 3:30, I know that I'm feeling the burn of pain in my knee in a way that makes me feel sorry for myself.

I guess I couldn't expect to be so lucky I felt no pain, right?

Ouch, Charlie.