Tag: post-surgery

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Scalpel… clamps… scr– Where’s the screwdriver?!

Looking back through the archives, it took me about two weeks before I wrote about what happened the last time I had knee surgery. Yes, the last time I had it: this was Operation #2. I played soccer for a couple months in there, but I’m off the field for a while again. How long? Well, it’ll be a lot less than last time.

Now that I think about it, this has been a really long process. If not for insurance reasons, I could have set the surgery date for October 7th. Maybe I’ll go back to all of that in a later entry, but for now, I promised a bunch of people that I’d let them know how surgery went.

Surgery was scheduled for 11:00, so I got to sleep past 8:00—when I woke up, I was still really tired and thought about resetting my alarm for a couple hours later. It was a long weekend and I was planning on plenty of rest and recovery given my current lack-of-schedule, so why the hell would I wake up so early if I didn’t need to? It took me a moment to remember that yes, I needed to.

Things started out swimmingly when I got to the front desk to check in and the woman there asked me for two things: my driver’s license and insurance card. The problem was that I followed the instructions to leave all of my valuables at home. Among those valuables: my wallet, which contained my driver’s license and insurance card. Mom and Dad had driven me to the hospital and Mom offered to drive back to the house, but since all of my information was in the system (they got it from my pre-surgery physical two weeks earlier), they let it slide. Off to a great start, right?

Thankfully, that was pretty much the only hitch of the morning. They brought me back to my room, I put on my gown and long purple “Bair Paws” socks, laid back, got a needle stuck in the back of my hand, talked with my parents for a while… no big deal.

Actually, I guess there was sort of a hitch in there, but it was a physical hitch: the nurse was having some trouble shaving my knee. She carries a shaver with her and each room has a shaver head attached to a holder on the wall. She snapped them together, turned it on, dragged it up my leg and didn’t accomplish much. (For those who haven’t seen them, my legs are kinda hairy.) It felt like she was tugging on the hair more than cutting it, which wasn’t really pleasant. The next pass, she moved much more slowly and MAGIC! The shaver started working properly! My leg hair was grateful.

Dr. Lewis came in soon after—the same doctor who did my ACL replacement surgery—for a quick consultation and I told him about some pains I’d been having in my shin recently. I first noticed it when I’d been riding an exercise bike, but it sprung up the day before as well during a long car ride. The spot was about two inches below the kneecap on the left side of my shin. He was feeling around with his thumb while we talked, then found a spot and started pressing down on it. Apparently, that’s where he put the tibial screw when attaching the new ACL. I don’t know if it was coming loose or just sticking out a little and causing irritation, but it’s kind of a moot point, seeing as how the screw is currently located in a sterile plastic bag on a table across the room.

Soon after that, I was wondering why I could hear so many people making so much noise before my operation started. It was because the operation was over and I was in the recovery room. Things were pretty fuzzy for a while after that and I’ve double-checked with my parents about what happened between unconsciousness and leaving the hospital a few hours later.

As previously mentioned, the surgery was scheduled for 11:00. Dr. Lewis was talking to my parents in the waiting room by 11:20. Needless to say, everything went smoothly. “Everything” ended up being more than we thought it might be, but MRI scans apparently don’t always show everything that’s going on.

Just as a quick aside, when I went in for my first consultation with Dr. Lewis in September because of the problems with the back of my knee, he gave me three options: 1) go back to playing soccer and see what happens; 2) get a cortisone shot; or 3) have a scope done and see what we find. I opted for 1 and 3: I played soccer for a couple weeks without any problems, but I’m definitely glad I decided to have surgery as well.

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I’m a fast healer, bub.

My next PT session was supposed to be on Tuesday, but someone decided to go ahead and die on my physical therapist… well, not actually on her, but the person kicked the bucket and the funeral got scheduled for the same day. I guess they didn’t think I should be doing knee exercises next to the coffin, so I bumped my appointment up to Monday instead.

I was a little concerned because I’ve been having a little hitch in my knee recently. When standing upright, I could bend my knee to point my foot backwards, but when stepping forward and bringing my knee up to lift my leg, it would get to a point and then stop. I could force it after a moment and it wasn’t bad after warming up a little, but there was a point during my exercises the next before when I started marching in place and, well, I couldn’t at first. I was able to lift my knee up on the second try, but I was definitely concerned.

I was telling the therapist about this while doing some new exercises and she thought it was probably just part of the healing process. She recommended that I massage my kneecap on the sides of my scar and see if that would help. I think it has, but it’s only been about 12 hours, so who knows?

Oh yeah, and during said new exercises, she had me take the brace off my leg. I was walking without it, balancing without it, pedaling an exercise bike without it… did I mention that knee surgery was two weeks ago? In her words, I’m “way ahead of schedule.” Woot!

She also gave me official permission to ditch the crutches. In a way, I’ll miss them. Sure, I may not need them, but they were fun sometimes. Last week, I was walking out of a building that had fire doors at the exits (the kind where you have to push the bar across the middle to open it). I could have pushed the handicapped button and made the door open automatically, but that would have taken too long. Instead, I planted the crutches on the floor, leaped up with my left foot, rocked forward and kicked the door open. Way more fun.

Unlike the crutches, the leg brace will be around for another month or so. Also unlike the crutches, I needed to have the size of the brace adjusted again. Last week, it was because the swelling around my knee had gone down and it was getting really loose. This time, it was… there were probably multiple problems with it. The guy who adjusted it that time had it nice and snug around my leg, but the joint on the brace is supposed to be at the point where my knee bends. It’s supposed to be there. For some ungodly reason, he had it sitting back about an inch, so I was pulling against the brace every time I tried to bend my knee.

I started playing with the straps on my own as soon as I got home. It felt better after that, but then several days later, winter decided it hadn’t made a strong enough impression over the last few months and the temperature started dropping into the 30s. Time to start playing with the straps again so I can wrap it around my leg while wearing jeans…

The guy who made the adjustments this time didn’t screw around. He held the left side against the left side of my leg, then proceeded to use one of the tables and his body weight to bend it into shape. Same thing on the other side: compare shapes, then lean on it against the table so it would conform to the shape of my leg. It’s obviously not a delicate process and apparently sometimes the brace will say “No mas!” just before he breaks it. I don’t know if that comes out of his paycheck, but it makes for a good story.

My current status two weeks after surgery: I don’t have a bionic knee or crutches, but I do have a form-fitted leg brace and what appears to be an enhanced healing factor. (Now if I can match that with some metallic claws popping out of the backs of my hands, I’ll totally be kicking some major ass… but just with my left leg.)

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Scalpel… clamps… drill… screwdriver…

Yeah, I know, I only made it through the first prequel and my concerns about the flu, which thankfully only lasted about 48 hours. Now it’s almost two weeks after surgery. Whether it’s because I’ve been focusing on healing or because I’m lazy… once again, I ain’t gonna tell you. Suffice it to say that it’s time for a flashback.

Monday, April 26th, was “ACL Replacement Day”. My little brother Justin was at work, but both my parents and older brother Brent accompanied me to the hospital so they could sit in the waiting room while I was in surgery. And they waited. And waited. And waited. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Continue reading “Scalpel… clamps… drill… screwdriver…”

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