My Torn ACL - Post Surgery Day 1

Dry. I feel so dry. My nose and mouth are like the dessert. Maybe this is because I don't have the IV? Just a guess. But my nose is full of boogers - yuck - and on top of it I have sores which might be from the oxygen tubes during surgery. Aquaphor will hopefully help these go away quickly.

I believe my pain block wore off around midnight. My leg is elevated and packed in with pillows and is being iced every 30 minutes so it did not matter. Icing it every 30 minutes feels wonderful.

My Torn ACL - Surgery Day

The day of surgery was long and exhausting. I'll try my best to remember the timeline of events...

4:45am - Wake up and shower. I know this will be my last shower for a while so I make it a good long hot one. 

5:00am - Feed Mya (my pup) and go to make coffee. But crap I cannot have coffee. I cannot have anything after midnight the night before. I think - it's too early to be up and not have coffee. 

5:15am - Get dressed and make the couch with sheets. 

5:30am - Parents arrive to take me to the hospital. I'm so nervous on the car ride there all I can do is ask my parents questions about my first major surgery...

My Torn ACL - Day before Surgery

Flowers and magazines from my friend to bring me comfort

It's the day before surgery and I took the day off to mentally prepare and to prepare my house. The past month or so I've been preparing and preparing and preparing. There were 5 to do lists at one point! I think I was preparing so much to keep my mind on something other than the actual surgery. Now that it is the day before the surgery and pretty much all my prep is complete - I'm starting to get nervous. I did not think I would get this nervous. I know that this is a common surgery and a non-life threatening surgery. So why am I so nervous?

My Torn ACL - The Official Diagnosis

If you want to know how I injured my knee in a foreign country - check out the previous blog post on the full story here: The Knee that Pops

Once I made it back to the states, I made an appointment with a local orthopedist - Dr. Kissel with St. Vincent's Hospital. They asked that I bring the copy of the x-ray with me. The Bulgarian hospital gave it to me for free and it was on a CD.

First Appointment

With the doctor's office, I was able to fill out all the paperwork online. Score! This was going to save me some time. The receptionists were so sweet and were laughing and telling all sorts of stories. I did not wait very long and was called back.

My Torn ACL

I just wrapped up my third American doctor's appointment on my bum knee. I did go to the doctor in Bulgaria and that's a story, but I'll get there in due time. It is confirmed that I will need surgery to participate in my beloved kickboxing class again or travel without fear of re-injuring my knee. Sigh. I don't want surgery - I mean who really wants surgery. But the thought of other people helping me for weeks doesn't sit right. I'm very much used to doing things on my own or paying someone to do them like cut my grass because I loathe yard work. However, I do realize that this is a common surgery. It's not a life threatening surgery and things could have been so much worse. There are children with cancer, adults having back surgery, etc going through much more pain than me. I am thankful that this is very minor compared to those situations - this is just an inconvenience really.

I decided to document this journey so that anyone else going through ACL surgery can get an idea of how it all goes and how things developed for me.