Baby steps

I took 3 steps all on my own today (no brace, no crutch)! It was quite by accident -- I finished one set of exercises and I wanted to do the next set by the coffee table. Without thinking, I just walked and I didn't realize what happened until afterwards. Woo hoo! I'm also starting to gain more flexibility in the knee (I can bend to 90 degrees with minimal effort and beyond 100, if forced) and more strength in my leg muscles (my quads feel less like flan and more like a medium steak). I think my progress is related to having the stitches removed. The stitches were so tight that almost every movement I made pulled and pinched that part of my flesh.

So it has been a huge relief to not have the stitches, though getting them removed was not exactly a fun experience. I must be super-sensitive because it actually hurt when the nurse was plucking at the stitches to cut them out. What's worse was that one of them got stuck and she kept tugging at it. The doctor even came in to help, to no avail. In the end, it was just a little piece stuck and she gave me a pair of tweezers to pluck it out at home. I still can't bring myself to go prodding around my knee though. The doctor, however, thinks everything looks great (minimal swelling, small scars, tendon rock solid) so I am glad.

I still can't decide whether or not I think my doctor is so great that I would recommend him. But when I was waiting in the doctor's office, a few patients raved about how great he is. (They are seeing him for knee replacements, which sounds like a horrifying experience -- 100 times worse than a simple ACL reconstruction -- so TAKE CARE OF YOUR KNEES!!) My physical therapist (who is truly great) also tells me that every patient of my doctor that he sees turns out great. The P/T aide was also very impressed by how clean my knee is (whereas I still think it's gross-looking); he said he's seen knees still bruised with ugly scars by week 3. But I am still doubtful.

My next goal: to walk more freely this week (be it sans brace or going on just one crutch) in public. I am also eager/intimidated by the idea of taking the subway to work tomorrow (I've been spoiled by Dear chauffeuring me around for the past 3 weeks) but I really want to be able to.

The days after

The day after the surgery, I was awoken by the doorbell at 8 in the morning. Some guy had come to deliver a medieval-looking thing, called a Constant Passive Motion (CPM) machine. I say this machine is medieval in that it is a pure torture device. After your leg is strapped in, the machine moves and bends your knee according to the degree that you set. My doctor orders it to begin at 60 and to increment it each time I use it (which is at least 2 hours, 2x a day). Imagine all that inner scar tissue being ripped with each motion.

I am somewhat surprised about all the surgery-related people that have called me (and I was going to give a fake contact number :D). One of the nurses from the hospital called me the following day to make sure I was feeling OK, as did the doctor's secretary. In a groggy state, I made a follow-up appointment thinking that I wouldn't feel well enough to even see him in 2 weeks but now I think I will be ready. A doctor/PA also called me two days after to ask how I was doing; he told me I could cut my Vicodin pills in half if I wanted a less potent dose.

Two days after surgery, I also had to start physical therapy again. I was half an hour late because it took me probably an hour to shower and change, 15 minutes to finally make it downstairs to the car, and another 15 minutes to make it up the three steps leading to the PT office. I was in so much pain the therapist was afraid to touch me. It didn't help that my brace has super Velcro that takes forever to unlatch. I think going so soon after the surgery was pretty useless. The appointment 2 days after that was much more fruitful.

Now that the pain has subsided, I am able to do more exercises on my own. Today I was able to do some leg lifts without pulling up my leg with my arms! It was slow and a bit painful, but I was finally able to! I think it was partially psychological because you just know there will be some pain. To push me along, the therapist had shocked my muscles at the last session to force them to contract. It hurt like crazy (kinda like when I had acupuncture and the guy increased the frequency) and actually made me scream out in pain. But I have to get going on this! I looked at the prescription of activities given to the P/T for me to do and it looks like I'm behind! Some people are able to walk without crutches and/or brace by day 14 but I don't think that I can achieve that in just 4 days.

I am very eager to have the stitches removed next Wednesday though. I feel some of them pulling when I do certain motions and sometimes it itches a lot. And looking at the stiff, black threads all knotted up in my flesh when I'm changing the dressing is freaky. I would take a picture, but I'll spare you the grossness.