ACL surgery isn't so bad.

ACL surgery isn't so bad.

Okay, I shouldn't say that - ACL surgery sucks bigtime, but not as much as some of the other surgeries I've had. I'm just talking about post-operative pain, though. The recovery from this surgery will be longer than the last few I've had. From what I'd heard from some people (including my surgeon's nurse), I thought the pain from this surgery was going to be absolutely horrible. I think it helps that I received donor tissue, so instead of my knee trying to recover from the harvest site AND from the graft, I'm just recovering from the graft. Anyway, I'm doing pretty well so far. I had a follow-up appointment with my surgeon this morning to have my bandages removed and check my range of motion. My knee is swollen, but not as bad as it was after my meniscus surgery.

After my doctor's appointment, I went to physical therapy. I met with a therapist I haven't seen before. She measured my knee at 92 degrees (bent) and 4 degrees (straight - basically that means I'm 4 degrees from having my leg totally straight). I'm really proud of myself, because I'm remembering back to the recovery from all my other surgeries, and how much trouble I had with knee stiffness in the first four or five months following the accident. With the help of my dad, I used to do physical therapy exercises for 90 mins or more every day, and would gain only a degree or so of motion every week. My body tends to make scar tissue quickly, so I had to work hard to regain motion before my knee became permanently stiff. I had to break up a lot of scar tissue, which is not pleasant. Anyway, I wasn't very impressed by the physical therapist I saw today. Since she didn't work with me earlier on, she didn't see first-hand how hard of a time I had and how hard I worked. So basically I was subjected to lots of lectures today about the need to get my knee straight. Thanks, I know. I was hoping she'd be more encouraging. I think I'm doing really well so far.

My allergies have been giving me trouble lately. It sucks because my allergies make me sleepy, and I'm on painkillers, so I've been asleep more than I've been awake these past couple days.

I'm pretty sick of the painkillers. They make me feel nauseated. I used to have that problem with Vicodin but not so much with Percocet, but now apparently I can't even handle the Percocet. Luckily I got a prescription for some anti-nausea meds, so hopefully that will help.

I've noticed that after you have more than a few surgeries, people don't visit much anymore :( I'm still in pain (and bored), and it would cheer me up to see people!