2 week review

2 weeks down, 22 to go until I'm back to normal. Looking back on last Tuesday, my second day out of surgery and my first day home, and comparing how I was to how I am now, I can see obvious huge improvements. I've gone from being stuck in a bed all day long, only getting off to go to the bathroom with crutches which caused major, almost unbearable pain in my knee and not even being able to sit up straight because it caused too much pain, to being able to walk around with no brace around the house and no crutches with little to no pain and being able to get out of the house and wear a brace when out and about. I can tolerate being in a standing position for a long time, but I need little breaks of sitting so my knee doesn't hurt too bad. I can also go up stairs almost normally with almost no pain. Going down stairs is going to take a while to be normal but that's no big deal. So basically, my ability to be independent and take care of myself has been restored which feels really good. I don't have to depend on others to get me food or a drink or help me because my knee was in too much pain. Tomorrow I go back to school and I think I'll be fine walking around to classes and sitting through class. I was in Chicago this weekend and did a lot of walking and my knee didn't hurt too bad. Now I'm focusing on icing frequently to get the swelling down so I can have more ease in restoring range of motion. I feel like the toughest time is behind me which makes me feel relieved. I just gotta stay strong and keep working hard at rehab and do my exercises outside of rehab.

This is the end of me posting every day. I'll post on Sunday nights from now on with a week recap and any significant improvements I've made. Thanks for reading!

post op day 12

Hey everyone who reads my blog, I forgot to post yesterday again. I think now that I can get up and walk around and do other things in my house besides sit on my laptop, I don't think about posting on my blog until I'm in bed. And by that point there's no way I'm gonna go all the way downstairs to get my laptop. But I'm gonna keep trying to post every night until Sunday night, then I'm gonna go to once a week because not that much stuff happens to deserve a new post every single day.

So as they have been the last 2 weeks, my days are pretty similar. But on Thursday I went to see my doctor, doctor Wilson, for a checkup so he could see how my knee is healing. The first thing he said when he walked in was, "That looks bad." Apparently, he REALLY wants my knee completely straight. But aside from that, he said my incision is healing nicely and the swelling is about where it should be ten days after surgery. So he gave me an exercise to do with another person where the other person presses down on my quad and pulls up on my heel, forcing my leg to straighten. It hurts a lot, but I can tell it's a good pain and it works really well. I feel like doing that every day for a couple weeks will get it straight. Oh and I got fitted for a sports brace, so soon enough I'll be able to ditch the big bulky brace and wear the new one. I'm pumped. Back to my normal routine at home, I continued doing my exercises 3-4 times a day as well as using the CPM machine for half hour spurts just to get my knee warmed up for the exercises. Those are going pretty well, except for flexion. It hurts in a bad way, not the way it hurts when I'm doing the straightening exercise. It hurts like in a nerve pain, but I can't feel any pressure in my knee area at all so I'm not sure what's wrong or if it's even working at all. My other exercises, straight leg lifts and partial squats, aren't bad at all. Then I ice often during the day to work on getting the swelling down, which is still very noticeable. If that goes down, getting range of motion back will be much easier. Then today I went to therapy and received three new exercises: calf raises and stretching, one that involves putting my leg on the wall and trying to bend it that way, and one where I lay on my stomach and let gravity work on making my leg straight. I told Mary, my therapist, my worries about bending my leg and she said it's most likely something with the swelling. So unless the swelling subsides a lot and it still hurts, she said not to worry about it. As far as pain, I have none unless I walk around for 5-10 minutes. Then I just need to sit down for a minute so the pain goes down a little. I can put full weight on my knee and I am totally off pain pills. I'm only taking a muscle relaxer now. I think that's it for stuff about my knee.

I'd like to give a couple shout outs. One to 3 people that I know for sure are reading my blog: Jordan, Katherine, and Lydia. Your readership means a lot to me. And the other to the Butler basketball team. Keep kicking butt in the tourney.

Well, I think I'm finally done with this post. Check back tomorrow night!

post op day 10

Hey everyone, sorry I didn't post yesterday. I completely forgot about it until I was in bed and by that point I was too lazy. I'm sure my 3 followers (if that many) were very disappointed that there was nothing new to read yesterday.

But anyway, I feel like I am making some solid progress now. Yesterday and today were pretty much the same. I bum around at my house and do my exercises and the CPM machine and ice all day. Doing the exercises is really starting to help because I can walk around without a crutch for a couple minutes before I have to sit down because it's too painful to be in a standing position. I can tell the swelling is down because I can see some definition around my knee again and the bruising is already going away. My only worry so far is flexion, because I don't feel like I am making any progress in that and it is still very painful to bend my knee around the 90 degree range. Hopefully in the next couple days that will change. Tomorrow morning I go to the doctor so he can see how I'm doing after surgery and make sure everything looks okay. I really hope he takes off the white strip that's still covering the incision because that's getting annoying. And another goal is to sleep straight through the night because I keep waking up 2 or 3 times for no reason.

That's all the new news for today. I'll post again tomorrow and tell you what the doc said.

post op day 8 - first PT session

I finally did something new today. I got out of the house to go to my first physical therapy session. I'm happy to finally have someone look at me and tell me what to do because then I feel like I'm making progress. Basically all that happened is she asked me a bunch of questions on how I'm doing, when my knee hurts, what I've been doing since surgery in terms of exercises, and what my goal is for rehab. She measured my degree of bend to be 90 degrees, which is great, but it was quite a struggle to get there. My good leg is at 145 so I've got some work to do. I also can slightly hyper-extend my good knee, but she said my bad knee is perfectly straight, I just can't get it to hyper-extend like my good knee because I don't have enough muscle/I have to reteach my quad muscles to fire, or fully contract. Then she told me to keep icing it often but take breaks and gave me 4 exercises to do that are different from what I've been doing. So at this point, I feel pretty encouraged because she also said that I'm doing very well for being only 8 days out of surgery. I just have to be diligent about my exercises because slacking is only going to hurt me. Speaking of which, I should probably do those right now. Gotta go.

Here's a picture I took this morning of the bruising (the yellow part)

1 week down!

Today was a much better day than yesterday. I got to 100 degrees on the CPM machine, so it's safe to say that I'm done with that thing. I took my first steps without crutches too. It feels ok to walk, but it starts to hurt after the first minute because of the swelling. So I think I'm gonna stick with one crutch until sometime this week when I can walk without one. As far as pain, I don't have any except when standing. When I'm sitting or laying down it feels normal. Tomorrow is my first physical therapy appointment, and I'm pretty excited about that, even though I probably shouldn't be because it's probably gonna hurt, but in a good way. I'll post a picture tomorrow of what my knee looks like because I'm too lazy to do it tonight. It's still pretty swollen and there's some bruising on the inside.

post op day 6

Same old same old today. I didn't really make any noticeable improvements. I used the CPM machine twice and got to 90 degrees both times. My knee is straight when I put it on the ground, now I just need to work on locking it, like I can do with my good knee. I've stopped taking pain pills every 4 hours and instead take 1 every 6 ish hours or whenever I feel like I'm in a good amount of pain. I noticed that when I sit up, like in a chair or something, my knee doesn't throb like it used to, so that's an improvement. It still throbs when I stand up though and that really hurts. Hopefully sometime next week that will stop. There is some bruising on the inside of my knee and the area around the knee is still numb. Hopefully sometime next week the swelling will go down and I'll be able to stand on it with little or no pain.

On a completely random and unrelated side note, how about that Butler game tonight? Pretty exciting win over Pitt, even though the ending wasn't very clean.

post op day 5

Today had some accomplishments in it. I made my goal of reaching 90 degrees flexion by today. I had the CPM machine on 90 for about 45 minutes and it didn't hurt too bad. Now I just need to stay at or above this level for a couple more days and I can get rid of that awful machine. I think that's doable. I also went out for the first time since my surgery on Monday. Being on my feet causes some sharp pain for my knee at first, then it subsides to more of a dull pain, I'm guessing from the swelling that's happening when I stand on my feet. I also showered for the first time since Monday morning and it feels good to be clean again.

On a random note, I talked to my friend Hannah today. She also tore her ACL and went through this same process about 2 years ago. I was kinda feeling down after being bed ridden for the past 4 days and she encouraged me that it will get better, it just takes time. So whether she knew it or not she helped lift my spirits today.

Well that's it for today. Check back tomorrow!

Proof that I made it to 90

post op day 4

At this point, all the days are starting to blend together because I do the same thing every day. Once again, I used the CPM machine 3 times today for 2 hours each time. I got up to 84 degrees flexion, so I am making progress in that each day. My goal is to reach 90 tomorrow sometime, so we'll see if that happens. I'm still doing my basic therapy and nothing's changed there. I guess something fun I did today was get out of my parent's bedroom for the first time since Tuesday. Brett came over with lunch so I went downstairs to eat with him and watch college basketball. It felt good to have a change of scenery. I still sleep all the time and I constantly feel tired no matter how much I sleep. Must be my body trying to heal/the pain pills. Oh and I'm starting to cut back on those, only taking 1 every 4 hours instead of 2 every 4 hours. Overall the pain isn't that bad. Aside from reaching 90 degrees flexion, my next goal is to be able to walk around on crutches without my knee feeling like it's going to explode from the swelling.

post op day 3

Well, I'm one more day closer to being normal. Sleeping was kinda rough last night because I'm tired of sleeping on my back, so at around 3:30 I moved to my right side and put a pillow between my legs. Then I was able to get some good sleep. The day was much like yesterday in that it involved using the CPM machine for 6 hours, sleeping a lot, and doing my basic therapy exercises - working on firing my quad muscle and straight leg lifts. I don't start legit physical therapy until Monday. I managed to get up to 80 degrees flexion on the CPM machine during my final 2 hour session, so I'm only 10 degrees away from my goal of 90 by Friday. And it didn't hurt as bad as yesterday, which is really encouraging. As far as extension, I'd say I'm about 5 degrees away from being as flat as my good knee. I took all my bandages and stuff off to let my knee breath for a little bit which felt sooooo good. I was pleasantly surprised that I have almost no bruising like what I've seen in other people's knees/legs after ACL surgery. I touched my kneecap area to find that it is mostly still pretty numb. I took a picture so I'll post that. I'm still taking 2 pain pills every 4 hours so I haven't made any progress in that area but I'm gonna work on that the next couple days, taking less pain pills. Which will hopefully allow me to go to the bathroom, because I haven't gone #2 since Sunday night. I guess pain pills really do make you constipated.

My setup in my parent's bedroom


Side view of my two knees

post op day 2

Day 2 was much different than day 1. Yesterday I was asleep or very tired most of the day but today, I was awake for most of the time. I only slept until 11:30 then again from 3-4. I started doing some basic therapy like straight leg lifts and working on flexing my quad muscle by locking my knee. I also used the CPM machine 3 times for 2 hours each time for a grand total of 6 hours. I said that my goal is to get to 90 degrees flexion by Friday and I got to 74 the first session, 76 the second session, but only 70 on the last 2 hour session. The pain during the last hour of the last 2 hour session was pretty bad so I decided not to push it. But other than that time I don't have much pain except when I move my leg, like to go to the bathroom. Then it feels like the incision over my patellar tendon is going to split wide open, which is where most of the pain comes from.

I think that's it for today. I'll post again tomorrow night!

post op day 1 - here we go!

Well, this is the beginning of a long rehab journey. If all goes well, I'll be back to my old self sometime around the middle of September. But anyway, I'm gonna talk about yesterday now and fill you all in on what happened.

Monday, yesterday, is pretty much a big blur in my mind with a couple things that I remember. I got up at 6:45 to shower and get dressed then my mom drove me to the surgery center. My surgery wasn't until 9, but we had to be there at 7:30 to fill out some paperwork and so the nurses could prepare me for surgery. Lydia was also there bright and early with us, which was nice of her :) I was taken back to a room at around 8 for a little pre operation physical exam to make sure I was healthy, put in an IV, and so I could change into the infamous hospital gown. I have never felt more exposed/naked/violated in my life than when I was wearing that stupid gown. Then my mom, dad, grandma, and Lydia came back to hang out before I went into surgery. The doctor came in and prayed with us, which was pretty cool. Next, the anesthesiologist stopped by and talked to us then the nurse came in to walk be back into the OR. The OR is actually a pretty frightening room, with no windows and around 6-7 doctors/nurses with masks on. It's also freezing cold. They put me on a bed and a couple minutes later, the anesthesiologist put some stuff in my IV and I was out before I could even count to 1. Next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room with my family and Lydia there. I think that was around 12:30 pm. But from that point until 8 pm, I don't remember much. The doctor came in at some point to see how I was doing. I asked him what he did exactly and he said he reconstructed my ACL and took out 40% of my lateral meniscus. He also said that my bones are really strong. He had a tough time drilling through my bone to attach the ACL graft. Must be the gallons of milk a drink each week. And according to Lydia and my parents, I said some pretty strange things during this time like:

- "Who's mowing my lawns?"
- (to Lydia) "Did you go to Paris?"
- Me: "Who won the basketball game?"
Dad: "Pacers."
Me: "No, the one I was in. I need to go back and play!"
- "Am I naked? I feel exposed." (I was completely covered when I asked this, but the stupid
gown made me feel naked)
- "Can you scratch my face?" (I have no idea why but my face was super itchy so I would ask my
mom or Lydia to scratch it for me. But I'd just say scratch my face and expect them to know
where to scratch it)

But the weird thing is that I knew what I was asking/saying was nonsense, but to me, it was of the utmost importance that I ask these questions. I absolutely had to know the answer. Also, I almost passed out going to the bathroom the first time. I was standing over the toilet then all of a sudden the room started spinning and the voices seemed a mile away. My dad had to grab me in a bear hug so I wouldn't fall over. Then the nurse was caringly yelling at me to get back in bed. I thought I was moving with my walker but in reality I wasn't moving at all. Eventually I got back in bed with sweat dripping down my face. Aside from these things, all I did was sleep, although that at first was difficult because my knee felt so uncomfortable because my leg was strapped into a CPM machine that slowly bends your knee back and forth, which is crucial for regaining ROM (range of motion). The nurses gave me a shot of something in my arm for the pain and that made me super tired so I was finally able to sleep, which I did until 8 when Lydia came back to visit until 10. Then we just talked and watched HGTV with my mom. After Lydia left, it was bedtime. I slept from 10:30 until 7, with a nurse coming in at 1:30 and 5:30 to give me pain pills. At 7 a nurse came in to change the bandage on my knee and take out this draining tube that was draining blood from my knee. Then we were free to go home.

That's pretty much it for day 1. I'm pleasantly surprised at the lack of pain I have, which is nice. It only hurts when I try to lift my leg up. I also got to take home the CPM machine and an icing contraption for my knee that constantly pumps cold water around my knee. Using the CPM machine, I'm supposed to get to get to 90 degrees of flexion soon, so I want to do it by Friday. I'm starting to eat more, after only having a cup of jello, 2 crackers, and half a turkey sandwich all day yesterday. I feel tired all the time, which is probably due to the drugs. I'll post about today, day 2, tonight sometime. So check back. P.S. just in case some of you are wondering why I write novels when I blog, most of my posts probably won't be this long, but there was a lot to cover from yesterday. Thanks for reading!

Here are some pictures

Knee before surgery (yes my leg is shaved):


This is me using the CPM machine to bend my knee. The blue tube is the icing contraption. The red looking tube is draining the blood from my knee.


The intense brace I have. The white circle is collecting the draining blood.


What my legs look like right now:

surgery date set

Well, it looks like surgery is going to be on the 14 after all. I guess that's good because it gives me 2 full weeks to recover before going back to school, but I'm gonna be so bored at home with no one to keep me company during the day. Ps I'm gonna try to do a post every day for the first 2 weeks, then do once a week after that. So check back on March 14.

Picture of my knee right now, March 7:

pre surgery stuff

Hey everybody! This is gonna be a blog where I talk about my recovery to a fully functional left knee. I figured this would be the best way to keep everyone up to date instead of asking me in person and me having to say the same thing over and over. So this is gonna be the best place for any information you want about my recovery from acl surgery.

You're probably wondering how I destroyed my knee in the first place. Being a baller, I of course was playing basketball when it happened. I jumped off my right leg, kinda like a hop step, and landed on my left leg. I don't know exactly what happened, but I'm pretty sure I felt it hyper-extend. All I know is that it was the worst pain I've felt in my entire life and that something was definitely really wrong with my left knee. I'm still wondering why it happened since I've done that move a thousand times during my basketball days and there's no real reason why my acl decided to rip this one time. This happened on Tuesday, February 8. I went home for the rest of that week and had a meeting with my doctor on Friday. He said I had a definite mcl sprain but he wasn't sure about the acl, but if he had to guess, he would say I also tore my acl. I went back to Taylor on Monday and Tuesday, then drove back to Indy after classes on Tuesday for an MRI. I learned on Thursday that I tore or partially tore every ligament in my knee - torn acl and sprained mcl, lcl, and pcl. I also partially tore and displaced my lateral meniscus. Given the pain and swelling I had after the injury, the amount of damage I did was not too surprising. So ever since then, I've been leading a normal life, only one of my two acls is currently flopping around in my left knee. Surgery is currently scheduled for March 14, but I am trying to get it moved up to March 7 or 8 for two reasons: one, an earlier surgery means I can start the recovery process sooner and two, that is Lydia's spring break, so she could keep me company while I'm a vegetable on the couch :)

I think that's it for all the background information of what's already happening. I'm currently doing some pre operation exercises to make my knee extend/flex. I'm also searching for a reason as to why God decided to let this happen. I'm still not sure, but I'll keep praying about it and hopefully He'll enlighten me. I just gotta trust that this is part of His master plan for my life. But it stinks right now because being active is such a big part of my life and now my summer is not gonna be like how I wanted.

Anyway, I think that's enough for my first post. I probably won't say much more until after surgery because nothing exciting is going to happen. After surgery is where I'll see all the progress. So stay tuned!