Post Surgery: Day 1

Sleeping in hospital beds is always fun, because they're hot (on account of them being made out of plastic) and the pillows are so uncomfortable. That coupled with getting used to my leg moving constantly in the CPM (which is currently the God damn bane of my existence, OMG so sick of this thing today) and the five AM vitals check, I didn't sleep very well my first night after surgery.

I finally got up at about 8:15AM and got my morning Vicodin with toast and coffee. Erica came in about fifteen minutes later and changed my outer dressings and I snapped a picture, though the patches I was wearing over the actual incisions won't come off until my post-op appointment on Monday. At that point there hadn't been any leakage from my incisions (they fill your knee with saline during the surgery, so a lot of times that leaks out when you're healing – mine didn't after my last surgery, and hasn't after this one either), and really no swelling either.

By the way, they put a thrombosis stocking on my left leg after surgery, and I've been wearing them on both legs since, despite being on a preventative dose of Coumadin since the night of my surgery. These aren't nearly as tight as the ones I was wearing after I got out of the hospital, so I'm not sure what good they're doing, but I'm wearing them like I'm told. :)

Anyway, after Erica changed my dressings and showed me a couple more exercises, I had the rest of my breakfast (oatmeal with fruit), then got ready to go home.

I was home by about 10:15 and my husband helped me settle into bed (aka the place where I'd be exclusively spending the next five days of my life). I spent the rest of the day doing PT (I have to do it every hour on the hour from 8AM through at least 10PM) and sleeping off the narcotics.

The PT went well this first day. I had a lot more flexibility in my knee than I expected, and almost no pain.

I went to sleep early because I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, but didn't sleep that well again. My back started aching from the position I was laying in, and I couldn't seem to get comfortable.

So ends my report on day one.

Oops, I meant to post what my PT paper says for each day as far as what my goals and such. So, for day one:

• keep your extension perfect
• today and tomorrow will be the most painful days (if this is true, then this whole ACL thing isn't going to be bad at ALL)
• your flexion may be less than yesterday (this was true)
• keep your pain under control by continuing to use your pain medication