Well, my meeting with Dr. Isbell went easily. He's such a chill doctor lol. If anyone in the RTP area, Raleigh especially, tears their ACL, request Dr. William Isbell at Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic. Seriously.
The ligament grouping on the side of my leg is healing and tightening up. It's sore to the touch, but not a big issue. My ACL is still torn (heh, duh) and the swelling is down enough to schedule the surgery. My surgery is tentatively schedule for 9:00am on July 31st, a Thursday. Currently, the China-folk get in Saturday night, and the lease is extended to August 5th. So... timing is what it is and nothing is gonna change that. Oh well.
I'm going to have a follow up appointment to go over everything about the surgery; before, during, after, what not to do, what to do, time frames, etc. What I do know right now is that I'll have the machine that circulates cold water around the knee constantly. My knee will be locked out straight for about 2 weeks. I'll have physical therapy the day immediately following the surgery to prevent stiffness and start working with motion. I'll find out what exercises I can do on my own, and continue in the coming weeks to strengthen my quad.
I'm choosing to do an allograft (tendon graft taken from a cadaver--love that word), and the rest is technicalities and semantics that the doctors will handle. I'll show up at 7am, surgery will be at 9am, and then an hour and ten minutes later, I'm out of surgery, and I go home that day. Woo.
SO. What'll happen is that after a day or two, I'll slowly start trying to walk with my crutches, and then try to walk without them. After 2 weeks, my brace doesn't have to be locked, and after another 4 weeks I think, I get a new brace. A simple one that just slips over my knee, has the same mechanisms but no locking. Blam.
I'll have to get help with moving things, because I won't be able to pick up anything or do anything lol. This ACL reconstructive piece will have the strength of a wet towel for a couple months (SCARY) so I'll have to be careful. I should be able to go to school by the end of the month, and possibly even drive. So we'll see about all that.
So that's the lo-down. I get my folloup appointment scheduled this Monday or Tuesday and I'll update you all then. As of right now, I have 11 days until surgery. I have 2 more days of physical therapy, and one more appointment. As of right now, I'm counting down :)
11 days.
The chronicle of my ACL tear of 6/4/08: the story, the surgery, the therapy, the progress and everything in between.
Hey all, Lisa here. This is a blog about my ACL tear that happened June 2008 from bailing off a runaway horse. Basically, it's here for my family and friends to keep tabs on my situation. But I'm also doing it for those who are in the elite cyber family of ACL tears--the first thing I did was research all about it and try to find personal accounts of surgery, physical therapy, and overall information. So everyone else, these posts are etched in internet stone for you!
1 comment:
So glad to hear how well you are, with no pain. That's a GOOD thing. It was such a comfort to learn that from your parents, for we had worried. And now the surgery is all set as well as recovery. We are here for you should you need us in any way. Love you.
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