Post Op Day 2: PT Nightmares

   When you mix exhaustion with pain and add a physical therapist into the mix, it's bound to end badly. But let's start with the good. 

   My calf pain is far less bad than yesterday. I can put slight weight on it, so I can get up and down stairs. Let me show you how I got up and down the stairs yesterday: 

Thank you tricep muscles! 

    I didn't sleep well, just due to general discomfort. I get an hour or so here and there at a time. Today PT was at 230 and it was pretty rough. I rode the bike, that felt ok. Then the bending started, and with the bending, the screaming and crying. I'm not much of a wimp but these surgeries have turned me into a complete little bitch. Working on my extension wasn't beautiful but nearly as bad as flexion. But by the end I could get myself to 120 degrees with a strap. 

   They're tossing some muscle relaxers into the mix to see if those help. I've been guarding my knee for so long, I have to retrain my brain and body to relax and trust it. I'm back at it again tomorrow morning, with orders to work on extension while icing and crank the CPM machine up to 120 degrees (I've been doing around 112, pass the pain pills). I'm also cleared for light stretching and sleeping sans immobilizer. I should be completely discharged of the immobilizer tomorrow morning! 

   Trying to stay hopeful, and ahead of the pain, so hopeful and high! 

How to force your knee into extension while icing! 

ACL manipulation and athrofibrosis Surgery

   So 4 months out from my ACL reconstruction and I needed a 2nd surgery. Why? Multiple reasons:

1. I still had a lot of stiffness. Think 85 year old woman stiffness upon waking. I'm 16. Not cool. 

2. My bones were forming funny since there's such little weight bearing force and I was setting myself up for pre arthritis. 

3. My flexion and extension STILL sucked regardless of daily exercises, dry needling at PT, constant stretching and quite a bit of screaming at PT. This resulted in a limp. 

   So they took me back under. Pre op was much in the same, I had a great care team at the University of Colorado Lone Tree Surgery Center. My PT, Evelyn Massey was there for my surgery and my surgeon, Dr. Armando Vidal, is pretty highly recommended. Having my pt there gave me a world of peace of mind. She knows my knee better than anyone in Denver. And she's a little bossy (in a good way!), so I had no doubt she would speak up and tell my surgeon "ok that's how far her knee can go so be gentle past there!". Bossy people love other bossy people. 

    So what did they do this second surgery? They went in through my portal holes and made one more small hole and scraped out the scar tissue build up that's been hindering my range of motion (ROM). They also cranked on my knee to bend and straighten it. It took just over an hour. I woke up about 30 minutes after, groggy with pain at about a 7 in the back of my knee where the nerve blocks didn't reach. My nurse immediately drugged me up and gave me pudding, tea, ice chips, and graham crackers till pain was at a 2. I left about 45 minutes after. 

    What's different about this recovery? Well for one I have a CPM machine, which is a constant passive motion machine. It cradles my leg and passively moves it through a preset ROM so scar tissue is prevented from building up and stiffness is decreased. It's not as bad as it looks, and I know it's for the best. I'm in here 8 hours a day, everyday, for 2-3 weeks. 

I still have an ice machine of course so I'm pretty much attached to one machine or another or at PT all day. I should get discharged out of my immobilizer today, rather than being kept in it for weeks. 

    I started PT yesterday, a mere 4 hours post op just for more mobilization. My knee bent to 121 degrees and I got to 2 degrees extension- much better! Today may be a little worse with no nerve block but I'll power through like I always do. 

    My muscles haven't been stretched that far in FOUR months, so yesterday my calf was super tight and sore. Ankle pumps and water is your best friend for this. 

The unraveling: 

Doesn't look nearly as monstrous as my first post op unraveling! I'm on crutches again at least through today and then weight bearing as tolerated. This week should be... Interesting. But I'm over the scary part and back to square 1 with recovery! 

2 weeks until surgery #2!

   Some people heal miraculously, some do not. I had a great surgeon, a great physical therapy team, and I used all my sports medicine knowledge to rehab myself too. I was the perfect patient! I moved to Denver and started dry needling to be more aggressive towards the scar tissue.

Dry needling with stim to activate my VMO: 

 It helped, but not quite enough. My new surgeon out here has decided I need another surgery to manually manipulate my knee into flexion and take out some scar tissue. 

   I'm nervous but also hoping this 2nd surgery does me good. I have a lot of stiffness in my knee, especially in the morning. I hobble around until it wakes up! I only have 104 degrees of flexion and I'm still 3 degrees in extension, which is enough to affect your gait. So I walk with a limp some days. NOT HOT FOR A 26 YEAR OLD! 

    I still cannot run and I'm almost 15 weeks out. I should be much better than I am, but I'm not and its frustrating beyond belief but I keep on keeping on! 

I go to the gym everyday to ride the bike and I can do the elliptical now also. I've gotten back into yoga, I modify many poses but it gives me a sense of accomplishment. I foam roll, I stretch, I yell through physical therapy.

Doing yoga last week. Yes this was hard, but putting my life on hold wasn't working for me. I had to at least try, and I succeeded! Yoga has helped my knee quite a bit actually! 

   Every body is different, so take your recovery at your pace, research, get opinions! No slacking! If you have questions or concerns bring them up and get answers. Take your health into your own hands.