Here I am wearing my Cryo/Cuff, riding the CPM, and plugged into my iPod.Interesting day yesterday. It was like being prepped for space travel was all I could think.
After changing out of my clothes, getting the IV put in, and being wheeled into holding, I waited for about 4 hours before the anesthesiologist gave me the femoral block. It was a little painful, but also fascinating as he probed for the right nerve strand. With each probe, a different part of my lower leg jumped. Then as I'm sitting up, and signing forms answering the "are you allergic to anything" question for the hundredth time, one of the nurses slipped some kind of narcotic into my IV, and as I'm talking to her things began to swim a bit. This was just a taste, as she put it, to keep me relaxed.
Finally, they were able to wheel me into surgery. I noticed as I shifted from the gurney to the operating table, that it had a nice memory foam kind of bed. They put a mask over my face, I took one breath and I was gone.
It took at least two hours post-surgery to wake up, I kept trying to open my eyes, but they wouldn't cooperate. The nurses were getting a little anxious since it was now pretty late on a Friday in the Day surgery department, and everyone no doubt wanted to get home. They were ostensibly dangling the option of staying the night since I was feeling pretty out of it, and very nauseous, but I could tell they didn't mean it. So with the help of my wife and daughter, I was packed into the back seat of the Corolla and driven home.
It wasn't a particularly good night, but I didn't expect it would be. I had a lot of pain, and slept fitfully, not being used to sleeping on my back at all. But the meds helped a lot. By mid-day (today) I'm feeling a lot better and managed my first two-hour session on the CPM. I've got big plans to work on my gardening strategy, a design for an arbor for the front of the house, posting to my blog of course, and watching a movie on my PC. Today's choice is Smiley's People, a PBS adaptation of John le Carre's cold war espionnage novel with Alec Guinness.
5 comments:
Just had my ACL reconstructed yesterday - it's funny how they did your femural block while u were still awake! i'm glad they put me out first. using the cpm for the first time as i'm typing - worried about not going too far too fast with it cause i still don't feel any pain - or anything else for that - on the whole leg. the block should wear off later today and that's when i'll be needing the narcotics... :-)
Good luck with the knee George. I don't know what kind of graft you had, but if it was a hamstring allograft, check through my blot for some tips on dealing with that.
Just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the time you took to post your story. We have a similar injury and had a similar procedure done. It helps to track progress against you and keeps me motivated.
Also wanted to thank you for the time you spent writing this blog, I am one day post op from a right ACL, meniscus and clean up of cartridge. I was doing great up until this morning when my nerve block died out. Struggling with some pretty severe quadriceps spasm's tonight but reading your blog has given me the encouragement that this pain will pass shortly, I have my first PT on Thursday looking forward to getting my knee moving . . . for some reason I didn't get a CPM for home they did however keep me over night where I spent my 1st 20 hrs post op on the hospitals cpm
I just had my acl reconstructed yesterday. Working on the cpm machine and could tolerate upto 80 degrees of flexion and -1. Everytime i try to go up to 85 it feels to tight. Walking around the house with the help of crutches but able to bear moderate weight on affected leg.
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