Week 2, day 5: Doctor Followup

Today was the first follow-up with my orthopedic surgeon.

He said that my knee is looking great. The steri-strips are going to fall off on their own and the stitches are buried deep inside and will not need to be taken out. He did mention earlier that the steri-strips can get wet, but I am going to stop wrapping my knee in saran wrap.

I asked the burning questions: when am I going off crutches and when am I driving?

So, I am getting off the crutches starting Monday, using the protocol of two crutches, then one crutch then zero until I can walk without crutches.

I cannot drive until I cannot walk without crutches. The time to learn to walk again is anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks, so I am looking at one more week of not driving (boo!).

I must work on getting terminal knee extension. Towel under heel and all that good stuff. Prone hangs. I'm gonna get this baby straight.

The surgeon showed me intraoperative pictures. I am going to post those later. Those were cool! All my meniscuses are clean as a whistle. I can see the new ACL.

I'm only now wearing the brace while walking and not during sleep! Hurray! Sleep without brace FTMFW.

Physical therapy starts Monday. The doctor wrote a script for the PT, which includes no hamstring strength until Nov 14th.

I asked the doctor which tendons he took. He said he took the semitendinosus and gracilis tendons. He said since it's the tendons and not muscle, they will regenerate and I will have full strength of my hamstrings back. w00t!

I asked the doctor about what I felt was the poor fitment of the brace. He said that I should cut off one of the tightening straps that's right over the incision and just use the large tightening straps. Also, he explained that the function of the brace is three-fold: 1) to protect me in case of a fall, 2) to signal to others that I'm injured (VERY interesting! Didn't think of this!), and 3) to make it awkward to move around, to force me to be more careful. I can understand point #3: basically, while the brace is on, I know I should be careful not to twist or do anything stupid that may jeopardize the ACL.

One thing that he mentioned is that because the ACL surgery has advanced so much and is now less painful, people are inclined to try to be more active than they can be. Hence, the one function of the brace to remind me that I am still healing.

I only should continue the CPM machine use until Monday (I'll see if I can get it picked up Monday night).

The icing regimen is just once a day, after physical therapy or before going to sleep.

So!

I am a bit disappointed that I can't drive for another week. I hope it only takes one week (or less!) for me to learn to walk.

Time to get that knee extension back. Terminal knee extension exercises (towel under heel, push knee down) 10 repititions of count to 10, 3 times a day.