10 Days After - Back to the Doctor

My first follow up with surgeon was today, ten days after the surgery.  My impression going in was that things were going pretty well.  I am able to walk around, albeit gingerly, I can get some good bend going in my knee, and the swelling has gone down noticeably.  To this point, I'm happy with my progress.

I got to the doctor's office for my 1145am appointment and waited until about 1210pm until my name was called.  The nurse told me she was going to take out the sutures and then the doctor would come in and take a look.  The sutures came out pain free and the nurse mentioned how the incisions look like they're healing well.

The doctor was in shortly thereafter and he basically wanted to see how far I could extend my knee and how far I could bend it towards my body while sitting.  He went through some still photos of the procedure, he showed me where my ACL was supposed to be but wasn't and showed me my new ACL which as it happens is some guy's old ACL.  You see, my new right ACL was harvested from a cadaver and then reattached inside of my knee.  Kinda weird but it's standard procedure in the world of ACL reconstruction.  I'll take this opportunity to thank the aforementioned cadaver for his body part that I will in the future find very useful.  Maybe a post dedicated to who it might have been one of these days.

Anyways, the doctor was satisfied with my progress and said I can begin physical therapy this week.  I need to call the insurance company and a few physical therapy centers to figure out how I can manage rehab with my job.  There seems to be a physical therapy office / building / outfit on every other street, so I don't envision a problem.

One thing from over the weekend I found out was that's its probably best to have an ample supply of prescription pain killers at all times.  I ran out on Friday and figured the weekend would be a good time to try and wean myself off the good stuff.  I started taking extra strength Tylenol and it just was not the same.  I had trouble sleeping for more than a few hours at a time and I had terrible, cold, night sweats.  I got my refill for my pain meds today and what a huge difference it makes.  So as a piece of advice if in a similar situation: Stay ahead of the pain and when running low on your pain meds, its more than worth it to get the refill when you're only a week out of surgery.