2 months

2 moonths post op, and I am doing fantastic!  Last weekend, I rode a trail ride, and Iwas so sore on my inner thighs!  It hurt so GOOD!  I can do walking lunges to strengthen my hammies, and I can spin on my bike any time Iwant.  It is so excellent!  I can't wait until I can run!  No pain, no swelling.  I feel better and better every day!

Six weeks tomorrow! Out of the woods!

Tomorrow will be six weeks post op.  My knee is doing great!  I am walking around, spinning, going up and down stairs, and yesterday we had our Trail Clinic at the ranch to raise money for the hospital bill. 

Here are the "goods"

•  I can sleep without a brace, with no complication!
• I can go up and donw stairs while in a brace
• I can use the spin bike (30 minutes wears me out!)
• I can do all the necessary barn chores, with no problems
• I can longe my horse and ground drive him
• The numb spot on the front of my knee is getting smaller

Her are the "bads"

• Sometimes when I walk I get a sharp stabbing pain right in the bone where it was drilled through
• I am tired of babying my knee, and my mom (although it is with love) is annoyingly cautious
• I can't run yet
• My quad is very very very small, so I don't have the control yet to go without a brace
• My inner thigh muscles are deteriorating due to the lack of riding.

But all in all, I am doing great.  If anyone is reading this (and I doubt they are) and is going to have the same surgery, IT IS WORTH IT!  I feel better every day!

5 weeks post op!

Yesterday I went down a flight of stairs, and then back up, and her is the catch - WITH NO PAIN!
I am still wearing my very expensive, very large knee brace, but since my swelling s gone, it slides down to my ankles and ges incredibly annoying.  So most of the time at home or at work I take it off.  I religiously wear it outside and at the barn though, I just crank the straps as tight as i can. 
I am spinning about 30 minutes a day, sometimes twice a day, and incorporating mild stretching and ab work.  It is hard to know how far to stretch, i get this weird fear that I might just stretch my ligament right out of the bone.  Yuck.
I also have a piece of string sticking out of the incision site on  knee, and I have no idea what it is and it is weirding me out beyond belief.  I get this feeling of fingernails on a chalkboard every time I think about it.  God, what the heck is it connected to on the other end??  EEW!
All in all, I am doing FABULOUS!  I feel better than I did pre-op.  The doc was right!  Short term pain LONG TERM GAIN! 

One Month Post ACL Recunstruction!

Tomorrow is the one month mile stone!  I am feeling fantastic!  Honestly, I feel better now than ever!  At Physical Therapy, I spun for ten minutes (and that may not seem like a lot, but trust me, its awsome!)  I am now walking great with no pain what so ever.  And, they told me today that in 2 - 4 weeks, I'll be able to ditch this huge nasty $800 brace for a smaller sports brace!  Granted, I stil wont be able to ride my horse, run or do any stairs for a while. (6 months for riding and running.)  But hey, it's fine!  I CAN WALK!  So at least that is some good news :) 

I did however get a bill a few days ago from my insurance company.  Well, not a bill per say, but a letter saying that they arn't paying out.  So now I have to get on top of that one, and find out why the heck they arn't paying.  Stupid insurance.  I mean, seriously!  Why rape me for all I have?  I'm a poor young fresh out of college kid!  Geesh!  Tax return is spent, paycheck is spent... what else can I spend?  I guess I could have a bake sale or something. lol.

3 weeks 5 days post op

Yesterday I got out of bed and felt like a human!  I could walk with my big brace on with no pain.  I walked all day, and still had no pain.  On friday, during my PT, I got the go ahead to spin on a spin bike!  It was amazing!  I spun for 8 minutes at PT, and was already sweating!  Im sooo out of shape.  I have been trying to find an affordable one somehwere, but everyone wants 400 dollars for them USED!  Its rediculous!  So I can't work out at home yet, until I find one.
The incision sites are pink and gross looking.  I can't wait until they dissappear!  I hope that soon they at least turn white.  Pink is just nasty.
Other than that, I feel amazing.  I feel better than I did before surgery.  I feel steady, square, and my shin bone isn't flopping to the inside.  It feels so good to feel steady!
I have flexion to 118 and full extension!  Thank God our bodies heal! 

15 Days post op

Things are getting a little easier, but my god, it still hurts.  Last night, I just couldn't sleep with that stupid brace, so like a damn idiot i took it off.  I slept better, but in the morning my knee was hugely swolen. 
Exercises are getting easier.  The little things we take for granted when it comes to muscle memory.  My quad is just gone.  Apparently, after my first surgery, I never rebuilt the quad correctly, so I have been using the wrong muscles to walk, which would explain my back pain over this last year.
In physical therapy I am frustrated.  I feel like I can do more than what is asked of me, and like a true athlete, I push it every day.  The therapist is telling me to slow down, because the graft in my knee is barely hanging in there.  So I have forced myself to stop trying new things, and have tried to use both crutches like they say I should.
My staples have been out for a while, and the scabs are almost gone too, but I am still not allowed to take a bath or sit in the hot tub.  This is highly inconvenient because it has been super cold lately.  Oh well, at least I can bend my knee to 90 with no pain.  And i can straighten it too.

9 days post op!

I got my staples out yesterday, which honestly hurt like heck.  Stupid stapels.  The day before, I had my first PT appointment.  I got some new exercises with a big ball and some tubing.  Luckily, In one week, I only lost one inch due to atrophy in my quad, and my calf looks healthy.  The swelling is already way down, and I can see my knee cap.  Bruising is also going away.  Today I got the ok to take a real shower, and I even drove myself to work in my mom's automatic tacoma! 
At night, I still have to take the heavy drugs because if I don't, I teak my knee and the pain wakes me up.  I am still using two crutches, but around the house can get by with just one and the brace.  I can now also unlock the brack to sit more comfortable, as long as I can still extend my knee all the way.  (If that becomes hard, I'll have to go back to locking the brace.
6 weeks is the "woods" as they say.  Im not out of the woods yet, 5 more weeks to go.  And then I'll be safe to walk, but not to ride or run.  It is so hard to just sit around and get fat! 
Pain scale is pretty low, unless you count the weird popping my rear right hamstring makes at night.  Excruciating.  Or when the bone hurts.  Feels like a growning pain I used to get when I was little.  Fits of throbbing bone pain all the way to the bottom of my shin bone, and all the way up to my pelvis.  Damn those hurt.  But other than that, 9 days post op is pretty comfortable.  I can't believe i can already bend 90 degrees!
After my first operation, 9 days post op was still hell on crutches!  So I feel pretty good about the whole thing.  Please God, keep my graft safe so I never have to do this again!