On July 4th, 2010, I was playing volleyball with friends then all of a sudden I felt my knee give out. So I sat out for a few minutes coz I thought i may have sprained or strained a muscle. I tried to get back in the game but couldn't. So i spent the whole night wondering what happened to my knee. By the end of the night, I can't even put weight on it. The next morning, my knee was so swollen and it was so sore. Went to the ER, had an XR done and it showed a sprain. XR only checks for fractures anyway. So i had to wear a knee immobilizer for a week (took a whole week off from work) and follow-up with an Orthopaedic specialist. So that entire week, I've been googling what my injury is. Possible injuries: ACL, meniscus tear, PCL tear, or really just a sprain. Anatomy of a normal knee on the right.
So I went to the orthopaedic doctor a week later, and he suspected an ACL tear right way (my worst fear). He wanted to do an MRI just to make sure. Luckily they had an open spot for an MRI the same day. The MRI took 45 minutes, so I was just laying there looking through some magazines, so boring. Results came in 2 days later, and it was a complete ACL tear. My doctor gave me 2 options: 1) do therapy, 2) or have ACL reconstructive surgery. So, for someone who has not had any surgery before, like me, I chose to do therapy first. It really took me a while to decide what to do, but I chose to have the surgery after 8 sessions, 1 month of therapy.
August 27, 2010 Friday - Day of surgery.
The night before I received a call from the hospital with instructions and what time I had to be there. I was NPO (nothing by mouth) after midnight and I was at the hospital at 6:00am. My surgery was scheduled at 7:30am. I was registered by the secretary she showed me which room to go to. I had my sister with me and my mom in the waiting area. The nurse gave me a hospital gown and then she came back in the room and ask me my medical/social history. She then started an IV on my right hand. Oh boy, was that painful. I never knew it could hurt that much. I've only started IV's on patients (I'm also a nurse by the way) and now I know how much it hurts. After that, the resident, nurse anesthetist, and the anesthesiologist came in my room to ask a few questions. It did not take long until they transferred me to the holding area. My sister and mom had to wait in the surgery waiting area at this time.
I was the first patient in the holding area. The nurse gave me a dose of Versed, then the anesthesiologist came back and pushed another medicine through my IV. I was starting to fall asleep at this time. I woke up after a few minutes and the doctor was done doing the femoral block. I could not feel my left leg at all. Then, a few minutes later my surgeon came and talked to me. Then, they transferred me in the OR. They strapped my right arm and left arm down. Then, the last thing I remembered was when the nurse put an O2 mask on me. Next thing I know, she was waking me up and told me that it was all done. So they moved me to the recovery area and I can't really remember how long I was in there. I really think that I was in there for only a few minutes. That was Phase I of recovery. Then they moved me to another recovery room. That was Phase II. I stayed in there until I was ready to go home. Went home after 1pm that day.
In phase II, the nurse offered me some crackers and asked if I needed a pain pill. She gave me options: IV morphine, 1 or 2 tabs of norco. I picked 1 tablet of Norco - BIG MISTAKE. Coz in an hour I was in a lot of pain, but I never asked for anything else coz I just wanted to go home.
....at home after ACL Reconstruction: TO BE CONTINUED in the next blog.
