Scotts ACL Surgery

by Scott Cote
(Palmer MA USA)

My name is Scott. I'm 32 years old.

I was originally going to title this, 'Scotts Bad Knee', for the simple fact that my left knee has always been my 'bad knee'. Now with the ACL surgery, my bad knee becomes my good knee.

My right foot got stuck on something, and to remove it, I gave a twisting jerking, pull. (in retrospect, that doesn't even sound like a good idea).
I heard a popping sound. Much like cracking your knuckles, but alot louder.
There was no pain. And as far as I could tell there was no damage, until I tried to pivot on the right knee and nearly ate the dirt. I had stability issues, and being a welder/iron worker working on a 500ft tall steel structure, stability is essential. This event occured on 7/4/09.

I had an MRI done a couple weeks later. Confirmed a blown ACL, with minor bone bruising, and slight inflammation. I could not lose work, and yet could not work without a functioning knee. A catch 22.

I would relieve myself from the job site on 8/28/09. Two months after incident. I would start pipe welding in the shop the following monday. This however required alot of kneeling. Apparently not very good for this type of injury. Up until this time, I had zero pain, only stability issues.
Following the move to work at the shop I started having pain in what seemed to be the Medial Collateral Ligament. Then there would come new pain below the Petella. I started missing work due to knee pain. I knew I had to do something. So I went to have it fixed.

I was supposed to be in and out. Same day surgery, no problem.
Well...
nothing to eat or drink after midnight before surgery.
no smoking day before, or day of.

10/5/09 6:30am
reported for surgery.
Shaved knee 6 inches above and below knee area.
Put on the open back robe,head cap, hospital socks.
Nurse started IV. started taking vitals.
At 7:45 anesthesiologist gave me some concoction through the iv that had me out within a minute or two.

Done with surgery somewhere around noon or so.

Went to first recovery room. In order to leave first recovery room, must be conscious, vitals must be good, pain must be managable (0-7), and must be able to take medication. (being able to take medication is the priority over pain management, for the simple fact, that if you cant take medication, then you can't manage pain)

Not feeling so good in first recovery room. Nurse puts a nausea patch behind my ear. This only helps a little, but enough to get me to second recovery room.

Moved to second recovery room around 1-1:30
Still not feeling well (in the sense that I was nauseous)
A little surprised when I noticed the leg brace went all the way into my crotch (made me think...in order to get that brace on, you would have had to handle my junk...creepy but neccesary,I know, but I just didn't expect that, beings that my knee was all the way down there and my junk was all the way up here...ya know)

At a round 3:00 I hadn't improved, and apparently looked worse than I felt.
This part of the hospital was apparently closing at 3:30pm. So the decision was made that I would not be able to go home, but instead should be kept over night. Not What I wanted when I went in, but in retrospect I am glad they made this decision. They then moved me to a room at approx. 3:30pm.
Pale,sleepy,nauseous,and in pain.
They were very tentative. checked my vitals every hour.
Brought me food in which I could not eat, because I was still nauseous, at around 5:30 or so. (which kinda sucked because I felt much better at around 7:30 when I woke up, but the kitchen wasnt cooking again until morning.) After that it was 2 percocets every four hours.

Next morning around 9:30 or 10:00 The doctor gave me the 'okay' to go home.
Of course I had to wait until 1:30 before the nurse was able to come fit me for crutches.

So I was finally able to leave the hospital at around 2pm.

I stopped at CVS to pick up my prescription of percocets (40) and go home.
The pain was manageable with the percocets for the first 3 days. Although it left me in state of consciousness that was not very comfortable.
Eating well, before taking these pills is important. I didn't thinks so, but after 2 days (one in the hospital and one out) of taking the pills, they tend to make me nauseous on an empty stomach. ( I also recommend taking a glass of muralax a day... the pills WILL bind things up pretty good)

The pain (6-7) lasts for around 4-5 days (the intensity of the pain may be higher or last longer if I was moving around alot, like up and down stairs or such)

Today is 6th day after surgery. I took my brace off for the whole night last night. I noticed a yellowing of the skin about 9 inches below the incision. There was an area about 3-4 inches of the skin surface, around the bottom of the Lateral Collateral Ligament, that is numb. The knee itself is swollen like a grapefruit. To my understanding... this is all normal.

I''ll keep updating to let you know the progress.

Thanks for reading.
Scott