Physio begins

Had my first physio appointment this morning - didn't start auspiciously with a 7am beginning and us having a bit of trouble finding the building! Whoever designed Olympic park so the place where people who need physio are treated is miles away from the road ... well *gr*

My physio Kylie is great though - I have to admit I am a bit of a wuss with pain so some of the initial physio had me wincing but my knee felt a lot better afterwards. I have to do these exercises 3 times a day - all trying to build up my very slow quads and bend my knee - I won't lie and say it doesn't hurt but it is getting easier.

Am finally walking around the house crutchless/braceless - and up stairs as well! Extremely slowly, and when I go out I still need them but it feels quite fast forward for an operation that was two weeks ago! Tomorrow I make my first outside appearance - going to my youngest brother's speech night - yey!

Stitch-Free!

Yey! Day 10 - time to get my stitches removed. Got to the physiotherapy centre where there were 5 other people with the same injury (except the lucky Clare who was there for a check and will be perfect in 3 weeks - wish that could be me!) so this is clearly a fairly common injury!

Taking out stitches was fine and took less than 10 minutes - and finally seeing my wound I'm very impressed. Looks like I just fell over and grazed my knee - was expecting much much worse!

Then had some stretching exercises. My knee feels pretty tight but it's getting better - I got to 70 degrees. At 100, I can finally start using a stationary bike - which will be great - after sitting around for almost 2 weeks I can't wait to do some form of exercise. Also did some VMO testing for quad strength and I registered 21.3 when 10 is meant to be good :)

Saw one of my surgeons and he said my knee had no other internal injuries which is uncommon - so I won't be getting arthritis at 30 (phew!) He explained my surgery - for those who are interested, they used my patella to replace my ACL. There are four choices - patella, hamstring, synthetic string or cadaver. In America they apparently commonly use cadavers, as this is less invasive and means you recover faster - the catch is it has a lower chance of success and a 1 in a million chance of HIV being transmitted. In Australia they either use patellas or hamstrings and the jury is out on which is the best. I'm still in total awe at how much modern medicine can do.

And I can finally get my leg wet without risk! Proper showers without having to worry about garbage bags etc to protect my leg! That was probably the best news of the day - it's the little things :)

Everything was really positive - I start proper physio on Wednesday. And back to work tomorrow - so the holiday has come to an end.

Week 1

Well it's now 8 days since my surgery happened. The first couple of days I was extremely out of it, and the first steps were .. well they were very scary. Especially going downstairs where it is "bad leg first, crutches and then good leg".

Everyone around me has been really really awesome - my family have been super nice (and get me anything I want, this is the life!) Lots of friends have come over with flowers / books / magazines / DVDs so luckily the boredom factor is low. In fact, I could get used to this life - waking up late, having someone make everything for you, watching DVD's and reading books ... reminds me of school holidays :)

I'm pretty mobile now - walking around heaps, and there is no pain. My first day back, I realised I only had enough panadeine forte for 5 days and was worried - but as it turns out I have hardly used any of it! My stitches come out on Monday - and then the world of physio will begin ... can't wait!

D-Day

Nil by mouth. Hospital by 6:30am. Madly packing the night before. All made for an interesting morning.

Getting there, there were forms to fill out and I said goodbye to the equivalent of a rtw airfare for the privilege of staying in Hunters Hill Private for 2 nights (what, no hot spa?!) My nurse loved me because I was a girl, and so had shaved my legs already, saving her the effort. Time for the ubiquitous hospital gown. The nurse asked me which leg it was (which was always a minor panic of mine. Some friends suggested writing "not this one" in texta on my left knee). Once it was covered in betadene I felt a bit safer :)

I met my anaesthesist first, and honestly my first reaction was, I need to be doing his job. He had the hottest suit and tie and shoes. He must be making a motza. Isn't he worried about the nausea patients get? Then my surgeon came in, but nothing new as I'd already met him beforehand. Waiting is probably the worst part. Sitting there in a hospital gown, just waiting to go to surgery allows for some nasty fears to play across your mind.

Even though I could walk, my bed was wheeled up to operating theatre, where I met a cute little girl who was getting surgery as well. And her mum told me how knee reconstructions did hurt a lot, but they were nothing compared to childbirth. Ahh the things to look forward to ...

Anaesthesia is a weird feeling. I was talking to him about us both being from mixed backgrounds and how it made life interesting (he came from Lebanon). And then I was awake in the recovery room. It's like 4 hours of my life just ... disappeared. Woke up and the girl next to me was another Clare who was also getting her ACL done. Same surgeon. But as it turned out, he told her her knee was fine and they had cleared the damage from her fall. No need for crutches and a brace. Sliding doors, anyone?

Rest of the day was very woozy, and I can't tell you much about anything that happened.

The leadup to D-Day

Thursday 29 September 2005. A day I'd been waiting for with lots of nervousness everytime I thought about it ... time for an ACL reconstruction. This is the story of what led up to that day ..

Flash back to May where I'd been playing indoor soccer with some friends in a friendly comp, and had run up to tackle a guy, and found myself hit the ground hard all of a sudden. I mainly remember feeling my knee "pop" and hearing Dani telling me to breathe - I had actually stopped! It hurt a little and I went off, felt ok in the second half and played again (schoolboy error) before my knee gave way while running on flat ground. It was a bit sore but I still managed to drive home.

Next day I went to my GP and he said it was probably a sprain so I got an x-ray to make sure nothing was broken. So for a few weeks I took things slow but slowly got back to playing sport / going to the gym etc. At the time, I was training for Trailwalker 2005 and so was starting to go on 6 hour long bushwalks on the weekend. I noticed that my knee started to give way every now and then, everytime I stepped on it a certain way - it only happened once or twice a week but was enough to make me think I should start getting some physio.

My physio felt my knee and taught me some quad exercises, but by the second time I saw him, he said it felt funny and that I should see an orthopaedic specialist. This time I started to get worried, and my worst fears were confirmed when I saw the specialist who told me I had completely torn my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). I'd thought that might be the case after getting home from the soccer game and using google to see what a "pop" meant, but had hoped that I was just being a hypochondriac.

Getting an ACL reconstruction is not an easy decision. Your ACL is basically the ligament that stops your leg from going too much to the side - very necessary in "sidestep" sports like soccer and basketball. There are lots of people who opt to never get it done and simply adjust to life "walking in a straight line". The risk of not fixing it are you might get premature arthritis and that you will do further damage to your knee, but then there are also risks that the surgery won't work and there could be serious complications. You do have time on your side - you can think about things as an ACL is not an urgent surgery (I didn't get mine done until 4 months after the injury).

Thank god for that - just after I found out, I was about to head off for a five week trip to South America and New York which I'd been looking forward to for ages! On the trip I managed to climb Macchu Picchu (albeit very carefully, slowly and gingerly :) with the torn ACL. Came back and decided for quality of life, I needed to get the surgery.

What with meeting surgeons, getting a second opinion (as you want to make sure of these things) it wasn't until mid-September that I finally had a date, and a surgeon. Luckily one of the best ones in Sydney.

And so D-Day arrived.