Day 3 of my acl reconstruction surgery. Today was going to be a big day for me because I was going to spend all afternoon on the CPM or Continuous Passive Motion Machine. It basically holds your leg into place and moves it from 0 to 90 degrees or more. It is strictly for range of motion and to help you regain your ROM as soon as possible. I am still doing cold therapy and if you saw the day one picture of my knee titled first 24 hours after acl surgery you will see a blue tube extending below my wrapped knee. This is the cold therapy unit that flushes cold water into the tube then the cold water is carried to the pads that are sitting on my knee. I will try to take pictures of that tomorrow when I change my dressing.
All things thrown out the window
Like I said, it was a big day for me to work on the CPM and continue using cold therapy but it is not going to happen because I might 
have an infection in my stitches. Yesterday, I needed to get out of the house and do something. I went outside to watch the animals being fed and decided to move a bag of chicken food for my wife. As I walked away, my crutch hit a piece of ice and it slipped out from under me. Instincts took over and I had to use my surgically repaired leg to stop my fall. As you can imagine my knee went nuts and the pain started hard, fast and didn’t stop.
The pain in my knee or should I say the top of my tibia was out of this world and something I faintly remember from the time when I got my hand stuck in a table saw. The pain is enormous and breathing on it, sends me into a tizzy.
We did call the hospital and I had two options:
- visit the emergency room
- wait till Monday and go the the clinic
I have decided on option 2 because I want to see my orthopedic doctor instead of a ER doc. It only makes sense to talk to the guy that put me into this situation. Right?
What we decided to do is take all the dressings off and visually examine the stitch site. I have 4 locations on the front of my knee (ya, I know it should be 3) and the big one behind my knee on the hamstring. That one hurts but as long as I don’t make sudden movements it remains calm.
By removing all the dressing (with was about 2 inches thick) I was able to get the cold pads much closer to the stitches. The combination of that and pain med’s it has remained relatively calm. If it wasn’t for this one location the pain management of this reconstruction would be almost nil. Other than the one spot I do not feel pain in my knee unless I make a sudden movement and the stitches stretch out.
Tomorrow I will see the doctor and will give you a new update.