<p>Has anyone gotten knee surgery before?
(I'm getting acl reconstruction and I have no flipping clue what kind of gaft to get, other than knowing that I don't want a cadaver)</p>
<p>I've talked to a lot of people, including surgeons and doctors and trainers, but I want to hear from someone who's actually had this done. Especially girls because something about more knee pain in girls?</p>
<p>How did your knee end up in surgery? Sports ?</p>
<p><em>Raises hand high</em></p>
<p>I've had my right knee operated on once and left one once. I still have knee problems but this has been ongoing for ~5 years. </p>
<p>Anythings specific you want to know? It sucks, I was in a cast for about 2 months each time (if I remember correctly) and I had pins put in my knees.</p>
<p>Haven't had knee surgery before but I'm having my wisdom teeth out in a couple weeks. I'm not looking forward to that</p>
<p>ahem well, I was playing football when this happened, which sucks because I can't even brag about carrying out some wicked awesome hockey / soccer / lacrosse play...=(</p>
<p>Why did you have ur knee operated on? </p>
<p>I don't think I'll have a cast, just crutches and a brace for a really long while. And no sports for 7 months!!! </p>
<p>I want to know what kind of gaft is best, and how painful it is. I mean, the painkillers actually do kill at least some of the pain right????</p>
<p>and that sucks about ur wisdom teeth, that must be pretty painful too</p>
<p>Haha, well I shattered each of my knees (at different times obviously) and they put me in a cast to help keep the knee stable or whatever.
I'm still out of sports, and it's been two years. I do rec sports though because odds are, I'll never be able to return to school sports. </p>
<p>Painkillers didn't work for me, but then again they rarely do.</p>
<p>I had appendicitis...when I was 7.</p>
<p>NOooOooo, that's sad. I'm really sorry to hear about the no sports thing.<br>
Oh god. I can't decide if I'm more afraid of the school work I'll make to make up or the pain. Probably the pain, since all I hear is how much it sucks.<br>
Also, there's a silly thing I'm hearing about numbness in the shins? Not that I really care about the feeling in my shins, but still..how odd.</p>
<p>It does suck, but over time your body deals. If I remember correctly, the first two weeks SUCKED but then it just kinda... like you get used to it I guess? Not quite sure how to explain it. </p>
<p>The shin thing, I heard that too. It happened to me once because I kinda just stopped walking and they went numb (well that prickly going to sleep feeling) so I massaged my leg and it stopped, if I had let it go they probably would've gotten numb.</p>
<p>Lol it's ok about the no sports thing. In fact I used it to help start up an inner city basketball league for girls because my knees were shattered playing coed with guys, which deterred many girls. :]. </p>
<p>When is your surgery?</p>
<p>Hey there! I tore my ACL playing tennis this past May, and I had the surgery the first week of July. I was also given the whole crutches, brace, no sports speech, and it was the hardest thing I ever had to listen to. I'm a 16-yr-old girl, so I think I can help you out here. </p>
<p>For my ACL reconstruction, I used a hamstring graft. Here's the reasoning: it is much less painful, there is a much, much nicer-looking scar left afterwards, it is a good graft choice for females, and it is a good graft choice for tennis players. Granted, you don't play tennis, but the other reasons seem pretty valid. The downside is that there is a chance of developing patella tendonitis. This happened to me, but with proper care from my physical therapists, it subsided surprisingly quickly. </p>
<p>Patella grafts can also be used, and are probably more common...they are always used for boys, but they tend to be much more painful. It leaves a big vertical scar down the middle of your knee. My scar from the hamstring graft consists of two small "hole-like" scars (from the holes they drill in the tibia and femur) and lower down, a two-inch, slanted dash (from where they bring the hamstring around). You want to make sure that your surgeon is skilled so that, on top of giving you the strongest new ACL possible, the scar is thin and neat. I don't know much about cadaver grafts except that it is possible for the body to reject them (this happened to someone I know who then had re-do the surgery).</p>
<p>As for the pain and other surgery aftermath...well, waking up in the hospital was interesting...I felt really strange emotionally and starting crying when I woke up. I was in significant pain, but my throat actually hurt as much--if not more than--my knee because of the breathing tube used during surgery. I of course had an IV hooked up to my hand (not my arm), and the bruise left on my hand stayed there for weeks and was quite painful, too. I got a lot of painkillers through my IV...I was on oxycodone, which is supposed to be the least nausea-inducing. After a little while, I got to eat a muffin and drink apple juice. And then, they had me walk to the bathroom!!!!! They want to get you back on your feet asap, so the really push you, but the nurse helped, of course. After walking, I got nauseous, so I lied down and they put anti-nausea medication in my IV and I fell asleep. I was in very high spirits this whole time, very happy that the surgery had gone successfully and that my knee pain had mostly subsided from the medication. My surgery was at 12:30ish, and at 5, we headed home. </p>
<p>Once at home, I was able to eat some more toast and lied down in bed. I was, of course, very diligent about taking the oxycodone every 4 hours, and I think motrin/tylenol, as well. However, the numbing medication they give at the hospital wears off late into the night, and the pain is severe. Your knee will feel stiff, and it hurts to move it at all. You can hardly move your leg either, because the brace is very heavy and your quad muscles completely give out. Luckily, there is this huge ice machine that you can get, which you wrap around the inside of your brace. You plug it in, and it pumps ice around your entire knee. I have never loved any machine more sincerely. It was a complete life-saver! During the first few nights, the pain can be very difficult. Throughout the entire time, I was very buoyant because they whole surgery experience was sooooo much easier than I had anticipated, and the pain so much less severe that I had feared. I don't want to give you the wrong impression, though. The pain was unbearable at times, and I cried and held my mom's hand through the night, and wanted to pull out my hair. But this only happened one or two nights...and I also had this weird "nerve pain" that stemmed from nerve damage during my surgery, and this hurt more than the normal knee pain. I should also mention the fatigue--your body is working so hard to heal, that it is difficult to maintain any type of energy level. I would fall asleep after merely walking to the kitchen and back to bed. (You are, by the way, supposed to try and walk as much as you can). This fatigue lasted for months, but of course it got less and less severe. About a month after surgery, one trip to the local pet store completely wiped me out. About 6 weeks after, I went to visit a nearby college and practically cried of tiredness and weakness on the car ride home. After about 3 months, my energy level was back to normal. You also lose a lot of weight because you're burning so many calories healing.</p>
<p>Two days after surgery, physical therapy started. I have to go now, but if you pm me, I can give you the run down on pt....from my first appt. to my first time out on the tennis court (last friday!!). If you aren't sick of listening to me talk already, I do have a lot of insight into the process and can give good advice. Before I go, I do want to suggest that you go to pre-op physical therapy appts. They are helpful. Use a surgeon you feel comfortable with too. This will make pre- and post-op appts much easier. Well, the surgery was a longggg road, and it certainly killed my summer in many respects, but it has also made me a stronger person who doesn't take physical abilities for granted! I wish you the best of luck, and once again, it would be my pleasure to answer any questions you have. </p>
<p>Adelaide</p>
<p>the day after xmas, I'm just glad it's not the day OF xmas. That would've been silly. My surgeon isn't available the two weeks before xmas, but the day after he's...gah</p>
<p>I'm also 16! wohooo. I didn't finish reading your post because my dad's making me get off the computer, but I'm really interested in the rest of what you have to say, so PM me if you would like. I've become a creepy acl information fiend. Also, I don't care about scars anymore, I just want to get back to playing!</p>
<p>I had an ACL reconstruction (hamstring graft) and medial meniscus repair as well this summer.
Let me tell you, the surgery part is not all that bad. You, obviously, don't feel anything. I was just really nervous I was going to wake up in the middle of it and see them operating haha but it went fine.
AFTER surgery -- I'm sorry to say, but that is just terrible.
I was on bed rest for like 2 weeks on the CPM machine, which you get, if you haven't already. Walking on crutches was a pain. Having a million braces and the ice thing on my knee at all times was just so heavy. And I couldn't do anything. About like 3 weeks after surgery I somehow pulled my calf muscle on the CPM machine so that it hurt really badly, so bad I couldn't even step on my leg when I was supposed to be doing partial weight bearing on crutches. But that went away. Physical therapy started which was really hard. It was unbelievable to see how much muscle and everything I had lost over that time period. But the most important thing in your recovery process is to be DEDICATED to getting back to whatever sport it is for you. For me it was volleyball, and 5 months later, I'm back on the court playing with a club team and on the winter track team as well. My doctor and physical therapist and trainer at school have all said it was the fastest recovery they have ever seen. I knew what I wanted and I just pushed through all the pain to get back to what I wanted to be doing.
Good luck with surgery, and don't let the first couple of months break you, they are very tough but if you keep reminding yourself what you are doing this for, it'll help you pull through.
I now have a spiffy blue brace to wear for volleyball and can run without it. I have no knee pain whatsover during any of those activites and my scars can barely be seen.
If you have any other questions feel free to PM me or respond back to this post
Good luck!</p>