ACL Surgery - Baby Stepping Recovery

On April 24th at black belt prep class I was performing the technique "crashing wings" on my partner. While I did the technique correctly, two things went terribly wrong that evening. First, I didn't do it at full speed/power - because I am not in it to hurt my partner... Secondly, my partner not being the brightest banana in the bunch held onto me instead of break falling. Result? SNAP SNAP SNAP - it sounded like cracking knucles in my head. At that point I realized, oh goodness, that sound is my knee! After falling to the floor, holding my knee and screaming NO! NO! NO! I managed to get up with help and walk around a little. Maybe I was going to be OK afterall... I took my ankle brace off and proceeded to the cubbies to get my flip flops on. At that point I felt my knee kind of slide from side to side in my leg. That instability is a very strange feeling. I had Cullen drive me home after my body went through a bit of a shock and we went to the PCP the next morning to see the doctor on call (Saturday). The doctor checked me out and said I'd probably be fine because I didn't have any pain (despite my complaints regarding stiffness and instability). He gave me a brace to wear and told me to wait a week, if it wasn't better then they'd probably order an MRI. I didn't want to wait a week, so I went to the orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday. When he saw me he said "I don't think your ACL is torn" -- WHEW! What a releif.... but then he said "I think you tore your Meniscus" Either way it meant surgery. We booked surgery for May 4th and had the MRI on April 3oth. The MRI was not my friend - it confirmed the opposite of the surgeon's suspicions... meniscus ok, ACL, shredded.

Surgery went smoothly with an allograft procedure (yep I've got cadaver tissue in my knee now) and a bit debriedment of damaged cartilage below the kneecap. Waking up from the anesthesia was hard - it made me nauseous so they gave me phenergan for that - which made me extra groggy. It took me an hour to eat four saltine crackers so that I could take some pain meds. Over the next 24 hours I came to find that the pain meds (oxycontin and vicodin) did not agree with me. Doctor prescribed another called Ultraset - that was even worse! I decided pain was better than complete nausea/dizziness/disorientation. So I've been on Alleve since May 6.

May 7 I went for my first PT appointment. I learned some exercises to do at home. I've been doing the dilligently.
May 9 we took the surgical bandaging off - knee doesn't look that bad, but is swollen.
May 11 I had my second PT appointment, but my car doesn't want to work now. I really needed to get there, fortunately between my mechanic and my co-worker I got there and back - whew! The first thing I did when I got in was to hop on the bike. I can't even peddle all the way around yet because of the swelling, but I am almost there. The PT encouraged me to try some walking around the house without crutches. Surprisingly enough I'm able to do it (though I think that has a lot to do with the super tight ace bandage wrapped around my knee.
May 12 (today) I am spending most of the day icing, elevating, and trying to hobble around a bit without crutches. It's 1 week until my birthday. I'd love to be able to walk around 'normally' by then! A week after that it's off to California, so I've got a lot of work to do until then.

Recovery from a torn ACL is long and hard! I asked some questions yesterday about different forms of exercise. I probably won't step onto an elliptical machine until 6-7 weeks out. A treadmill - well that's like 5 months away. Can't go back to karate for at least 6 months. Brutal. I am of course missing my black belt test which was scheduled for August 15th.

I will try to post updates on here as to how I am doing, what I am doing, etc. It might help ME realize my accomplishments as I go. Cullen claims he sees improvements when I don't feel they are there.... It's very frustrating. Though I know the hobbling/walking without crutches from the couch to the kitchen or to the bathroom is a huge accomplishment. I guess the next few weeks/months will be all about baby steps.