My ACL Recovery (in pictures)

(PS : Some of these pictures may be a little graphic for some of you and I'm sorry if you're not too comfortable viewing these pictures, but these are mainly for explanation purposes. So, viewer discretion is advised.)

 

 So here it is, my ACL recovery in pictures. Today marks the 8th week since my surgery and I would say I am doing well so far, minus the fact that my leg is still weak and I still do not have full bending range, which is something I'm working on at the moment.

 This is what I basically woke up looking at, my leg all covered up and numb. This white sock I'm wearing here is to prevent thrombosis which they made me wear for about 2 weeks, until my stitches came off. Underneath that, my leg was bandaged with some gauze at the side of my knee cap. What that was for, is to keep my knee cap in correct alignment as one part of my surgery was realignment of my knee cap. I had that bandage on for about 6 weeks. Also, that big black thing around my knee is my knee brace which has metal and each side to keep my knee in correct alignment.

 LOOK AT THAT BLOOD.

Anyways, this was the day after my surgery when I had ultrasound done just to check that my arteries and veins were fine. So yes, here is my big, fat knee, and the 5 areas which I had incisions at. Not much to be said here. I didn't feel any pain when they removed the plasters and put on new dressing because my knee was still numb from the spinal anesthesia.

 This was probably taken the second day after my surgery and you can see how swollen my knee is. Also observable is the areas which my incisions weren't dry yet. Don't worry, none of my stitches came off or tore. They were really well done. I didn't manage to take a picture of my stitches as I did not have my phone with me when they changed my dressing, but if you are interested ( like I was), my stitches were blue and they were not the typical cloth-type thread you would use for sewing. They were sort of plastic...... yeah. That's pretty much all I can say about the stitches.

 This here was taken during one of my physio sessions. I was about 1 and a half weeks post-op if I'm not mistaken. These "thingies" ( I have no idea what they're called) were sending electrical current into my muscles to stimulate them and help me contract my muscles during my leg exercises. They felt like pins and needles , you know when you leave your leg in a position for too long? Yeah that. It wasn't painful at all as they adjusted the current to flow based on your own tolerance.

 AHA, nights -.-

So I really hated sleeping with this for 2 whole weeks, of course I got a little smarter and took off my brace when I slept as it was so much more comfortable sleeping without it. For 2 whole weeks I had the bandage around my knee and the white sock over it and my leg was always raised on a pillow. Annoying, but it had to be done.

 As you can see here, I upgraded from 5 big plasters to 2 small plasters. This was probably 1 or 2 days after I had my stitches removed. Which meant I didn't have to wear the big annoying sock anymore .(YAY. I got a rash because of the sock -.-) So for a short period of time I had what my physiotherapist called "chinese characters" on my leg. Now, the reason why I still had to have 2 small plasters over those two areas of incision was because those 2 incisions normally take the longest time to heal and these plasters ensured that the scabs would dry completely.

Also, this gel you see on my leg is the gel they use for ultrasounds, NOT THE KIND OF ULTRASOUND TO SEE IF THERE IS A BABY INSIDE, but the kind to sort of minimize inflammation.

 TADA, this was about 4/5 weeks post-op. As you can see, most of my scabs were going off but I still had to leave the plaster on the biggest incision as I had to make sure that scab came off completely before not needing to were a plaster there. Why? Simply because that is the 1 inch incision which is the biggest and takes the longest time to heal.

And finally, here I am, 8 weeks post-op and I still have a slightly fat knee. But the swelling has reduced a lot as well as the temperature. Why temperature? Injuries work about the same was as a human gets sick. When we have a fever, our temperature increases. Same as injuries. If you ever have an injury, you would notice that the area of injury would be warmer. For awhile, my knee was pretty warm as it would probably be because of blood flow and healing processes. Now, the temperature of my knee has went down significantly. Downside is, my thigh muscle mass has decreased tremendously. yes, if you see me wearing shorts, I have basically one bigger looking leg than the other (-.-) . So right now, I'm focusing on building the muscle mass and getting full range of bending. New year's resolution : Achieve 140 degrees of bending range. ( I'm currently at 130 degrees)

Sincerely, Jade.