Moving Forward...life before, during and after a meniscus transplant

When I started writing this (Thursday) it was POD28, or 4 weeks since surgery. A couple of big (to me) things have happened.  1) I can sleep without my brace overnight! 2) The CPM machine is no more!   On Sleeping Without A Brace While it certainly feels more freeing, I wake up many times with “ouch” feelings. Not being held still in one place obviously means I will move my leg around now while asleep, and some positions don’t feel good!  It’s still very swollen and stiff in general, so it doesn’t bend much anyway. Like everything else with this process, the little bits of progress will take time to adjust to. I had visions of immediately sleeping on my side and getting the most rested sleep ever as soon as I didn’t need the brace overnight. Ahhhh...fantasy thinking at its best! On Saying Goodbye to the CPM While I don’t love the CPM, it is somewhat comforting knowing that the machine gradually increases the angle of flexion and I just sit back and micro-manage my house f...

If POD5 had been the most exciting day so far in this process (I showered for the first time, bandages came off, got out of the house to vote), then POD13 (today) was the next most exciting day!  The anticipation of today was almost too much to take. Today was my first post-op appointment!  I don’t remember anything Dr. Z had to say while I was in recovery, and I felt pretty shitty when he called me in the hospital, so today was the “look at how far I’ve come, and what do I get to do now” appointment. It was also the “take these nasty stitches out” visit! I had nervous butterflies in my stomach and got to my appointment 45 minutes early. I brought shorts to change into for the exam and had my binder of instructions with me just in case I got some fun new instructions to add. I am admittedly a total dork, and am far too prepared for shit like this. Dr. Z finds it wildly amusing, Lisa (the PA) gives me a knowing nod because she would do exactly the same thing, I’m sure of it....

Phew. Surgery is over.  Thursday was by far the hardest, longest, and most painful day I’ve ever had. Thursday night I wished I hadn’t done the surgery, had opted for a knee replacement instead, and pretty much wanted to die.  I’m not exaggerating.  But just one day later, I cannot believe how much better I feel. Every hour I feel stronger and more like myself. Still a lot of pain, but the anesthesia is slowly getting out of my system so I feel less shaky and blurry minded.  Dr. Z called me this morning in the hospital (I was too out of it to talk yesterday and he has clinic today, so he called me between patients).  The surgery was extremely successful. The meniscus fit near perfectly, my new ACL is strong and attached in the right place, and the cartilage they grew from my cells successfully patched the defects in my bones.  It was a LONG surgery...he explained that there really isn’t a more delicate or complicated orthopedic surgery than this one. All of...

Ok, the rest of the surgery details for those interested... Part 1 talks about the meniscus transplant and is the previous post.  So the above picture is a healthy knee looking at it from the front. This is a right knee but my busted knee is my left one.  The remaining details of the surgery involves the medial articular cartilage (above the medial meniscus), and the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) which is one of the pink bands behind the kneecap in the picture. This picture (above) is my ACL, well, not mine actually. It belongs to a cadaver donor but has been in my left knee for 7 years now.  I had an acute tear of my original (the one I was born with) ACL while planting for a kick in martial arts. My surgeon back then (Dr. K) used cadaver tissue to replace the torn ligament and told me good luck getting back to running (he was not a fan of runners).   Had I not been the mom of two very young boys and the only income source as a full time nurse ...had I been ...