Day 1

I arrived at the hospital nervous, anxious, but ready for surgery.  The surgeon came in first, and had a few words with me. He pretty much gave me my prescriptions for pain killers, an antibiotic, and an anti-inflammatory.  I was to have 3 incisions, all rather small, on the front of my knee, and the operation would take approximately 1 1/2-2 hours.  The Dr. also informed me that besides being under general anesthesia, I would be given a nerve block.  The nerve block was an injection into my upper thigh that would essentially rewire the way my Central Nervous System sent pain signals to my entire leg, thus numbing it for about 12 hours.  He handed me some printed out, post-surgery directives, then left while a team of nurses took my vitals, gave my an IV, shaved and cleaned my knee, and wheeled me down to surgery.  Besides that, the rest of my pre-surgery time is a blur, as I was out within minutes.

My operation was at 10 AM, and when i awoke, it was sometime around 1.  My leg was in a brace that ran from halfway up my ankle to about halfway up my thigh. Under that, my leg was wrapped tightly in gauze and bandages, and under that was a wrap-around device that went over my knee.  I'm not sure what the name of the device is, but what it is is essentially a wrap with tubing that circulates ice water around my leg at all times. The tubing is secured underneath of the bottom of my bandaged ankle and connected to a cooler with a tiny motor in it that is filled with ice water.  

I hung around the hospital for another hour or so before being discharged.  Basically, I was advised to keep the ice-water-cooler-thingy runnng for as most of the day. On top of that, I was given a Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) machine to wear at home.  The CPM is an electronic machine with a remote control that you rest your leg on top of.  It slowly bends your knee for you at a degree set by the remote attached to it.  In my case, the doctor recommended working my way to a 60 degree bend the first day, then increasing it 10 degrees each day until i reach 110.  I'm to wear the CPM approximately 4 times a day in 2 hour intervals.   The Dr. also advised me to spend 1-2 weeks using crutches, but to put weight on my foot from the get go.  

So off i went, crutch-walking out of the hospital, pretty numb, but pretty pain free.  I remained pain free the entire day and part of the evening as my entire leg was still rather numb from the nerve block.  I started my CPM at a 20 degree bend, and by the end of my first 2 hour interval, attained a comfortable 50 degree bend. As for that ice machine, I basically kept it running for a good part of the day.  It's not quite like having an ice pack directly on your leg, so theres no real risk of nerve damage, and from what I'm told, the more I use this comfortably, the less swelling.  

By around 8-9:00 I felt the nerve block start wearing off, and immediately popped 2 5mg Percocets.  I've got a pretty good tolerance for pain killers, and I must admit for only taking 10mg of Percocet, the pain was rather low...maybe a 3 on a scale of 1-10.  Sleep was the only real problem for me that night.  While the pain was rather low, the bandage and gauze around my leg is rather tight, (RICE - rest, ice, compression, elevation), and is to remain so for the first 3 days.  Being so, I found it difficult to sleep with my leg elevated, tightly wrapped, and not being able to move.  All in all though, I'm pleased with how Day 1 went; my pain is low, i can bear weight on my bad leg (maybe a 65-35 ratio of weight, good leg to bed), and sleep eventually came, just in 1 hour intervals.  I'd wake up, wish to shift around, realize i couldn't, and eventually drift back to a not-so-deep sleep.