ACL

As most of you know I had ACL replacement surgery yesterday. The only problem was that the ACL didn't get replaced. I am having a cadaver ACL placed in my right knee. The doctor got all the holes drilled in my knee ready to apply the graft. The cadaver ACL comes frozen so he had gotten it out earlier to thaw it out. The way they "install" it is by attaching it to a cord that goes into the bottom left of the knee, goes through the joint and then comes out the top right of the knee. They then pull the ACL through and insert the cadaver bone into my bone.

Everything was going fine until this last part. The cadaver bone crumbled. This presented a problem as there was not another ACL immediately available. I woke up and Holly came in. She said, "I have some bad news. We have to come back on Friday." The doctor was very apologetic. He said in all of the grafts he has done this has never happened. It was just a bad bone. The hospital is supposed to have a freezer where they can store backup ACLs in case something like this happens. They have the funds approved but haven't installed it yet.

So tomorrow I get to go back again. When Holly told me I just had to laugh.

This whole process has been full of bad luck. When I went for my pre-op they had to do some blood tests. I don't know if the lady was new or not but she stuck my 4 times. I have these huge bruises on my arms that make it look like Holly abuses me.

The one thing that has been great is this new ice machine called the Ice Man. They wrap some sort of pad in the bandaging that has two tubes sticking out of it. You connect the tubes to an ice machine, plug it in and instant cold on your knee. It is fantastic. The only problem was that mine didn't work. I told the nurse that it didn't feel cold at all. She said that it was just because of the wrapping. Later that night it still feel cold. We checked it out and it definitely wasn't working. Luckily Nathan had just had knee surgery so he brought his over. What a difference when it was actually cooling.

Coming out of the anesthesia was awful as usual. The surgery "finished" at 12:30 but we didn't leave the hospital until 5:30. Every time I tried to get up I vomited. That continued most of last night. I have to say that the anesthesia has been the worst part. My knee really hasn't been that bad.

That is all so far. We will keep you posted on what happens tomorrow.