Sarah's ACL Surgery

by Sarah
(California)

Tore my ACL on January 31, 2009 skiing (43 year old mom in too much powder). Spent the next 4 weeks on crutches getting ready for surgery. Hoped that I might be able to walk without crutches before surgery but never really got the physical and emotional hang of it.

Had ACL replaced with cadaver ACL on Feb 25. I really stayed in bed on the CPM machine and ice machine and a lot of pain medication for 6 days 24 hours a day. My first doctors visit 6 days post op I had reached 0 and 85 (my doctor had wanted to me to get to 90degrees so I only got an A minus!)

I am now 10 days post op and am still in more pain then I want to be especially at night. I cannot find a comfortable position to sleep in. I am considering putting my leg back in the CPM at night just because maybe it will be more comfortable elevated.

I don't really want to go back to Vicodin and hoped that motrin and tylenol would do the job but when you realize you only are allowed to take 6 motrin pills a day it is not very much. I am on the recumbant bike 1 hour a day and do 30 leg raises a day. I go up and down my stairs on my rear end, absolutely do not trust crutches on stairs.

When did other people stop using the CPM? I can do a full rotation (not very elegantly) on the bike but think maybe the cpm at night will add to my rotation while easing night pain.