April 6th-DAY 5-POST-OP

I had my first post-op appointment with the surgeon this morning. He removed all of the dressings over the insicions and replaced them and now I am to do the dressing changes myself. The stiches stay in until my next follow up appointment  on April 27th. The doc said everything looked good and it is healing well from the looks of it. And there is very little swellling. He wants me to continue to ice and elevate and to work on my PT exercises. And he told me that if I feel up to it I can go back to school on April 18th. I believe I will be ready to go back by then since that is still a week and a half away. My pain is getting better every day so that is awesome. I have only had 6 pain pills all day. 2 when I first woke, 2 before PT, and 2 after my first trip out to Walmart.  The doc was actually kind of surprised at how well I am doing pain wise after the first few days which were the worst for me. He did say that he changed his mind and will have me in physical therapy for 9 to 12 weeks instead of the 6 weeks he had planned on originally because I can not straighten my leg  without my brace on and he said that I should be able to do that. And I can't bend it very much so he said it will take me a while to regain the ability to bend it and straighten it and then learn how to walk normally without the crutches once I am finally allowed to put weight on it. I have already been on the crutches for 2 months and by the time I get off them I will have been on them for 3 1/2 to 4 months. Brace is still locked on 0 degrees extension and was moved to 90 degrees flexion. The doctor wants me to be able to bend my knee to 90 degrees by my next appointment so I will have to work hard in therapy.

Now on to PT: 

PT was just an evaluation today. They have to wait on the insurance to approve the rest of my sessions(they usually approve stuff within 72-96 hours). The therapist gave me exercises to start doing at home. He told me to do them with the brace on and locked when I do my straight leg raises. All of the rest of them I am suppossed to unlock the brace so my knee can bend and do the exercises and then relock the brace. I need to be able to bend my knee to 90 degrees by my next doctor appointment and I could only bend it to 27 degrees. The therapist said that we will be working on restoring my range of motion until the doctor allows me to put weight on my knee. They will also be icing it and doing e-stim treatments at every pt session. After I am allowed to put weight on my leg we will start to wean off the crutches and do stregthening exercises for that leg.