Week 2 October 5- October 12:
This was the week I went back to school and I started physical therapy religiously. I actually get excited for physical therapy and my doctors appointments. I know all of the physical therapists from last April so I can insult them and yell at them and they'll get if I'm kidding or not. My first session though, was not good. It was my first encounter with electrical stim, which is what they do to send electrical shocks to your brain to get it to communicate with your quad to get it to contract. But I had a physical therapist I had never had before and the electric stim was wayyyyy to high and it was making me cry, which, it should hurt, but not enough to make you cry every single time it starts. So they had to turn it down. And I haven't been with him since. Second week they try and get me to lift my leg which doesn't work, but they also try to get my to tighten my quad, and I usually could after the electric stim so it's definitely worth it. The also bend your leg. I usually sit at the edge of they able and they bend it until it's too painful for me to take. Second week I got to about 46 degrees at the end. I was always sooooo excited ever time the measured it and I found out how much I was able to bend it. Also, don't ever be afraid to go down to the nurse to take some medicine and ice, there's only so much you can take.
-Becca
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Week 1, September 27th- October 4th:
My surgery was scheduled on the 27th of September at 11:30. I walked I to the children's hospital and was greeted by a nurse who actually coached field hockey, so I already felt very welcomed. I was taken into a waiting area where I waited for maybe 5 minutes and the. Was taken for my wight, height, etc. then they took me to a pre-op area. They gave me scrubs to change into and I was just laying on the hospital bed. They put a warm blanket over my arms so to help the veins stand out a little more when they prepared to put the IV in. The nurse nicked the vein on my right arm, and eventually got it on my left arms when another nurse came to help. I warned her that my veins were small! Then, he anesthesiologist came in to give me a nerve block. They gave me medicine that completely felt like y brain was clouded over and I acted absolutely wack. I was quite a character from what I remember. He put an ultrasound to my left hip, ( if it wasn't clear I got surgery on my left knee) and then slid the needle in and I could see it on the screen! It was really cool. After that all the doctors came to visit me. I liked their little caps. That's all I can really remember. Then they rolled me into the operating room. I said a lot of weird stuff, did a lot of weird things, and then the next thing I knew I woke up in this post op area. Just a warning. Anesthesia can have weird side effects, a lot of people are really nauseas, but it also loses you body's ability to regulate temperature so I was really hot and sweating. They made me go to the bathroom which was a process seeing as that I fell asleep in the wheel chair and on the toilet. I was EXHAUSTED. After they helped my go to the bathroom they sent me home. Fast, I know. The nerve block worked miracles though and I didn't really feel anything until a little over a day later when it wore off. The one thing I felt when I did have the nerve block was my incision on my shin (where they took out my hamstring) hurt. Not unbearably but it wasn't comfortable. I was taking 3 ibuprofen and one OxyContin, alternating. That helped with the pain too. The process of going to the bathroom was definitely the worse part of everything that week. Word of advice, move a bed or something you can sleep on to your first floor. All I remember is when I got the okay to shower I had to go upstairs and I felt really sick from all the energy I was using. The shower felt good but the getting changed was really hard. My mom helped me with everything. Also, you may think that everyone is over exaggerating or that it won't happen to you but you cannot move your leg by yourself. It. Doesn't. Work. Trust me I have never been so frustrated before. After the fourth day you start feeling better. I think that I stopped taking OxyContin about 5 days after surgery. I was out of school for a week a rightfully so. I wouldn't have been able to do it. Also, ICE ICE ICE, it's like heaven on your knee, it feels, great.
So that was my first week. As well, your leg is locked straight in your brace. No fun.
-Becca
My surgery was scheduled on the 27th of September at 11:30. I walked I to the children's hospital and was greeted by a nurse who actually coached field hockey, so I already felt very welcomed. I was taken into a waiting area where I waited for maybe 5 minutes and the. Was taken for my wight, height, etc. then they took me to a pre-op area. They gave me scrubs to change into and I was just laying on the hospital bed. They put a warm blanket over my arms so to help the veins stand out a little more when they prepared to put the IV in. The nurse nicked the vein on my right arm, and eventually got it on my left arms when another nurse came to help. I warned her that my veins were small! Then, he anesthesiologist came in to give me a nerve block. They gave me medicine that completely felt like y brain was clouded over and I acted absolutely wack. I was quite a character from what I remember. He put an ultrasound to my left hip, ( if it wasn't clear I got surgery on my left knee) and then slid the needle in and I could see it on the screen! It was really cool. After that all the doctors came to visit me. I liked their little caps. That's all I can really remember. Then they rolled me into the operating room. I said a lot of weird stuff, did a lot of weird things, and then the next thing I knew I woke up in this post op area. Just a warning. Anesthesia can have weird side effects, a lot of people are really nauseas, but it also loses you body's ability to regulate temperature so I was really hot and sweating. They made me go to the bathroom which was a process seeing as that I fell asleep in the wheel chair and on the toilet. I was EXHAUSTED. After they helped my go to the bathroom they sent me home. Fast, I know. The nerve block worked miracles though and I didn't really feel anything until a little over a day later when it wore off. The one thing I felt when I did have the nerve block was my incision on my shin (where they took out my hamstring) hurt. Not unbearably but it wasn't comfortable. I was taking 3 ibuprofen and one OxyContin, alternating. That helped with the pain too. The process of going to the bathroom was definitely the worse part of everything that week. Word of advice, move a bed or something you can sleep on to your first floor. All I remember is when I got the okay to shower I had to go upstairs and I felt really sick from all the energy I was using. The shower felt good but the getting changed was really hard. My mom helped me with everything. Also, you may think that everyone is over exaggerating or that it won't happen to you but you cannot move your leg by yourself. It. Doesn't. Work. Trust me I have never been so frustrated before. After the fourth day you start feeling better. I think that I stopped taking OxyContin about 5 days after surgery. I was out of school for a week a rightfully so. I wouldn't have been able to do it. Also, ICE ICE ICE, it's like heaven on your knee, it feels, great.
So that was my first week. As well, your leg is locked straight in your brace. No fun.
-Becca
Hi!
My name is Becca, I'm a 15 year old sophomore. I got MPFL reconstruction surgery 4 weeks ago, Friday. This was the outcome of a vey long journey. I supplexed my knee cap in April of 2013 during softball, I had bunted and was sprinting to first base, I hit he base wrong and pivoted to the right, all I hear was a loud pop and I started to go down. We went to the doctors to later on discover that I had supplexed my patella. Luckily it went in on its own, but on the way in it had banged into my femur so I had bone bruising on both my patella and femur. I was bummed, sure, but softball wasn't the favorite sport I play so it wasn't the end of the world. I was placed in a leg long brace that was locked at zero degrees and I was non weight bearing on crutches for almost two months. I was in he brace for such a long period of time due to the enormous amount of swelling in my knee, after getting an MRI they found out nothing was wrong so they let me start bending my leg and put special tape on my leg to help the swelling go down. It worked and before I knew it I was out of my brace and allowed to start running and excersizing. It was summertime and I had a lot of time on my hands, so along with going to physical therapy two times a week, I ran every single day. I built up my endurance and got in shape for my favorite sport, field hockey. I was feeling great, in shape and not worrying about my knee, but, my patella still was a little unstable to the gave me a brace. I went to a field hockey camp and it worked great! I had no problems. August 21st, I was released from physical therapy and the doctors. My first field hockey try-out was on the 30th of August. I was doing really well and was even moved up and playing with all of the varsity players. We were doing one on ones and I planted my foot and twisted to get the ball when I heard a POP and crunch. I immediately collapsed and broke down. I was devastated because I was almost positive I had supplexed my patella again. I was in hysterics for the entire day. If someone mentioned it, the tears would start flowing again. We saw my doctor again and he thought it might have been a torn meniscus and I was actually really happy. The recovery time is a lot quicker and I could possibly get back to f hockey. I went in for an MRI the next day and the day after we saw him again. He pulled up the pictures and told me I had re-dislocated my knee cap. That's when the hysterics had started up again. It only got worse when he told me I had some pretty bad cartilage damage and that since the soft tissue didn't hold on my MPFL that it was pretty much definite I was going to need surgery.
After that doctors appointment we went o a follow up at UConn and the doctor there mentioned MPFL and AMZ. We never heard of that before so, we went to my doctor and asked him about it. I had several risk factors in my knees for my patella to dislocate. One being that I was 19 degrees knock kneed. The liked to perform AMZ when someone is 21 degrees knock kneed or higher. So I was right in the gray area. I was silently flipping out. In an AMZ operation they cut your leg bones and move them over and pin them in place, as well I would get an MPFL. I was almost going to get the AMZ when he told me that he's never had someone need an AMZ after getting MPFL. So that's what I went with.
Okay so that's my back story and the deliberation and finding out what was wrong with it happened in about 2-3 weeks in September.
-becca
My name is Becca, I'm a 15 year old sophomore. I got MPFL reconstruction surgery 4 weeks ago, Friday. This was the outcome of a vey long journey. I supplexed my knee cap in April of 2013 during softball, I had bunted and was sprinting to first base, I hit he base wrong and pivoted to the right, all I hear was a loud pop and I started to go down. We went to the doctors to later on discover that I had supplexed my patella. Luckily it went in on its own, but on the way in it had banged into my femur so I had bone bruising on both my patella and femur. I was bummed, sure, but softball wasn't the favorite sport I play so it wasn't the end of the world. I was placed in a leg long brace that was locked at zero degrees and I was non weight bearing on crutches for almost two months. I was in he brace for such a long period of time due to the enormous amount of swelling in my knee, after getting an MRI they found out nothing was wrong so they let me start bending my leg and put special tape on my leg to help the swelling go down. It worked and before I knew it I was out of my brace and allowed to start running and excersizing. It was summertime and I had a lot of time on my hands, so along with going to physical therapy two times a week, I ran every single day. I built up my endurance and got in shape for my favorite sport, field hockey. I was feeling great, in shape and not worrying about my knee, but, my patella still was a little unstable to the gave me a brace. I went to a field hockey camp and it worked great! I had no problems. August 21st, I was released from physical therapy and the doctors. My first field hockey try-out was on the 30th of August. I was doing really well and was even moved up and playing with all of the varsity players. We were doing one on ones and I planted my foot and twisted to get the ball when I heard a POP and crunch. I immediately collapsed and broke down. I was devastated because I was almost positive I had supplexed my patella again. I was in hysterics for the entire day. If someone mentioned it, the tears would start flowing again. We saw my doctor again and he thought it might have been a torn meniscus and I was actually really happy. The recovery time is a lot quicker and I could possibly get back to f hockey. I went in for an MRI the next day and the day after we saw him again. He pulled up the pictures and told me I had re-dislocated my knee cap. That's when the hysterics had started up again. It only got worse when he told me I had some pretty bad cartilage damage and that since the soft tissue didn't hold on my MPFL that it was pretty much definite I was going to need surgery.
After that doctors appointment we went o a follow up at UConn and the doctor there mentioned MPFL and AMZ. We never heard of that before so, we went to my doctor and asked him about it. I had several risk factors in my knees for my patella to dislocate. One being that I was 19 degrees knock kneed. The liked to perform AMZ when someone is 21 degrees knock kneed or higher. So I was right in the gray area. I was silently flipping out. In an AMZ operation they cut your leg bones and move them over and pin them in place, as well I would get an MPFL. I was almost going to get the AMZ when he told me that he's never had someone need an AMZ after getting MPFL. So that's what I went with.
Okay so that's my back story and the deliberation and finding out what was wrong with it happened in about 2-3 weeks in September.
-becca
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