LIFE AFTER SURGERY: SUGGESTIONS FROM PATIENTS

• Check out some books or magazines so that you will have plenty of leisure reading material.
• Make sure that you get caught up on your bills before surgery. Walking to the mailbox might be a challenge, so take care of everything before hand.
• If you must, then bring work home to keep you occupied. Ask your company if you can get a laptop. If you hate your job, then work on that resume! Call some headhunters while you're recovering.
• Recruit your parents to take care of you for the 1st couple of days. Put them to work! Have mom cook or dad work on a fix up project that you have been putting off.
• Arrange for a friend or co-worker to take you to work when you think you are physically ready to go back to work.
• Arrange for rides to and from doctor, PT, etc.
• Make sure you have a pair of slip on shoes/slippers. It's going to be tough to bend down and tie those laces!
• Get a haircut, trim nails, etc. before surgery. Remember you are going to be disabled, so get as much done as you can pre-op.
• Get a back pack to carry around drinks, pen, paper, cordless phone, etc. You won't be able to carry anything around while you are on crutches.
• Keep a flashlight near by (you'd hate to end up stranded during a power outage in the dark!)
• Set up your PT appointments BEFORE surgery - many times there is a wait for the appointments.
• Invest in baggy pants/shorts to fit over your swollen/bandaged knee (esp. if surgery is in winter!)
• Get a table with wheels. I'm three weeks post-op and on crutches for three more. I've been on crutches many times. Tie a rope to the table with a small weight on the other end. You load the table with things you need, say from the kitchen - icepacks, food, beverages, water, etc. Throw the weighted rope to your hang out spot, crutch over and sit down. Pick up the rope and pull the table of goodies over to you. I had to put some tape on the linoleum/carpet transition area to smooth the ride.
• Gas up the car ( though you may not use it for a while).
• Clean house.
• Remove anything that you might trip on later.
• Practice moving around your home with crutches and an immoblizer on your leg to see what needs to be re-arranged.
• Do laundry.
• Buy easy to cook food. (I am partial to the microwaveable dinners and to the spiral cut ham - no sharp knives & less time on your feet).
• Make/buy ice.
• Get cash for pizza man.
• Get a portable phone.
• Setup your home recovery area with medications, reading material, alarm clock, TV guide, and remote controls w/fresh batteries and make sure that your remotes can function from there.
• Build a little collection of unwatched videos or borrow some. If you rent, you have to return them or the late fees mount up quickly.
• Figure out how you will elevate the leg - pillows or whatever. Have that set up before surgery. Keep a towel on linoleum floors to sop up any water.
• Crutches and wet linoleum are a tragedy waiting to happen.
• I found the athletic water bottle a good way to take water when lying down - for medications, or otherwise.
• Put a lawnchair/stool in the shower.
• Get one of those hose attachments for the shower if possible.
• You won't be able to get stitches wet, so have some plastic bags with rubber bands or tape for sealing.
• Set up a chair outdoors so you can catch some sun on nice days.
• Check out Bob's ACL WWW Board and trade stories/info on ACL surgery.
• Check the web sites of other patients who have had ACL injuries or surgery (ACL PATIENTS WITH WEB SITES).
• Check with your physician to see if a CPM (CONTINUOUS PASSIVE MOTION - ORTHOLOGIC) device will be used at home after surgery to speed rehabilitation.

More Great Suggestions from Tina Martin:

• Get various sizes of the 'soft' ice packs with velcro straps from sports med shops. They are not messy like ice, are easy to throw back into the freezer, and will form-fit around the knee better.
• Spread a towel in the bottom of your shower - that way you can brace the crutches 'outwards' so that they cannot slip.
• If a woman, pamper yourself with nice scented shower gels/ body lotions. It doesn't help with the pain, but it might get you a little more 'up'.
• Have someone pick up your mail each day.
• Join some lists / chat rooms /wwwboards / surf the web ....for entertainment and email pen pals.
• Buy handy sized bottles of water. They can be filled and rolled around on the floor to where you want them. Have one at each place where you might need a drink of water, especially your night stand (for pain meds). If possible, have someone come in and fill them all up every couple of days.
• If you want to work on your computer, put an ottoman under the desk to elevate the leg. Curl a pillow under the knee to support it better.
• If you have bathroom counters that have sharp edges, tape a folded towel over them so that you don't lean against the sharp edge with your weight bearing leg and eventually cause nerve damage in that leg.
• When sitting on the couch with your leg elevated, a small electric heated 'throw' blanket ( 4' x 6') can help keep your foot warm.
• Make sure that you rent/buy your crutches before the surgery. The short aluminum ones that brace against your lower arm (Canadian crutches) are easier to use, better to help close doors, and hook things to drag them closer to you. They also won't allow you to use your armpits to bear weight, thereby preventing chest and armpit bruising. Your hands are supposed to bear your entire weight, not your armpits. When renting or buying crutches, try out both types of crutches, and see which works better for you. Don't set your crutches too short. If you do, you are always leaning over and may develop low back pain.
• If you are mobile before surgery, make sure that you have done your quads/hamstring weight strengthening exercises for as many months BEFORE the surgery as possible. This allows a strong weight bearing leg to develop. Tai Chi donu/snake exercises are good to build leg strength. After surgery, at the end of your physio therapy, if you still cannot get full extension, try Tai Chi 'snake' exercises. They may help break the last of your adhesions.
• Arrange for a CPM machine rental BEFORE surgery if necessary.
• When you are starting to weight bear again, don't tighten the knee and hold your breath against the pain. Think 'release and relax the knee' before standing up and with each painful step. You want to be able to walk in a continuous, fluid motion, with no jerks. Practice the Yoga 'sponge' exercise so that you have control over your various muscle groups, and the ability to 'release and relax' them at will. Visualize rice paper on the floor (like in the old Kung Fu TV series). You want to walk on it without tearing it. So with each step, 'release' against the pain instead of tightening.
• Find yourself a good physio who has a sense of humor, and where there is with an 'up' atmosphere in the physio clinic. It's all about mental attitude!

  If you have any tips or suggestions that you would like to share, please send them to us for listing on this page.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  Last Update: 04/03/2003
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