I had thought about nothing else but this surgery for about the last month, swerving between quite intense anxiety, to glimpses of excitement about the possibility of fully trusting my knee again, to agonising about whether it was the right thing to do or not (more on that in another post!)
The night before my surgery, on Monday 28th September, there happened to be a 'Super Blood Moon' lunar eclipse event which, being awake at 3am as I was any way, I watched from the attic window in our house. It was very beautiful, and quite eerie.
Back to bed and then up at 6am (dreams of being late for the hospital and other knee dramas) to rush a bit and make sure I had everything and had done everything according to the many instructions the hospital had sent me.
In the end I arrived at 7.30 to the ward but had to wait until 2.15pm before it was my turn. I can't say this was the most fun I've ever had, sat contemplating what was to come and questioning my decision to go through with it all. However, the hours went by surprising quickly, I was bustled in and out of consultation rooms several times (registrar..who worryingly didn't seem to know much about the kind of reconstruction I was having but drew a big arrow on my leg nonetheless; Anaesthetist (a very nice man who said I had a 'solid' pulse. Phew!); and finally my surgeon who thankfully did know a lot more about the type of reconstruction I was having!
I was most scared about the anaesthetic. Well, I had nothing to worry about! (as many people told me I didn't). I was shown into a small room joining the operating room, where an assistant showed me to a bed, took my blood pressure and linked me up to heart monitor thingys. I chattered away trying to calm my own nerves, asking him if he'd had anaesthetic before (he, too, reassured me that when I wake I'll wonder what all the fuss was about). Then my kindly anaesthetist showed up, gave me a smile and a pat on my arm, tool my pulse ('still solid!') and then he and the assistant put a needle into the back of my hand. This didn't hurt at all but I squeezed the anaesthetist's hand quite hard nonetheless, as a comfort! Then, in very quick succession, he said he's putting in some pre-med (which, after a few seconds, did take the edge off my anxiety and gave a slightly fuzzy feeling), then in goes something to help with nausea, and then I think he said 'and this is your anaesthetic' but that is the last I remember! I didn't even have sensation of drowsiness of drifting off, or even a memory of 'blacking out'. The next moment I was waking up with a nurse sitting beside me and someone asking me to wiggle my toes. I think I must have wriggled them because the person seemed satisfied and wondered off. To begin with I thought I must be dreaming, too soon to wake up, but when it dawned on me it was actually over and I was awake I was feeling pretty good! Thank you Mr Anaesthetist. Next stop was the recovery ward, where I started to become aware of the pain in my knee and was given something strong for it, which helped. It was actually a wonderful feeling of slight drowsiness and relief, and a couple of hours must have passed by. I had the best cup of sugary tea EVER and a cheese sandwich and think I snuffled back a few tears of happiness/gratitude.
I spent a couple of hours on the recovery ward, knocking back tea, sandwiches, water and juice and probably annoying nurses with my slightly delirious and paranoid questions ('do I need to worry about those bubbles coming down the tube in the IV drip?'). The anaesthetist and surgeon both came to see me and said things had gone well. There is no damage to other parts of my knee so it was a straightforward ACL reconstruction and I will not need to wear a brace during re-hab. Tadas, my partner, who had also had an unpleasant day of waiting, could finally come and collect me at around 7pm.
The evening was, frankly, great! I was quite elated I think (A combination of drugs and relief), was comforted by kind words from friends and family, and enjoyed an evening of watching a few comedies, eating a proper meal and feeling smug that I could already get up and down the stairs pretty well with my crutches.
My instructions are to weight bear with crutches and start on basic physio immediately, concentrating mainly on getting extension. My knee is quite tightly bandaged which makes it a bit a bit difficult to tell how much I can actually move it, but the support is quite comforting!
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