The ACL surgery is holding me down!

As most of you know, in the first week of September I had a crucial knee injury. I was playing hardcore indoor soccer where only prison rules applied. While I was running towards the guy with the ball my knee buckled and I landed all weird. I felt an immediate pain shoot out from my knee. Everyone was asking if I had felt or heard anything snap. Well, I hadn’t heard anything, but I certainly felt that something, a muscle, ligament or tendon was pulled or snapped out of place. I was laid out on the field with some serious pain as the crowd rose to it’s feet in silence and fear that they had lost their star player, the hopes of a championship year. The ref blew the whistle and the team ran to me as I laid trying to control the pain that felt like knife had just stabbed me in the middle of the knee and then twisted it. My teammates thought that I had hurt my ankle, so they were all being very careful not to move it, but were moving my leg around, which caused more pain. They carried me out of the field to the applause of adoring fans, crying women and fathers who tried to console little kids as they saw their hero and role model twisting in anguish and pain. Needless to say, without their star player, the team lost the game. The fans also left the game.

A few days later, the MRI results revealed I had an ACL tear, Meniscus tear, and Sprained MCL. What is an ACL tear, you ask? An ACL tear is actually a common injury to sport stars and atheletes like me. The ACL (or Anterior Cruciate Ligament as it is called in the medical community) is one of four ligaments that is in charge of stabilizing your knee. The Meniscus is like a sponge that absorbs shock and distributes the weight on the knees, and this was torn as a result of the ACL injury. The MCL was sprained, but I won’t talk about that because it healed through physical therapy.

So I had to have reconstructive surgery to fix the ACL and meniscus tear. After doing extensive research, asking for referrals, screening referrals, reading reviews, I chose Dr. Chris Annunziata. I really recommend him to anyone who has any sort of injury requiring and orthopedic surgeon/doctor. He is based here in Northern Virginia (Arlington and Tysons Corner). His surgery group were very friendly and pleasant to be around. He is actually the doctor for the Redskins and DC United. Fred, #7 from DC United has used him. The night of the injury, Fred was actually the one who helped me out of my car since Monica was pregnant and couldn’t carry me. He put me in a cart and hauled me to my crib. That was embarrasing but really funny.

So, three months later after the injury, yes, you read that right, 3 full months later, I had surgery. Why 3 months? Well, in turns out that someone I know got pregnant and was due on October 30th. Since I could not immediately have surgery following the injury due to real nasty swelling and until I had my range of motion back, I had to go to painful physical therapy so I could walk again without crutches. The doctor said that he would not operate until the swelling had come down and I had gotten back my range of motion because even though the surgery was going to replace my ACL, my range of motion would be limited to whatever state it was on prior to surgery. So if I was only able to flex my leg 90 degrees, after surgery, it would only flex 90 degrees. So it took a month for the swelling to come down and to regain all my range of motion, but I still couldn’t do surgery because Monica was scared that Seanna, our beloved baby, was going to come sooner than expected and I was going to miss the birth. She didn’t want me to do it in early November because if Seanna came on her due date, October 30th, then I wouldn’t be able to help her since I was going to be bed ridden as well. So there you go, 3 months later I had the surgery.

Check out this really cool video of how the surgery performed the ACL reconstruction and cut off the Meniscus. You have to click on Orthopedics>Knee>ACL reconstruction with Hamstring. Also check out the Meniscus tear. That’s what I had done.

Now the painful part. I had been taking 16 percocets a day and have been nailed to my bed. I have an ice machine (called the Game Ready) that is attached to my leg, whose sole purpose is to cool it down. Without this machine, my leg would burn like wax, melting away as I scream in agony. So for now, I just squirm in agony, no melting. I strongly recommend this machine too, it works and makes a ton of difference when I’m not using, even if it’s only 30 minutes. After 15 minutes or so without this machine, my leg starts feeling really hot, like I have a fever and something is lodge in there, burning, like hot wax or plastic being taken off, peeling my skin. Monica has had to take care of the baby and me in the middle of the night. She has to refill this machine with ice every few hours and help me move to the bathroom when I’m drugged and useless. She has done a great job. I feel better, and am now taking a few percocets. Man, she really is keeping her end of the bargain when we made those vows back in July of 08 that said “..in sickness and in health…” because she has really been doing alot on little sleep. Thank you my love. I still have to undergo the painful, dreaded physical therapy so I’m able to walk again, and hopefully, one day, to the joy of women and fans everywhere, be able to run and play soccer again.

Crappy view I had from my bed while everyone enjoyed the year's first snow.

Now, below are some pictures of today’s doctor visit. It has been 5 days since the surgery. And as a bonus, I have added an exemplary picture of how to survive the aftermath of an ACL surgery and how it can hold a brother down! It has taken a toll on me since I have not been able to exercise for months or even get a haircut, yes, not even a haircut.

Click on the pics to make them bigger

Swollen knee after ACL surgery

As a public service announcement, I’ve included a last picture and here is the legend for those arrows.
A – Xbox360 controller to play when bored.
B – TV remote to get the latest on Tiger Woods’ drama
C – Bad, bad gut due to lack of exercise. Why show this? Well, I’m never embarrassed and I will lose it once I get back to exercising.
D – Cute baby to give you motivation to get back to work!
E – “Game Ready” cooler attached to brace, which is attached to your leg. Helps bring down swelling and cool that molten lava feeling deep inside your leg.
F – Laptop. Good for working, checking Facebook and blogging.
G – Banana. Good for combating the gut as shown above on “C”. This is also a good survival snack when the wife is inside and sleeping.
H – Bad haircut. In part because I can’t make it Haircuttery, where each haircut is still $14.
I – Blanket. Good when the wife is hot refuses to put the heat on. Or she forgets about you in the middle of the night.
J – Blanket. Good so that when the laptop gets too hot, it won’t burn your jewels off!
K – Sunlight!
L – Baby bouncer – Good for when cute baby mentioned on “D” starts crying.

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Tags: ACL, ACL Reconstruction, ACL Surgery, ACL tear, Meniscus tear, Orthopedic surgeon, surgery

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