The ACL Comeback Day 3: Not Quite Rocky Balboa Yet

A personal account of ACL recovery, day 3

In my mind, after the ACL surgery I imagined myself working out to recover like Rocky training to fight Ivan Drago or like Bo Cruz in Hustle. I’d be running up hills, squatting with weights, doing box jumps… 

Not even close- not yet anyway.

I’m on day 3 post-surgery. My knee is still almost the size of my head, I’ve probably walked a combined 500 steps over the last 4 days and my “exercise” consists of lying on my back and squeezing my glutes or quads. Not quite Rocky running in the snow.

Even though I know I can’t really expect to do much in the first few weeks post-surgery, it still feels very deflating.

I’ve spent the last 4 days doing nothing but lying horizontally and trying to keep my leg up and as straight as possible. 

In the upcoming months, I’m hoping this series of blog posts can focus a lot more on the highs of this recovery process. However, it would be remiss to gloss over or hide the lows. Honestly these first few days suck!

In this article, I’ve put together a very abridged version of the last few days- so that I remember it when I’m struggling with some actual physical activity in the future, and so that others going into a similar surgery will have an honest idea of what to expect!

Day 0: Surgery

General anaesthetic is quite the experience. It’s like getting zapped by the Men in Black- you just lose a few hours of your life with zero recollection.

I woke up really chatty and happy, high on painkillers and antibiotics. I kept nodding in and out of sleep throughout the day, but when it finally came time to sleep I just couldn’t fall asleep.

I think I was jet-lagged by the 2 hours of sleep I got under the GA and I eventually fell asleep at 1:30 and woke up at 4:00.

Day 1

I woke up at the clinic and stayed in bed for 3 hours until about 7. Then I started packing and eventually left the clinic to spend the rest of the day at home. The pain wasn’t too bad when I wasn’t moving but I had hardly slept at night.

It was hard for me to concentrate on anything for longer than 10-15 minutes so I spent the day watching TV and sleeping on and off. I started my physiotherapy- a mix of glute tightening, quad tightening, futile attempts to lift my leg from lying position to a 45 degree angle and even more futile attempts to bend my melon-sized knee.

When I went to bed, I didn’t have a great night’s sleep again- I slept 2 hours at a time, but at least I was back to sleeping a bit at night instead of just lying there wide awake. 

Day 2

Wow. I was not expecting this. This was the worst day by far so far! Anything they gave me at the clinic, and any GA effects must have worn off by this morning.

i woke up and was in more pain than I was in the previous day. It didn’t get any better throughout the day and I spent it feeling really uncomfortable no matter how I lay down.

At night in bed it was still extremely uncomfortable. A lot of friends who had gone through similar experiences encouraged me to take the painkillers if I needed them. I usually don’t take any painkillers but I heeded their advice this time, and I took a strong painkiller just before bed. It was worth it.

Just one painkiller helped me fall asleep very quickly and then I got another night’s sleep in short rounds of 2 hours at a time. The pain had subsided considerably and any sleep was welcome. 

Day 3

Today was much better than yesterday. I don’t know if the painkillers from last night were still effective or not, but the pain was much easier to bear today.

I was still horizontal the whole day and I couldn’t find a pose that would be comfortable for more than 10 minutes, but it was much more comfortable than yesterday so I’m mildly happy that I’ve at least made some progress.

So here I am- end of day 3, heading into the weekend. Current status- I can’t bend my knee more than 5-10 degrees and I’m still relying on crutches really heavily.

I understand the crutches are usually necessary for 10-14 days so I’m fully expecting to hang onto them at least for another week. 

I have not lost sight of where I want to get to- and I can’t stop thinking of running competitively and playing basketball next Spring and Summer. Well before I work my way up to that, I’m also really looking forward to some real workouts at the gym and growing my quad muscles back.

First thing’s first, my first big goal is to be able to bend my knee 45 degrees next week!