Day of Surgery Part 2

On February 3rd, 2020, I had the second part of the 2 part MACI knee surgery. Standard pre-surgery procedures applied (no food and liquids after midnight, no clear liquids (water) 3 hours prior to surgery).

Before being pulled into the pre-procedure changing area, a physical therapist pulled me aside and went over instructions on how to walk with crutches. We adjusted my crutches and went up and down the stairs. This surgery would consist of using a CPM (continuous passive motion) machine for the first few weeks, and PT also showed me how to use that. After going over these instructions I was taken away by nurse to prepare for surgery.

An athletic trainer came by and showed me my brace (Cymedica Orthopedics). The brace comes with a e-stimulus for VMO/quadriceps muscle re-education. He leaves the brace with me and tells me to make sure that I go into the OR with it (lol)

There are two different types of anesthesia for this surgery – regional and general. Regional anesthesia would be like an epidural and cause the lower body to go numb. I opted to do general anesthesia and go under completely.

I woke up very groggy in the recovery room. They immediately gave me another dose of Percocet. I didn’t feel that much pain and to be quite honest, I felt less pain after this surgery than I did with the first one. It was later revealed to me that my surgeon had injected a concoction of meds into my knee which would last for the next 48-72 hours (I guess when it technically should hurt the most). I think that having my knee locked straight in a brace also helped alleviate the pain because I couldn’t really put any pressure/move it like I did the first time around.

Since it was an outpatient procedure, I got home around 5pm and was nauseous and dizzy. On a scale of 1-10 my pain was at roughly 2/10 and I knocked out for hours to recover from the anesthesia. I slept really well in the brace that first night – from 8pm to 7am the next morning. I woke up the next morning refreshed with little to no pain.

Important: I was told that I did not have an osteotomy which meant that I could bear weight fully on my injured leg (full extension locked brace) as much as I could handle. This solely depends on the location of the graft which is determined during surgery. If it was an osteotomy, then there would be minimal weight bearing allowed for a the first couple weeks.