Surgery day seemed to come sooner than I would have wanted it to. I dreaded the workout ban that would immediately follow the surgery, but I figured the sooner I got this over with, the sooner I would be on my way to recovery. The day before, Dr. Gar Eufemio's secretary Jona called me to remind me I needed to be at the venue one hour before the actual surgery as well as the 8-hour fast from food and drinks that would precede the surgery.
I arrived at Megaclinic at almost exactly 10 AM on May 6, and my dad followed soon after. I got dressed in a hospital gown and met the anaesthesiologists, who proceeded with preparations for the surgery. I lay down anxiously while waiting for Dr. Eufemio. The last thing I remember before getting knocked out was seeing him enter the room and saying, "Let's start."
By the time I came to, I was in the recovery room, my leg was totally straight and in a brace, with a tube attached to my knee. The first thing that came to mind was the fear of how my knee would be once the pain medication wore off, given that it was already painful then. When I finally got to talk to Dr. Eufemio, he told me it was one of the fastest ACL reconstructions he'd done -- 37 minutes! -- and told me a few things to remember.
I wasn't allowed to remove the brace at anytime yet, and I was to have my first follow-up appointment and rehab session the next day at Cardinal Santos. But Dr. Eufemio, a firm believer in the accelerated approach to recovery from ACL surgery, encouraged me to walk around, even telling me to walk to get out of the clinic. The pain, however, was so bad they had to send me off in a wheelchair. When I got home I forced myself to sleep to forget the pain. Luckily I was feeling quite drowsy, but I kept on waking up every hour or so even into the night. Each time I woke up I felt the pain, I constantly contemplated on whether the pain of surgery and the "forced leave" from my active lifestyle were worth it.
I arrived at Megaclinic at almost exactly 10 AM on May 6, and my dad followed soon after. I got dressed in a hospital gown and met the anaesthesiologists, who proceeded with preparations for the surgery. I lay down anxiously while waiting for Dr. Eufemio. The last thing I remember before getting knocked out was seeing him enter the room and saying, "Let's start."
By the time I came to, I was in the recovery room, my leg was totally straight and in a brace, with a tube attached to my knee. The first thing that came to mind was the fear of how my knee would be once the pain medication wore off, given that it was already painful then. When I finally got to talk to Dr. Eufemio, he told me it was one of the fastest ACL reconstructions he'd done -- 37 minutes! -- and told me a few things to remember.
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| This greeted me in the OR :P |
I wasn't allowed to remove the brace at anytime yet, and I was to have my first follow-up appointment and rehab session the next day at Cardinal Santos. But Dr. Eufemio, a firm believer in the accelerated approach to recovery from ACL surgery, encouraged me to walk around, even telling me to walk to get out of the clinic. The pain, however, was so bad they had to send me off in a wheelchair. When I got home I forced myself to sleep to forget the pain. Luckily I was feeling quite drowsy, but I kept on waking up every hour or so even into the night. Each time I woke up I felt the pain, I constantly contemplated on whether the pain of surgery and the "forced leave" from my active lifestyle were worth it.
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| Day 1 of recovery -- surgery day itself! |
