Thu, 13 February 2003

Met with Dr Kobs today. Basically I had some questions as a result of the appointment with Ling Yu (one of the Physician Assistants at Raleigh Orthopedic).

I had taken a digital photo of my knee and printed it out with the aim of getting Dr Kobs to mark on the page where he planned to do the incisions. Instead, he did one better: he popped next door and ask one of his other patients if I could come in a have a look at the results of his ACL surgery from two weeks ago. Most excellent.

So now I know: the surgery will be arthroscopic. I have two small incisions below my knee (where the camera and tools are inserted, I'm assuming), one to the side where the screw will be inserted and a 0.25" cut above my knee and to the side where a drain will be inserted. A larger cut (looked like about 1.5") will be made below my knee and to the side where they'll go in to harvest a bit of my hamstring (to replace the torn ACL).

So that's good. He said they rarely do open surgery any more. Thinking back to the session with Ling Yu, I think I simply misinterpreted what she was saying.

The other patient said he was off his crutches after 4 days or so. I saw him walk in earlier and he seemed to be OK - hobbling but not particularly slowly. He had his left knee done, hence he was able to drive himself to the office. I won't be so lucky since its my right knee.

I also asked Dr Kobs about these passive motion machines (see Figure 10 here). He said that the physical theraphy will be better than using one of them, and he normally only uses those types of machines for total knee replacements or for older people that can't exercise as much.

Other info he told me:

• No showers for 3 days, just "bird bathing"
• Keep the brace on, except for exercising, for the first 3 days at least (will be more comfortable he says, due to the support it provides)
• Showers after 3 days are OK, no need to cover up the wounds
• After a week, might be OK to sleep without the brace (provided it doesn't hurt)
• The stitches will be taken out after 10 days (my next appointment with him)

My first physio appointment is Monday morning.