Surgery Recap

Hey there and happy Monday to you!

I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was interesting to say the least because I’ve been recovering from my plica surgery on Friday. I’m doing okay so far… thanks for the well wishes!

Here’s a run down of what’s been going on lately…

Leading Up to Surgery

I was really nervous and anxious to get this procedure over with. Unlike a broken leg or torn ACL, my plica issue was basically diagnosed by exclusion when my xray and MRI came back clean and physical therapy didn’t help at all.  My doctor seemed optimistic that surgery would alleviate my issue since I responded to a lidocaine injection,  but I was kind of nervous about what would happen if I had the surgery and still had knee pain afterwards. I just want to be able to cycle and run again.

I had to stop taking my prescription anti-inflammatory 2 weeks prior to surgery. I had been taking that medication for almost 7 months and really didn’t realize how much it was treating my knee pain. Once I stopped taking it, I was miserable. So while I was nervous about the possibility of surgery not really helping me, I really felt like it was my last resort.

Nutrition & Exercise

So I’m really proud of myself that I did not let my overall nutrition/fitness go to complete crap over the past 7 months, but there was still room for improvement leading up to surgery day.

I was told that the more I could build up my quad strength prior to surgery, the better off I would be during my recovery. I tried my best to stay active, take the stairs, get in my steps and do some leg exercises prior to Friday.

 In terms of nutrition, I really buckled down the two weeks before surgery and focused on a healthy diet. I generally eat healthy most of the time, but I did make the following changes prior to surgery:

• Completey stopped drinking alcohol (I typically drink 1-3 glasses of wine per week)
• Focused on hydration
• Upped my iron intake, especially from heme sources
• Cut out my afternoon candy fix
• Just tried to get in all of the food groups at every meal

My procedure was so minor that I don’t know if any of that has really made a difference in my recovery, but I went into it feeling really good!

Surgery Day

I woke up bright and early Friday morning so that I could take my time getting ready. I took a nice long shower and made sure I had everything ready for when I got home. My sister drove me to the surgery center and my mom met us there.

I got checked in right away and taken back to my little pre-surgery room. I changed into my gown and my nurse got my IV going.

The anesthesiologist came back and ran through my medical history with me, and then the orthopedic surgeon came by for a quick chat. He met my mom and sister, went over my post-op instructions and marked my leg.  Right after he was finished, a nurse anesthetist was waiting to wheel my back to the OR.

One minute the anesthetist and anesthesiologist were talking to me about Virginia Tech, and the next minute I was waking up in recovery. It’s weird to feel like you’ve just closed and opened your eyes and the procedure is over, when in reality someone was actually operating on you sometime in between there.

Once I had woken up (ummm obviously I look a little rough, haha), my nurse gave me a diet coke and some graham crackers. My mom and sister came back and helped me get dressed. Everyone had a good laugh because even though I was kind of drugged up, I still had to check out the nutrition label on the graham crackers. What can I say? RD4LIFE.

I begged my sister for some Chick Fil A on the ride home and she obliged. Something that was not so fun… getting up to my 2nd floor apartment I took the whole “take it step-by-step” to a literal level.

Things around here have been pretty low key as I’m recovering. Lots of sleep and icing going on. I’m planning on recapping the past few days of my recovery when I’m able to stay awake long enough to type everything, but for now this is all I’ve got.

At some point I’ll also share what my doctor found in my knee, but I want to wait until I have a follow-up with him next week since I haven’t actually spoken to him since my scope.

Hope you have a great week!