Moline's Musings

Vicodin and Vegetating

Posted by: Brian Moline

Saturday, January 10, 2009 12:18 PM

Some of you may have heard that I had my ACL reconstruction on Tuesday.  From everything my lovely wife and the doctors tell me, it went well, though I really don't remember much of it.  Thank goodness for anesthesia.  Through covering college sports, I'd always heard about athletes tearing their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), but never really knew what it took to go through the surgery and the rehab process. 

I apologize in advance if this isn't the most coherent blog entry I've ever made.  I'm still on painkillers (a necessity for this procedure) and am not thinking as clearly as I normally do (insert joke here).  I actually tore my ACL last summer playing in the Sponsors Tournament at Gus Macker in downtown Champaign.  I think it's acutally a blessing that my surgery came so far after the ligament tear, as I was able to thoroughly strengthen my leg muscles before the reconstruction. 

I had my surgery on Tuesday morning at about 10:30 am.  I felt a little like Gizmo from the campy movie "Gremlins," as I couldn't eat or drink after midnight before the procedure.  I arrived at the Carle Surgi Center at around 9 am.  The nurses had me change into the always stylish hospital gown, and gave me an IV.  My surgeon (Dr. Bane) came in to talk with me for a few minutes, and my wife Karinsa joined me as well before they wheeled me off to the operating room.  About the time they started wheeling me in is the time the anesthesia kicked in, so that's about all I can tell you about pre-op.

Here's what I can tell you about my operation.  The surgeon cut out a piece of my patellar tendon.  That piece of patellar tendon was then grafted into my knee where the ACL was, and now is my new ACL.  In addition, it turns out I had a partially torn miniscus as well.  As a result, my rehab will be just a bit slower than it would have been with just the ACL reconstruction.  Dr. Bane repaired the torn miniscus at the same time he did the ACL reconstruction. 

My first memory after the operation was PAIN!  I was only half-conscious, but the half of me that was awake knew that my knee was throbbing.  Fortunately, the nurses were on top of things and gave enough painkillers to make me comfortable in just a few minutes.  I was in and out of consciousness for the next few hours.  Finally, at about 4:30 pm, they sent me home.  Have you ever ridden sideways in the back seat of a sedan?  It works, but isn't the most comfortable place in the world. 

After a fairly comfortable night at home, it was back to Carle to have my drains removed.  Yeah, they had tubes in my leg overnight so that any fluid could drain out into small containers rather than on to my dressings.  Yes, it's as disgusting as it sounds.  The nurse removed them quickly and almost painlessly.  Everything else looked okay, so she sent me back home.  Right here, I should take a minute to thank my wife Karinsa for basically being my servant this week.  I'm used to being pretty self-sufficient, and I'm sure I haven't been the best patient at times, but she's been the best nurse/cook/driver I could have asked for.  Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog.

After more time at home on the couch watching old movies via Comcast Video on Demand (I'd never seen the original "Thomas Crown Affair" with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway...not bad), and doing a few exercises as requested by my doctor (who knew doing a simple leg lift could make you sweat?), it was back to Carle for my first rehab appointment on Friday morning.  My therapist is Brendan, and he is a good fit for me.  He's laid back, nice and has a dry sense of humor.  We went through a battery of questions (always challenging when on painkillers), and then through a few exercises.  I was able to do all of them without too much problem, so it looks like the rehab is off to a pretty good start.

Though hosting a post-game show on Vicodin could potentially be entertaining for some listeners, I'll be watching the game and listening to the radio at home today.  I plan on being back to work on Monday, so I'll spend tomorrow trying to ween myself off some of the more potent painkillers as to not be in a stupor at the station (at least no more so than usual).  Thanks for indulging me this rather personal blog entry.  I'll try to post again tomorrow to catch everyone (including myself) up on the wrestling team's results this weekend out east.  Until then.

bmoline@wdws.com

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