I should submit my patient history to studies being done on female ACL patients. I’ve taken note of when during my menstrual cycle my injuries happen and take a look at the dates.
- ACL Tear #1: February 5, 2006. My period starts 4 days after injury.
- ACL Tear #2: April 17, 2011. My period starts 3 days after injury.
Two other ACL tear friends of mine tore it also at the late luteal phase, which is before you get your period. Now I wonder about all the other girls who have torn their ACLs.
It has something to do with how lax your knee joint is during this time. Related article here:
I know it still could be purely coincidental that both injuries happened at the same phase in my cycle, but after I do rehab and if I do start playing football again, I’ll be extra careful when I know I’m due to start my period.
Surgery will happen tomorrow at noon. This is how I think it’ll go:
- 3:00 am last snack and water until the operation
- 8:00 am leave the house for St. Lukes
- 10:00 am arrive at hospital, get changed into gown, mom will fill out forms,
- 10:30 am hook me up on an IV, catheter (not nice), anesthesia to get injected in my spine
- 12:00 nn- Dr. Canlas does the routine ACL reconstruction
- 12:30 pm – surgery is almost done, he’ll wake me up to tell me to watch the screen to see whats happening in my knee
- 12:45 pm- surgery finished
- 1:00 pm- in the recovery room,waiting for anesthesia to wear off, given painkillers via IV
- 5-7pm- get wheeled off to the car, go home
- 8 pm- get home, agonizingly climb up stairs to room, eat dinner- I think I’ll crave for a hamburger. or ramen.
- 10 pm- IV painkillers wear off, Ponstan painkillers not strong enough, worst pain ever.
- 12 mn- still can’t sleep, knee is uber painful,I curse the day I learned how to play football and discovered how much fun it is …. I’ll remember how the injury happened, curse the person I tried to dispossess of the ball. curse myself for trying to get the ball back, should’ve just let him have it…. wishing I played chess instead,or the violin, or something else.
- 3am – struggle to go to the bathroom, try not to faint
- 6am- finally get to sleep
I really hope it won’t be too painful post op. I suppose thinking about it now, anticipating and exaggerating how painful it is will ensure that later on when it actually happens I’ll be prepared and it won’t be as painful as I imagined.
I’m a fighter, always.
Bertha