It sounds to me like your recovery is fairly normal so far. It isn't
uncommon to be woozy from pain meds for a few days. That would be
better than being in pain.

If you are 6 days out and are doing work from your desk that is good.
I trust you are meeting with a PT and doing exercises at home also.
That will speed along the recovery. Do as much PT as you can. If you
are sitting around watching Seinfeld reruns, then you can be doing PT.

After my ACL surgery, I was off from work for around 2 1/2 weeks. I
remember when I went back I was hardly mobile. I gimped around, but
recovery came quick. I think I was walking pretty well by week three.

Around 5 weeks post-op I took a trip to California. I didn't have
much trouble on the plane. Other than having my knee bent for long
periods and needing to stretch it out.

I guess my advice is if you are comfortable having your knees bent for
a few hours, then you can fly. You can always ask for an aisle and
get up and move around in the air, so it shouldn't be too big a deal.

Also, my best advice is to take it easy and not rush it. I remember
begging my doctor and phys. therapist to give me the ok to play
softball when the season started, (4-5 months post op.) They didn't
like the idea, but told me to do what I felt was right. I opted to
sit out the season, and I'm glad I did. Now I'm 2 years post-op (as
of Nov. 25th), and I have no problem running, playing basketball,
softball, whatever. If you just take it safe and easy and work hard
at getting back in shape, I don't think 9 months will be a problem at
all. I think I was about 80% back to normal physical activity after
6-7 months.

Good luck with the recovery,

Chris

--- In kneesurgeryforum@yahoogroups.com, "grossmargin2000"
<grossmargin2000@y...> wrote:
>
> Hi Everyone!
>
> First - Thank God this forum is here. I've been feeling so
> incredibly isolated for the last 6 days since my surgery with no one
> to talk to (with a common point of reference) about what I'm
> experiencing and if it's consistent with what others have gone
> through. I feel better just being able to make this post.
>
> Sustained my ACL and Meniscus damage on 10.28.04 while playing
> basketball in Miami with some employees for a company I am doing
> consulting work. The next day, I flew back to my home in Dallas -
> got the diagnosis of a torn ACL and ruptured meniscus about a week
> later.
>
> The knee was really painful pre-op, especially for the first ten days
> post - injury. The orthopedic surgeon recommended that I spend as
> much time possible regaining ROM pre-op, because this would help
> speed my recovery post-op, which certainly makes sense. I spent
> about 90 minutes a day riding a stationary bike at a pretty good
> clip, usually covering 20 - 30 miles per session with decent
> resistance - but nothing too heavy or crazy.
>
> Before the week of surgery, I was feeling really really good about my
> conditioning and the fact that I'd regain nearly full extention of my
> leg and decent flexion.
>
> How does that saying go? "The first thing the Devil does before he
> brings you down is make you proud" ? Anyways....Surgery was
> scheduled for 12/7 at 7:15 am. Six days ago.
>
> Without a complete blow by blow of each of the last six days, let's
> just suffice it to say that I've only started feeling like a human
> being for about the last 36 hours. Prior to that, I don't know what
> the hell I was. I was on the passive motion machine quite a bit
> imeediately post op and for the next two days. I was downing
> oxycontin like Rush Limbaugh at a Chinese buffet. The pain meds were
> so mentally debilitating that I had to stop taking them cold turkey,
> and have been controlling the pain with Ibuprofen and ice therapy for
> the last three days.
>
> I've been able to sit at my computer and work since yesterday
> morning, and I've been outside for short 10-15 minute walks on
> crutches since yesterday as well.
>
> I am a self - employed consultant and spend about 75% of my time on
> the road. My prospective issue is this:
>
> Short term - I'm due to fly back to Miami this sunday through
> wednesday to continue working on the project that I took the hiatus
> from this past week due to surgery. Is this too early to fly or to
> spend a period of a few days away from any directed physical therapy?
> Long-term - Due to my job, I'm not in one place for more than a few
> days. It's going to be really tough balancing the need for directed
> physical therapy ( which I haven't started yet) vs. the need
> to .uh....make money to support my family. I've already set the
> expectations with my current clients about my situation and
> thankfully they're very understanding. By the same token, not all of
> my work can be done remotely from my home office.
>
> To those of you who have chewed this same dirt - can I achieve
> similiar results self-directing my PT after an an initial period of
> supervision? My goal, like everyone's, is to speed functional
> recovery and then work long term to get back to playing basketball,
> raquetball, and skiing (say 9 months out?) Can this be done? Or am
> I still feeling the lingering effects of the oxycontin?
>
> Thanks for reading my ramble! Good luck to everyone out there going
> through this and God bless everyone who has made recoveries and are
> helping newbies like me.
>
> Grossmargin