Some thoughts after day 1 of ACL surgery from a caretaker POV
My 20-year old sister had her quad-graft ACL repair surgery yesterday and I just wanted to share a few reflections for those who may have a surgery coming up:
Consider how you will get from the car to your bed. We totally overestimated my sister's ability to make it up a small step we have at the front of the house because while she has a very strong "good leg" she was pretty doped up post-surgery and felt dizzy if she stood too long. Luckily we just put her in a rolling office chair and got her to the bedroom, but tbh we would have been screwed if we didn't have that chair. In that same vein, be mindful of other random obstructions like rugs and mats!
Have a plan for your first few bathroom trips, which will probably just be peeing. Luckily there were 3 of us at home who could help maneuver her into the bathroom and hold her leg up while she peed. Someone else from this sub recommended a toilet seat riser with handles to help her sit and it was really helpful. My dad suggested for a guy it might be easier to just straight up pee in a bottle to avoid all the moving about lol
Night before surgery - set everything up that you will need or could anticipate wanting. We did our best, but even still we missed a few things she wanted like extra blankets and pillows so she could elevate her "good leg" too. She was really nauseous as the anesthesia wore off so having a trash bin, face wipes, moisturizer, lip balm and breath mints really helped her reset and not feel gross after puking. Food wise, because of the nausea she couldn't keep very much down but try to nibble on crackers or sip gatorade so your stomach isn't taking meds on empty.
If possible, have someone stay with you at least the first night to help you. Our priority was making sure my sister could focus 100% on resting and not on anything else like worrying about whether she needed to take medication or if she needed a little help adjusting herself in bed. I ended up staying with her so that I could turn her ice compressor on and off even as she slept so she wouldn't miss the benefit of those few hours. Maybe it was overkill, but she reported very little pain (max pain overnight was 4/10) even as the nerve block wore off.
In line with #4, make sure everyone (including you) knows how your specific ice compressor is supposed to work. Even though my sister's machine came with instructions on how much ice to put relative to water, my parents were kinda YOLOing it for a bit because they didn't really understand the science/purpose of it lol. A few people on this sub have recommended using frozen water bottles and that was a significant improvement over just using ice from the freezer which melted. We made a habit of checking the machine for ice levels right before we started the next round of icing and are trying to generally keep it filled with as much ice as possible.
Write out a medication schedule so you don't have to think about it. Not medical advice obviously, but the pic below is what I made for my sister (based on her prescribed meds) and just taped it next to her bed. My parents and I are all helping her so it makes things very easy if someone just has to look at a list to know what to give her and can just check-box it when they're done. BTW on the schedule below, I noted (per her doctor) not to ice while she is sleeping ONLY if she is the one controlling the ice machine so she doesn't turn it on and fall asleep without turning it off. Since I was waking up to turn it on/off, I let it run while she slept.
