@shawn.justshillin.com coming into the recovery ward and taking this was one of my first memories post-surgery. I have no idea who dressed me and apparently had been awake for over an hour 😹

I skipped #14 😹 use your community. @shawn.justshillin.com has been an incredible support, forcibly teaching me to be a better patient. Friends are giving me their supplies like a shower bench. I’ve gotten so much love as the news has leaked. I wish I would have “taken up the space” & shared sooner

#18 is not to be shy to ask for the drugs. The RN asked if I was claustrophobic and said she’d get an anxiety RX put in for me. If she’d instead asked if I’d wanted it, I probably would have felt shame and said no. This has been a lot on its own, there’s no need to suffer more.

#17 is to advocate for yourself. Given the previous injury, I asked to still get the MRI in case it could give him more info to give me the best outcomes. He insisted that surgery would still happen, but agreed to put it as a priority so he’d have the info going in. TBD on those readings!

#16 is that it is shocking how little the recovery can change even if you’re getting more done. 3-6 months is my recovery whether or not there’s ACL work (same for repair or replace). It only increases to 6-9 months if there’s also meniscus work.

#15 is that you won’t always know everything that’s going to happen in surgery beforehand. He’s done this 1000+ times & some things will be a game day decision while in there. Bone is getting repaired. Maybe some ACL repair. Distant chance of meniscus. Min 1 hour for bone, up to 2 hours w/ others

#13 the right equipment makes a world of a difference. My knee felt immediately more comfortable in the brace they put me in and I felt like I was flying out of that hospital on crutches instead of the borrowed cane I came in with.

#12 those things will shred your pants when up, so they always need to face the outside. @shawn.justshillin.com helped me make it easier to know which was the outside by using some of my stationary tape as crutch flair.

#11 If you live in a snowy place, they will give you these attachments to your crutches that can go down to help you navigate ice with stability!

#10 - you can effectively lose an ACL if the part of the bone where it attaches to has broken off. Thankfully the ortho dr happened to be passing through, saw me on the board, & figured he should be the one to give me the results. He was going to have his staff get me in the next day to see him 10/X

#9 - Sort of on the don’t delay front, prepare for the unexpected for imaging something with a lot of unknowns. My phone was at less than 20% when we arrived at the ER and I had pretty much nothing with me. 9/X

I continued to be embarrassed when the ER doc’s physical exam wasn’t painful (just as before), as if I was taking up space I shouldn’t, but he agreed to do the CT to be sure. It only hurts when I attempt weight. #8 - no pain to the touch doesn’t mean something isn’t wrong, it’s just a 1st pass 8/X

I sheepishly checked in with the “ailment” of “I’m here for a CT since imaging is now closed” with a lot of “are you serious?” vibes from the staff. 😹 Spoiler: imaging was right to strongly encourage me to do this, so #7 is to read between the lines when folks can’t legally tell you what to do 7/x

I delayed until just before imaging closed the next day (#6 - don’t delay). The tech had me wait so radiology could take an immediate look. They advised at least a CT. If I waited for my dr, I’d be delaying everything by a 1+ weeks, he encouraged us to go down the hall to the ER to get it now 6/x