After I tore my ACL, I had to return to school for the last week or so before Christmas break and I couldn’t walk super well so I used crutches to get around. Honestly, it was super annoying. I couldn’t hold anything in my hands, it was super hard to get around in the hallways and walk through the crowds of students, and I never actually acquired an elevator key so I was always crutching up and down the stairs. After like a week of this, I ditched the crutches and just limped around. At this point it didn’t matter since there as no pain when walking and I was going to get surgery soon.
After surgery, I stopped using my crutches to walk around after three days! Yes, three days! When during my second physical therapy appointment, Kristen (my physical therapist) told me I could try walking I was like “woah!” But surprisingly I could walk with the crutches putting a little weight on the reconstructed knee. When I went home after the appointment, I practiced in the hallway in between icing and the CPM machine. I walked back and forth and tested myself to see how many laps I could do. By the time day three rolled around, the crutches weren’t being used anymore and I would walk limping with my straight leg brace down the hallway. I didn’t leave the house during those early days anyways, but when I did return to school the crutches were nowhere to be found. I had my huge bulky brace but no crutches. It was the best:)
Right now, even though my knee is super swollen and I can’t put too much pressure on my knee, I still didn’t get crutches because they are so much more annoying to use to get around so I’m being stubborn and toughing out the walking.
And now for the drugs! I’ve always been wary of drugs because I like to know my pain and how much of it that I have. Not that I like being in pain, but I like knowing where I stand. After surgery though, I was in a lot of pain and drugs were needed. However, after 4-5 days or so, I was able to stop taking my narcotics and switch to just Advil. I’d like to point out that my Advil was still like 12 Advil a day since it was 4 tablets, 3 times a day but the important part about taking the Advil was it wasn’t only pain relief but also limited the swelling. By the end of my two weeks at home, I was on about 6 Advil a day and it was much more manageable. When I talked to my physical therapist about it, she told me that you should not be in excruciating pain all the time since you can’t heal if everything hurts and you are unable to do strengthening exercises because you aren’t taking anything for the pain. This was very valid and I agree that it is super important. The good part for me was that I was able to get off the pain medication and my knee still felt good so that the pain was restricting me from my rehabilitation.
I know that a lot of people have different opinions about crutches and about drugs and their dosage. The important thing is finding what works best for your body in particular.
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