Pre Surgery Checklist
April 17, 2011 |
Here is my definitive pre ACL surgery checklist. Before your ACL surgery you need to get everything in place. In order to prepare for the surgery and give yourself the best chance at having a successful surgery here is what I recommend you do make sure you have.
The checklist below is broken down sequentially to make it as easy as possible for you to prepare for ACL surgery.
A few weeks before surgery:
- REQUIREMENTS!
In my opinion the items below should are absolutely necessary for ACL surgery recovery.
o Cryo Cuff – Aircast Cryo Cuff Knee System with Cooler
o Soft Ice Packs – Chattnooga Colpac
o Crutches – aluminum crutches
Aircast Cryo Cuff used for ACL Surgery Recovery this time!
- Entertainment
You will be sitting a lot over the next few weeks so I highly recommend getting some entertainment items.
o TV Series – Top TV Shows on DVD
o Movies – Most Popular Movies
o XBOX – XBox 360 Stuff
o Books – Amazon
o IPad (thanks for the present!) – Apple iPad 2
- Food
o Healthy meals are important as you will want to sit and eat
o Throw out bad food and buy some good snack food(nuts/fruit etc)
- Exercise
o Before surgery it is important to do some PRE ACL Surgery Rehab
o Exercise bands are helpful for surgery
Days Before ACL Surgery:
- Pain Killers and Medication For Surgery
o Fill your prescription
o Pick up some other painkillers – Tylenol Extra Strength
o MUST – Laxative and Colace are important because of the pain meds – If you dont want to go the prescription route – Metamucil Apple Crisp
- Clothing
o Comfortable clothing should be handy…baggy & comfortable shorts
- Set Up Home Base
o Set yourself up on a couch close to the kitchen, TV, computer, books and medication with lots of pillows and blankets. This “Home Base” will likely be where you spend most of your days and nights.
Day Of ACL Surgery
- Don’t eat from midnight the night before and only drink water
- Ensure someone can accompany you to and from the hospital
- Remove all jewelry and nailpolish
- Don’t apply lotion or perfume
- Bring your paperwork
- Bring your crutches
- Ensure you have your painkillers
- Mark your knee with a Sharpie(no need for a mistake!)
- Wear loose and comfortable clothing
- No contact lenses
Let me know if you think of anything else I should be including and I will update this page.
Comments (2)
My name is Jon Haver, I have torn my ACL in my right leg twice and along the way have learned a thing or two about how to recover from ACL knee surgery. With the latest surgery Dec 8, 2010 I plan on sharing the exercises, pain mangement strategy and timeline for my recovery. In addition to helping people with their ACL surgery recovery the purpose of this site is to help me stay fully committed to my ACL rehab and be certain this was my last ACL surgery.
[...] these reasons I wrote a Pre ACL surgery checklist. I go over all the large and small things you should be doing before your [...]
Hi Jon
How are you?
It’s comforting to see that you could walk 4 days after the surgery without the crutches, but was it painful every stepl? I am going to have ACL reconstruction + meniscal debridement in 9 days time and am so scared.
You said “set yourself close to the kitchen, TV, computer, books and medication….”. What about lavatory? Should it be at the same floor level to the set base? Can the leg be bent when you sat on the toilet?
Thanks in advance of your help.