With the exception of a little forced straightening (which, I am pretty much there on my own, so it's not nearly as painful as bending), we stuck to some classic exercises to work on my range of motion. These exercises can be found in the 4/22 entry on my ACL Calendar.
Immediately following PT, I went upstairs in the same building to have my 1 week follow-up visit with Dr. Jeffrey Shapiro.
First, x-rays were taken. I am not sure this was entirely necessary, since there were no bone issues found in the pre-op MRI nor seen in surgery. However, this time I was all for it, because I wanted to see the two titanium screws that were holding my reconstructed ACL (aka, patellar tendon) in place! How do you like 'em?
After x-rays were taken, I had to wait a while so I listened to the hub-bub of the doctor's office that was going on outside of my exam room. I was so glad to be on the other side of the surgery now, and while there is still a lot to experience and learn, at least this wasn't all brand new to me anymore, and I wasn't nearly as scared!
When Dr. Shapiro finally came in, he gave me eye contact, a firm handshake, a smile and the inevitable question, "How are you doing?" I was comforted that I didn't feel like 'just another patient' and I give Dr. S credit for that, which perhaps I didn't give him the first time I met him.
The physical exam was short. First, he had me straighten the leg on the table in front of me (and said, "Good!" when he saw I could straighten it to zero degrees). Once straight, he placed his hands at the top and bottom of my kneecap which caused a jerk reaction: my body went completely stiff and I grabbed his closest arm (thanks a LOT PT!!). We actually both had a laugh at that, as I apologized, relaxed and he said he was just glad I didn't hit him! hehe...
With his hands at the top and bottom of my knee, he carefully manipulated the kneecap, squeezed a little here and there, and finally, tested for looseness. For you dedicated readers, you might remember how painful my initial visit with Dr. S was when he did this same test for 'looseness' and originally diagnosed my torn ACL. I am happy to report that he was not only a little more gentle this time, but thanks to a successful surgery, there was hardly any pain.
Finally, he had me bend it to 90 degrees (which, since I had recently iced after finishing PT was a little more difficult than I'd wanted), but I got there nonetheless. He was satisfied!
There was a quick Q&A, but basically he said that there were no other issues found within my knee during the surgery, and that if I keep on track with PT he expects nothing less than a full recovery. I didn't think he'd tell me any differently, but it was great to hear! From here I won't need to see Dr. Shapiro for another month.
And, I hope this isn't too long-winded (feel free to stop reading) but when the Dr's assistant [Krista!] came to re-tape the incision area, I learned something new. After surgery my incision had been stitched up from the inside using bioabsorbable stitches. Up until today there had been just one piece of vertical tape, which had a white string coming off of it. I thought this was just a piece of the tape, but this was the end of the stitching! So once untaped, Krista gave this string a gentle pull and cut it as close to the skin as possible. It was an odd sensation, but maybe moreso because I then knew that it ran inside of my knee and was holding the incision together!! In this pic you can kind of see the loose 'string' coming off the bottom of the one piece of tape that doesn't align w/ the rest:
I was then re-taped, and sent on my way. Before going, I asked if I could get a copy of the arthroscopic images taken during the surgery. They're in black and white, plus I have no clue what I'm looking at, but it's so great to have more fun images to share!
8 Days down... The better part of 6 months to go! 
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