My graft was a hybrid from my hamstring and a cadaver hamstring.
I went in at about 8am for pre-surgery prep, and I think I went in for surgery at around 10am, getting out 2-3 hours later. When I woke up, my left leg just felt like a brick. It felt heavy, I had no control over it, and there was a dull, throbbing pain all around.
I was mostly in bed, taking pain meds as prescribed. I was walking on crutches and was able to put a little bit of weight on my leg, but only when I had to get up. I was icing whenever I was in bed, and I rested my foot on a rolled up towel, which elevated it to help with the swelling and allowed my leg to hang straight.
I was able to walk around the house on crutches as needed, placing gradually more and more weight on my leg. I started to do quad sets and started adding straight leg raises, but my leg felt like mush and I couldn't do that many. I got my dressings taken off and started therapy at Athletic Advantage with Blair. She mostly worked on massaging out the fluids that were in my leg that had resulted from the swelling. I had a huge bruise around my shin with lots of discoloration and swelling. She also had me start to bend my leg off the edge of a table. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt my knee - I only felt an intense stretching sensation in my quads as she slowly bent my leg to about 45 degrees or so.
I kept up with trying to bend my knee and also on my quad strength. I was walking without crutches by the end of the week, but my leg was still locked straight in the brace. Still icing whenever in bed and did a lot of painful "massages" trying to push fluid that was stuck around my shins up and back through my system. Blair told me to push the swelling up my leg, not down, since it all gets brought back in to the heart. Circulation is weird. I started doing straight leg raises on my side and also clam shells (where you lie on your side, knees bent, and open up your legs keeping your ankles together - it works your butt/hips).
I started working on my range of motion on a stationary bike. It started off slow- I could only pedal forward a little before my knee would stop me, and I'd have to pedal backwards until I met the same resistance. After working on it for half an hour, I was finally able to pedal a full rotation and was able to bike normally. I stopped icing as frequently, but continued to do so and to massage out the swelling in my knee. Blair gave me more strengthening exercises to do: lateral walking with a band around my knees, side kicks with the band, and ball tosses on the bad leg to help with my balance.
I went back to school and went back to seeing Meghan again, instead of Blair. Meghan's got a tough love outlook on life: I came in being able to bend my knee to 93 degrees on my own, and she pushed me all the way to 135... four times. It hurt like all hell, but ever since she did I've been able to bend my knee past 90 on my own. I continued to bike to keep my range of motion and I also added squats (holding on to a table) and step ups on my bad leg to my to-do list. She unlocked my brace to 90 and I started walking around normally and going up/down stairs.
Note: I've been told by my roommate Anne that if you have had meniscus complications, they won't let you bend it past 90 for the first month, so don't be discouraged cause she's doing great now.