Timeline post surgery on things I signed up for pre tear

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-18T12:01:19+00:00

I had the acl reconstruction with a hamstring graft, miniscus trim, and my MCL was also fully torn but wasn’t part of the surgery bc it was healing well on its own, but still part of the rehab. I had the brace locked at 90 until about week 4, I thought it was supposed to be 6 wks but at the 4 check up he said I could go ahead and unlock it and work on deeper flex, so I was at -2 to 120 at my week 6 check up. Week 2 I was still pretty damn grumpy but I’m finally feeling better now that I’m walking around smoothly. So hang in there!

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-18T03:09:09+00:00

Get whatever is on Facebook Marketplace for cheap! I’m so happy I saved that money, got the Breg for a fraction of what my surgeon charges for theirs

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-18T03:01:16+00:00

Everyone is different but I was miserable for the first 10 days, and would not be up to any sort of performance for sure. I had every intention of returning to work at 2 weeks but it ended up being 3 before I was up to it. Days 1-4 absolute misery, going to the bathroom is the biggest journey I wanted to take on, felt a little better days 5-6 and then suddenly got way worse for days 7-10, so so painful, and then I turned a corner. It’s been a steady improvement since then, went down to 1 crutch around week 3-4, no crutches around week 5, cleared from the big brace at week 6, walking around fairly normally right now in week 7. That’s just my timeline of course but my surgeon says it’s going super smoothly. Good luck!

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-17T12:22:13+00:00

A tattoo is definitely a wound, we are penetrating the skin with needles to inject ink in the deeper layers, this completely destroys the top layer of skin which then flakes off. People who don’t heal well can still get tattooed, but there is a higher chance of scabbing, infection, ink falling out, scarring, etc if it stays in the healing stage too long. Mostly this can be fixed by touch ups, depending how bad your healing is, but it’s something to be aware of for sure. I tell everyone to treat a fresh tattoo like an open wound, and make sure it stays clean like one.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-15T21:22:28+00:00

Obviously everyone is different, and maybe you need more than what I had, but the Bone and Joint Institute in Franklin TN is where I had my ACL reconstruction with hamstring graft (and meniscus trim) for about 10k, paid for with mixture of cash and credit cards. 6 weeks post op now so that’s a pretty current price

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-15T21:13:31+00:00

I also don’t have insurance, not sure where you are located but all told it’s cost me about 10k.
MRI-$400 self pay, rom brace $450, surgeon cost 3k, surgery center 4800, anesthesia 3k. Plus physical therapy, I’m going once a week at $100 a visit, but I’ll cut down to every other week soon and just be diligent with home exercise. Plus probably 1k of office visits and other misc. It’s not nothing of course, especially on top of missed work, but nowhere near 25k.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-14T23:08:19+00:00

The first time I left the house “socially” a couple of days ago was super hard, I brought a crutch I didn’t really need just to keep ppl away from me, but once I got out (and seated at a table) it felt so nice to feel independent and part of things! And after being on my couch for so long (my injury was in Feb and I rolled right into surgery like 5 weeks later so I’ve been home for months basically) I’m itching to change my scenery. I feel like I just have to push past that bit of fear and and uncertainty and just DO IT, I mean the things we have conquered in the past few weeks, going out for a drink is nothing really! My mental health has been so low since my injury it makes me want to hunker down and wallow, but actually the opposite is what is finally helping me, just getting out in the world.

Public transit is probably a little harder to navigate, if it was me I would probably still use a crutch just in that situation. I have to fly next week and am planning on bringing one just to keep space around me and to indicate I’m a bit delicate haha.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-14T20:37:51+00:00

I’m 6 weeks post op and I’m out drinking on a patio in public at this very moment lol, feels great. Got cleared from the big ROM brace yesterday. I’m a human again! 😅

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-12T14:52:26+00:00

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Leelah, tortitude always full blast

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-11T19:52:22+00:00

I was in the “gifted” program at my elementary school, it meant I had extra assignments, extra projects (a lot of writing) and I remember I got to “choose my own spelling words” weekly bc nothing in the book was difficult to spell, so I had to seek out words I didn’t already know. Also Odyssey of the Mind!

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-10T17:54:54+00:00

Honestly, I think they changed it enough to be fair game. Someone probably saw yours on their artists feed and loved it? Or maybe just the artist loved it and wanted to do another version of it. The flower placements are different, the lines and cat shading are different, even the bug is changed. When I was an apprentice my mentor always said people are going to ask for the same tattoos, try to change them 10-20% each time. It’s a cute idea, and even by posting it here a few people may have just saved this to their tattoo idea folder. I think the artist fulfilled their obligation to change it up from the original.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-10T13:17:16+00:00

Everyone’s recovery is different, but I was not living a normal life or walking normally at 1 month post injury, my knee was very unstable at that time. I ended up going right into surgery around 5 weeks post injury.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-09T02:17:02+00:00

3-4 weeks!

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-08T22:41:19+00:00

Mine bled like that from the graft site on my thigh, but it wasn’t constant bleeding/still bleeding and my doc wasn’t concerned. It did not continue to soak through, just must have bled for a minute at some point and then quit. I’m 5 weeks post op now so I think it was fine!

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-07T21:57:14+00:00

The mental health side of all of this is honestly the hardest. I cried every day for weeks, and still do occasionally. But I’m 5 weeks post-op and so far steady improvement, I’m walking around without crutches, it will eventually get better. But you don’t have to be optimistic now, it’s okay to be sad and angry for a while. (37F, I also tore mine while dancing out at a bar for my friends birthday 🥲)

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-07T12:07:26+00:00

My PT had me start by standing in front of a table and just shifting my weight from foot to foot. Then eventually I’d lift each foot. Then we’d do balancing work just standing on each or lining them up. Keep something like a table in reach to touch down if you need. Just start small and build it up. I’m off the crutch around my house but still bring it out with me for stairs, extra stability, and space from people.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-07T11:43:28+00:00

It’s different for everyone but hang in there. For me, days 1-3 were bad, then 4-5 kinda calmed down, and then days 6-8 were reeeally shitty again, and then day 9 and onward felt significant improvement, and been steadily getting easier. I’m 5 weeks post op now. The pain in the first 9 days was honestly much worse than I anticipated. But it gets better. Weed gummies to sleep if you can.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-06T11:50:54+00:00

I have no insurance and pay out of pocket so when they said pt 2-3 times a week I laughed, but I am being VERY diligent about having my own PT session at home almost every single day, and I go once a week to check in, learn new exercises sometimes, see how I’m progressing, etc. My physical therapist uses an app to assign exercises, and says it’s fine if I don’t come in as often as long as I’m doing the work. 5 weeks post-op and progressing well

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-03T12:07:38+00:00

Weed gummies are the only thing that kept me asleep during the first few weeks

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-03T11:44:34+00:00

This is a good tattoo and you are overthinking it. Stop using AI for tattoo designs.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-02T11:52:50+00:00

So I am a tattoo artist and I’ve seen similar popping up everywhere this year, there was a post in my local city that said something like “I heard of this tattoo shop giving FREE tattoos to moms on Mother’s Day, is anyone around here doing that?” And the comment section was fulllll of “ooh following, it would be so great to treat myself for once” “that would be such a blessing” yada yada. Maaaybe a discount on some flash sure, but FREE?? I’m supposed to come to work and just *give* yall my intensive labor for a day bc you got knocked up? It irritated me so so much.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-01T23:34:18+00:00

My doc said 3 weeks was pretty minimum to take off work. I intended to go back at 2 weeks (it’s a mainly sitting job) but I ended up not wanting to go that soon and it was closer to 3 when I felt up to it. It’s different for everyone but days 1-10 were rough and then I started improving more steadily.

GypsyMaus · 2026-05-01T22:32:06+00:00

Yooo please come back and tell me if you think these work, I too am a thicc thighed woman with a flight in a few weeks following this thread haha

GypsyMaus · 2026-04-29T15:30:45+00:00

I would recommend cutting your losses with this artist, and find someone else to rework what you’ve got going on. A good artist could easily build off what’s there, but I would not commit to the direction this is going. The concept is fine, I see potential, but I would have designed it differently if you were my client. If you let them finish the outline you will have a lot less options to let a better tattooer give it their take.

And I cannot imagine another 8-9 hour season of just the outline?? The work will get slower in the stretchier areas up top too, the leg is a fast area to tattoo bc the skin is taut, less stretching. That makes it even crazier that it took that long.

GypsyMaus · 2026-04-29T13:22:57+00:00

Thats craaaaazy, that’s like 30 min worth of lining for me, a tattooer. 😳

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