The next day at 7 AM the doctor ran in, looked at my leg, bent it at 45 degrees, gave 4 instructions in 30 seconds, and ran away so fast that I barely had time to ask anything.
I should mention here that Dr. Guzenko is generally always very busy, doing over 800 surgeries a year! and because of that, he moves around very quickly, and fills out paperwork even quicker. He answers questions, of course, but you absolutely have to prepare them in advance and memorize the answers well, don't ask him to repeat them, you won't have the time.
A surgery like mine is performed by only 5 surgeons in Latvia. Initially, as I already wrote, I went to a different doctor, and with him, it would have cost 1280 lats. In principle, I could have scraped that much together, but I didn't see a sensible reason. Dmitry Guzenko's reputation is just as good as that of the first doctor I visited (and maybe even better), so I didn't see the point in looking for another 400 lats. Anyway, thanks to the maritime medical center ljmc.lv and to the doctor personally for having affordable prices, and not just ones meant for football players and various oligarchs.
Here are the clinics in Latvia where they do anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
The websites won't help you much, you have to call. The process usually goes like this: you book an appointment with a knee surgeon. He examines you and tells you when the surgery can be done or when you need to come back.
In total, I paid 910 lats for the surgery and the hospital, 7 for the X-ray. Before that, I had already spent a few hundred on doctor's visits, trips to Riga, crutches, the orthosis, meds, and other stuff. Still ahead are rehabilitation expenses. Luckily, I was given back 995 dollars for my suitcase lost on the plane (for which, thanks to the LOT airline) and this money came in very handy. In essence, it turned out as if I had sold my used stuff at almost full price. Of course, if the money for the suitcase hadn't been transferred, nothing terrible would have happened — I just would have had to pay off debts for many months.
On Friday evening, Yura came to pick me up and we headed off to Daugavpils. Fortunately, they gave me a painkiller injection for the road, but it was still tough and a bit scary — what if I jerk the wrong way and tear the results of the surgery. Luckily, everything turned out fine — I guess the new ligament is attached properly.
At home, the leg still hurt for a while, only the painkiller pills helped. Sleeping in the orthosis is especially uncomfortable — I keep having nightmares. An orthosis, in case anyone doesn't know, is a rigid brace that holds a limb in the correct position. It's kind of like a cast, but made of fabric with metal plates and fastens with "Velcro" — so it's easy to take off when needed. On top of that, it's lighter than a cast, and you can, for instance, scratch your leg. Plus, your muscles don't atrophy as badly as they do in a cast. Honestly, how people used to walk around with a cast is beyond me — I was in one for a few days in the hospital, and it was pure torture.
Overall, the surgeon gave me instructions on how to do simple exercises, but very few. In principle, maybe more isn't needed right now, but later on it's definitely important to learn better and more about it. My family doctor gave me a referral for rehabilitation. We have such a mysterious system — the government doesn't want to pay for the surgery, but after the surgery, please, be our guest.
My medical records say that I need to walk on crutches for a month after the surgery. Sitting at the computer is still uncomfortable for me — my leg gets numb and hurts. So I set things up cleverly — I cranked up the font sizes everywhere I could, plugged the keyboard into an extension cord, lay down on the couch, and started using a 42” TV as a monitor. It's my parents' TV, but for now it's sitting at my place. My mouse is wireless, so there's no problem there. It all turned out to be quite comfortable, especially considering that I now spend a lot of time in the Linux console of our new server, and in the Putty SSH client you can set the font size to whatever you want.
The only "but" is that Windows, it seems, can't set different font sizes (or DPI) on two monitors, so I have to adjust every program individually, and then change it back when necessary. In cases where the font size isn't adjustable, you can use the Magnifier program built into the OS.
My mood is generally good, I look to the future optimistically. It's very important to do the rehabilitation exercises to the full extent. Here I sometimes slack off, I could be doing more. Some people out there actually grind for 4 hours a day sometimes. I just watch a new movie every day and do a portion of my exercises during that time. Soon I'll be just as much of a movie buff as some of my colleagues and buddies. I don't watch many old movies, though — the poor quality is just too noticeable on a 42” TV. No matter, once they take the TV back, the new movies will all have been watched, and then there won't be any way out.
The leg only bends to 90 degrees right now, and even that is after warming it up. I'm not slacking, I bend it further every day, but the process is moving slowly. If all goes well, in a month I'll start walking little by little, in two — swimming and actively pedaling a bike, running should be started last of all, because of the strain on the joint and all that. The leg's functions won't be fully restored anytime soon, in 3-4 months at the earliest, and this heavily depends on my rehabilitation efforts. And everything will only fully and reliably heal after half a year or more, until then I have to be careful.
I just went to see a rehabilitation specialist (a visiting one from Riga, we have very few local ones), and didn't learn much useful info — only that there's a long line for free rehab, so I'll be going to a paid one. The doctor was cheerful, though, a skier himself; he praised Guzenko and said everything is going to be freaking great — he's sure the surgery was done well and everything will heal wonderfully, too.