Here's a photo of my knee after the surgery. The brace, which has metal brackets running down either side, can lock so that it can't bend, which allows you to walk on your leg like a post. Supposedly. I haven't been able to put any weight on it yet because the nerve block they gave me in my upper thigh still hasn't worn off yet. So my leg is completely numb. It's an odd feeling. Touching my thigh feels like I'm poking a water balloon. And sometimes I feel itches on my legs that needs to be scratched, but when I go to scratch them, it's just all numb, so it doesn't really do much good. I'm not sure how I'm feeling the itches.
Underneath the brace is a load of ace bandages and a cryocuff, a bladder-like thing that surrounds my knee. Those two white tubes pump ice water from a cooler into the cryocuff to help keep the swelling down. But I stumbled upon a review from 1999 online last night that looked at several studies and concluded that the cryocuff didn't provide any benefit. I'm still using it though because it's not like I have anything better to do.
Here's another photo of the brace
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