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Message
re: ACL Injuries: Tips and Things to Know - UPDATE PG. 3
Posted on 7/2/15 at 1:02 pm to Freauxzen
Posted on 7/2/15 at 1:02 pm to Freauxzen
Had two acl surgeries on the same knee. Did the donor graft first time but it was never quite stable. Second time did the patellar tendon graft which was much more painful and longer recovery, but I have had zero problems from it since. I've also since had a skiing injury that tore the cartilage in that same knee, but the acl graft held firm.
0
Posted on 7/2/15 at 1:03 pm to Freauxzen
Strengthen your legs as much as you can before your surgery.
Be diligent with the physical therapy.
It will take time even after the PT but you'll be good. I definitely got back to feeling like I was before I tore mine.
ETA: I did the donor graft. My doctor recommended it and I had no problems.
Be diligent with the physical therapy.
It will take time even after the PT but you'll be good. I definitely got back to feeling like I was before I tore mine.
ETA: I did the donor graft. My doctor recommended it and I had no problems.
This post was edited on 7/2/15 at 1:04 pm
Posted on 7/2/15 at 1:11 pm to DeathValley85
quote:I've been walking (even a long hike once), I have s standing desk and do slight unweighted squats just to keep it moving and flexible ever since I had motion back from the original injury. Never pushed it too far or to pain. But didn't want to get sedentary either.
Strengthen your legs as much as you can before your surgery.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 1:13 pm to BigSquirrel
quote:
I had hamstring version done when I was in my late 20's. Only missed two sessions of PT afterwards. Was five days a week, I forget how long, two or three months. I could run fine after a year. This year is the first year I have been able to jump without pain and swelling afterward, which is 5.5 years later.
I still get some strange tendon popping (non-painful) when I do leg extensions. And a few muscular differences in the way my quad contracts, but it doesn't seem to have any effect that I can tell. Overall, I'd say it was by far the worst experience of my life and ruined my recreation love of playing sports. Have fun though, I'm sure it'll all work out.
The one thing I would say to work hard on in PT in the flexibility work. Mine never fully came back, and I think that's what led me to years of pain after. Of course by the time you figure out it's going to be an issue, it's too late. The specific exercise for flexibility is where you lay face down, hanging your lower leg off a bed/table. You prop leg up with tower at edge of the bed, and hang a weight from your ankle. Do it early, do it often.
So many different outcomes to this. I'll just try to prep well and hit 100% attendance on PT, which should be fairly easy.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 1:36 pm to Freauxzen
Hardest and most painful thing for me was getting my flexibility back. Mine was a hamstring graft
Posted on 7/2/15 at 1:49 pm to Slim_Charles69
Hamstring graft here. I had surgery about 9 months after I tore it (or 4 months after re injuring it and getting second opinion).
I feel the long time between the tear and surgery was helpful. I recovered very fast, was walking about 3 days after surgery.
Ice and elevation post surgery is critical. I never really had excruciating pain after. PT is important as well, including any home movements. They do some good tests to determine where you're at and gear your PT to what you need.
I can still feel it's different than the other, but haven't had any problems with it. Prob 4-5 months for golf, 6-9 months for soccer/basketball/etc. I still wore a brace for a bit just to build my own confidence.
I feel the long time between the tear and surgery was helpful. I recovered very fast, was walking about 3 days after surgery.
Ice and elevation post surgery is critical. I never really had excruciating pain after. PT is important as well, including any home movements. They do some good tests to determine where you're at and gear your PT to what you need.
I can still feel it's different than the other, but haven't had any problems with it. Prob 4-5 months for golf, 6-9 months for soccer/basketball/etc. I still wore a brace for a bit just to build my own confidence.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 1:55 pm to Freauxzen
I just tore my ACL and both meniscus in March playing basketball (age 35).
I had the surgery a month later. I opted for the allograft. My doctor informed me that there was less than a 1% chance of rejection when choosing this option. The advantages are that recovery is quicker and less painful, due to you not needing to rehab both your knee AND your hamstring, where they would have taken the tendon.
I was off of crutches just 2 days after surgery. It is VERY important to do your therapy. I started my therapy 3 days after surgery. My therapy was for 6 weeks (1 hour at 3 days/week for first 3 weeks, then 1 hour at 2 days/week for the final 3 weeks).
Doc said that it would be 4 months before I could "straight line jog" but I was on the treadmill at the therapist after only 2 months.
Tearing your ACL is inconvenient and taking a year off from certain sports while "fully" recovering will suck, but it's by no means the end of the world.
You'll be fine.
I had the surgery a month later. I opted for the allograft. My doctor informed me that there was less than a 1% chance of rejection when choosing this option. The advantages are that recovery is quicker and less painful, due to you not needing to rehab both your knee AND your hamstring, where they would have taken the tendon.
I was off of crutches just 2 days after surgery. It is VERY important to do your therapy. I started my therapy 3 days after surgery. My therapy was for 6 weeks (1 hour at 3 days/week for first 3 weeks, then 1 hour at 2 days/week for the final 3 weeks).
Doc said that it would be 4 months before I could "straight line jog" but I was on the treadmill at the therapist after only 2 months.
Tearing your ACL is inconvenient and taking a year off from certain sports while "fully" recovering will suck, but it's by no means the end of the world.
You'll be fine.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 1:57 pm to Freauxzen
it sucks to lose a summer. hang in there and take rehab seriously like its your job.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 3:44 pm to Tiger Ryno
I had ACL surgery 3 years ago at age 27. Tore it playing recreational football and went with the patellar tendon option. My surgeon recommended this option because I'm relatively young and intend to remain active in sports. Essentially they cut out the middle third of your patellar tendon with bone fragments on each end and replace your dead ACL with it. The major down side is that it is a longer recovery and more painful since you not only have to recover from the normal ACL surgery but in addition you have your patellar tendon that has to heal and grow. The major upside is that your new "ACL" is stronger than your old one, so if you rehab correctly it's not likely that you will re-injure it. That's why professional athletes go this route and if you plan on continuing to play soccer I would highly recommend it.
The other options are far less painful and less rehab intensive, but are more likely to weaken/break or "slip" in the future.
Here is an article that seems to explain it well:
ACL article
The months after my surgery, the actual ACL or inside part of my knee didn't hurt much, but my patellar KILLED ME and was the major source of my pain. I didn't play high intensity sports for a year to be safe. I now play basketball at least twice a week and jog regularly and have never worn a protective knee sleeve or brace. I have no pain and no swelling afterwards. On occasion, my knee will feel "tight" but never painful. In my rehab the stationary bike is what made the biggest difference. I would highly suggest this surgery option.
As mentioned many times already, the biggest part is rehab. The two major milestones are:
1) getting your range of motion back. This happens very soon after surgery and was quite painful for me but it's important to be able to bend and straighten your injured leg as well as you can your uninjured one.
2) Strengthening the major leg muscles. This is the one that takes the longest and usually gets overlooked. Your quad will disappear and it's freaky how quickly this happens. The quads and hamstrings are the most important to get back to 100%. When you hear of athletes tearing an ACL and then a year or two later tearing the other one, that's because their "weak" leg wasn't in the correct tolerance level to return to active sports and they over burdened their good one causing it to injure. My doctor specialized in athletes and performed most of the local high school athletic surgeries. I found it interesting that the actual ACL heals quickly, about three months or so. But athletes can't return to playing until much later because they have to not only strengthen both legs but get the relative muscle strength in both legs to be about equal or with 10% - 15%.
I didn't do this well and returned to playing sports without fully rehabbing. Within a year I developed a stress fracture in my left tibia and later developed a herniated disc in my lower left back. Turns out my injured leg was 30% weaker than my non-injured one and was the cause of all my problems. After strengthening and equalizing my legs I've had no leg or back issues in well over a year.
I know this post was long
, but just wanted to help in any way possible. It's something you don't want to get wrong and regret and I wish I had asked some more questions at the beginning of mine, could have saved some headache.
The other options are far less painful and less rehab intensive, but are more likely to weaken/break or "slip" in the future.
Here is an article that seems to explain it well:
ACL article
The months after my surgery, the actual ACL or inside part of my knee didn't hurt much, but my patellar KILLED ME and was the major source of my pain. I didn't play high intensity sports for a year to be safe. I now play basketball at least twice a week and jog regularly and have never worn a protective knee sleeve or brace. I have no pain and no swelling afterwards. On occasion, my knee will feel "tight" but never painful. In my rehab the stationary bike is what made the biggest difference. I would highly suggest this surgery option.
As mentioned many times already, the biggest part is rehab. The two major milestones are:
1) getting your range of motion back. This happens very soon after surgery and was quite painful for me but it's important to be able to bend and straighten your injured leg as well as you can your uninjured one.
2) Strengthening the major leg muscles. This is the one that takes the longest and usually gets overlooked. Your quad will disappear and it's freaky how quickly this happens. The quads and hamstrings are the most important to get back to 100%. When you hear of athletes tearing an ACL and then a year or two later tearing the other one, that's because their "weak" leg wasn't in the correct tolerance level to return to active sports and they over burdened their good one causing it to injure. My doctor specialized in athletes and performed most of the local high school athletic surgeries. I found it interesting that the actual ACL heals quickly, about three months or so. But athletes can't return to playing until much later because they have to not only strengthen both legs but get the relative muscle strength in both legs to be about equal or with 10% - 15%.
I didn't do this well and returned to playing sports without fully rehabbing. Within a year I developed a stress fracture in my left tibia and later developed a herniated disc in my lower left back. Turns out my injured leg was 30% weaker than my non-injured one and was the cause of all my problems. After strengthening and equalizing my legs I've had no leg or back issues in well over a year.
I know this post was long
, but just wanted to help in any way possible. It's something you don't want to get wrong and regret and I wish I had asked some more questions at the beginning of mine, could have saved some headache. 
Posted on 7/2/15 at 3:56 pm to Freauxzen
Take PT seriously.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 4:07 pm to Kev831
quote:
Kev831
Thanks!
That's some good info.
quote:
I know this post was long , but just wanted to help in any way possible. It's something you don't want to get wrong and regret and I wish I had asked some more questions at the beginning of mine, could have saved some headache.
Not long at all. These are the kind of things I really want to know. And I'm trying to be thorough with everything, so this was super helpful.
This post was edited on 7/2/15 at 4:10 pm
Posted on 7/2/15 at 4:07 pm to Freauxzen
quote:Just had my meniscus operated on. Advice: don't push it.
meniscus
Posted on 7/2/15 at 4:13 pm to Freauxzen
My knee has never fully recovered. Reconstructed in 2006.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 4:23 pm to Kev831
quote:
On occasion, my knee will feel "tight" but never painful. In my rehab the stationary bike is what made the biggest difference. I would highly suggest this surgery option.
this times a 1000. The stationary bike has been really key for me to getting back to near 100% He is also right about being equally strong in both legs. Your posture will be compromised if one leg is far stronger than the other which will lead to other injuries. I recently pulled my right calf muscle training which is most likely bc I was over compensating for my injured left leg
Posted on 7/2/15 at 5:08 pm to Freauxzen
quote:
Who's dealt with an ACL injury/surgery?
Ya boi. Had the same thing you did.
quote:
Any tips or pointers from diagnosis through post-op stuff?
Even after PT ends, keep rehabbing that leg like a bastard until its just as strong as the other. My surgically repaired leg is still smaller than my other leg (slightly) and I'm 4 years out.
quote:
The worst part is that they may have to do a meniscus repair, which apparently adds significant time to immobility during recovery?
Don't frick around w/ the meniscus. Stay on those crutches and be smart about putting weight on it. That shite will get reinjured real quick. It does add time, prob. 2-3 extra months of rehab.
quote:
I know people come back from these fairly well now, though, so that's a plus.
ACL is simple, straightforward to come back from. The meniscus is going to take more time, care, and rigorous PT
Posted on 7/2/15 at 5:26 pm to biglego
quote:
My knee has never fully recovered. Reconstructed in 2006.
Did mine in 2002 when I was in my 40's. Never has been quite the same. I will say that the post-operative pain was a walk in the part compared to how much pain I was in prior to the operation.
That said, I will wait three or four more years and then opt for knee replacements.
Posted on 7/2/15 at 11:58 pm to damnedoldtigah
My daughter had ACL and meniscus repair surgery at age 13, and it was a nightmare. She tore her ACL playing soccer. Since she was so young, they had to avoid her growth plates when reconstrucring her ACL. They used a hamstring graft.
Unfortunately, she developed a klebsiella pneumoniae infection in her knee. She didn't even flinch when they drained it. She's a pretty tough kid. They had to do a second surgery to get rid of the infection and used 9 liters of antibiotic fluid to flush her knee. After the second surgery, she had to have a PICC line placed get her arm and was on ertapenem for 6 weeks while making frequent visits to an infectious disease specialist to make sure the antibiotics were working. She missed over a month of school.
She did all the physical therapy, but her right leg still is not the same. She strained her quad this week (1st week back playing soccer). The PT (a different one who works with the school) is recommending that she come back to build up her muscles again as there is still a good bit of atrophy.
Through the whole ordeal, she rarely cried or complained, and it was a nightmare for me and my husband to see her going through such pain. Her orthopedist told us she was a tough kid--that he'd seen grown men cry when they went through some of the shite she had to endure.
The road to recovery is long and arduous, but she is determined to play soccer again.
Unfortunately, she developed a klebsiella pneumoniae infection in her knee. She didn't even flinch when they drained it. She's a pretty tough kid. They had to do a second surgery to get rid of the infection and used 9 liters of antibiotic fluid to flush her knee. After the second surgery, she had to have a PICC line placed get her arm and was on ertapenem for 6 weeks while making frequent visits to an infectious disease specialist to make sure the antibiotics were working. She missed over a month of school.
She did all the physical therapy, but her right leg still is not the same. She strained her quad this week (1st week back playing soccer). The PT (a different one who works with the school) is recommending that she come back to build up her muscles again as there is still a good bit of atrophy.
Through the whole ordeal, she rarely cried or complained, and it was a nightmare for me and my husband to see her going through such pain. Her orthopedist told us she was a tough kid--that he'd seen grown men cry when they went through some of the shite she had to endure.
The road to recovery is long and arduous, but she is determined to play soccer again.
Posted on 7/3/15 at 12:41 am to NOLAbaby
quote:
Ya boi. Had the same thing you did.
Sorry to hear that. No fun.
quote:
Even after PT ends, keep rehabbing that leg like a bastard until its just as strong as the other. My surgically repaired leg is still smaller than my other leg (slightly) and I'm 4 years out.
Yikes.
quote:
Don't frick around w/ the meniscus. Stay on those crutches and be smart about putting weight on it. That shite will get reinjured real quick. It does add time, prob. 2-3 extra months of rehab.
Good to know ahead of time.
Posted on 7/3/15 at 12:46 am to CoastLSUFan
Tore mine, along with the MCL and fractured the tibia about a year and a half ago playing flag football. Planted on my right foot, cut to the left, and heard a loud pop that sounded like a rubbe band. It felt like my leg detached from my body.
I had the allograft surgery a few weeks after. Was on crutches for 6 weeks, which sucked. I'm still not 100%, and don't think I ever will be. I don't push it too hard when I play sports. There's no pain now, aside from the nagging aches after sitting for too long, or the stiffness during the winter.
Good luck, do your PT, and rest as much as possible. Don't try to push it too soon.
I had the allograft surgery a few weeks after. Was on crutches for 6 weeks, which sucked. I'm still not 100%, and don't think I ever will be. I don't push it too hard when I play sports. There's no pain now, aside from the nagging aches after sitting for too long, or the stiffness during the winter.
Good luck, do your PT, and rest as much as possible. Don't try to push it too soon.
Posted on 8/27/15 at 9:13 am to TigerPride10
Just an update for everyone who helped.
Had surgery yesterday. So that was about 3 months from injury to surgery. Summer time meant all the good doctors were on vacation, and I thought waiting for a pro, a doctor involved in ACL repair research, and who only does knee surgery, was the best bet.
Had it yesterday, Hamstring graft. Everything went fine, had good strength and near perfect mobility before the surgery, so i'm actually not on crutches. Can walk/hobble around for the most part. Flexibility is there already with the exercises they give me. I feel good.
I was twisting a little bit trying to sit down and felt a pretty sharp sting in my hamstring, which the called the doc, said that was normal for readjusting the muscle. PT starts after my Post-Op next Thurs.
All signs point to feeling really good in a short amount of time. Thanks for all of the tips so far.
Had surgery yesterday. So that was about 3 months from injury to surgery. Summer time meant all the good doctors were on vacation, and I thought waiting for a pro, a doctor involved in ACL repair research, and who only does knee surgery, was the best bet.
Had it yesterday, Hamstring graft. Everything went fine, had good strength and near perfect mobility before the surgery, so i'm actually not on crutches. Can walk/hobble around for the most part. Flexibility is there already with the exercises they give me. I feel good.
I was twisting a little bit trying to sit down and felt a pretty sharp sting in my hamstring, which the called the doc, said that was normal for readjusting the muscle. PT starts after my Post-Op next Thurs.
All signs point to feeling really good in a short amount of time. Thanks for all of the tips so far.
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