Acl tear anyone?

[wostok]

Joining the club of messed up knees...


What kind of surgery did you have?


How long did rehab take?

and does it effect your performance in sports/lifting now?

 

[Silencer]

Sorry to hear about that.

Had a complete ACL tear while playing basketball. Found a surgeon that did these ops for professional athletes in my area, figuring if someone whose job depends on it trusts the surgeon, he must be pretty good.

Used my own patella tendon from the same knee. Larger scar and longer healing time, but supposed to be the "gold standard". Doc said cadaver tendons can stretch and aren't as fool-proof. Don't know much about the hamstring version of the surgery.

The surgery itself was the easy part. The 3 months of rehab afterwards sucked. And it takes a long time mentally to trust the knee again. I was in the gym within the first 3 weeks (against doc orders, and my stitches broke and my knee bled all over the place); it is humbling to go from squatting 10x315 to pushing 10 pounds on the leg press! But just suck it up and trust your rehab person.

It probably took 18 months for me to really "forget" I had the surgery. That's when I found myself playing football and doing martial arts without the fear in the back of the head that it will "pop" again. Because you don't make side-to-side movements in the gym or jump/cut, that wasn't ever an issue.

Five years later, my legs are stronger than they have ever been, and the knee is rock solid.

So that's my story, which I hope is useful. I know a few others on here have had the surgery too, so maybe they can chime in. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

Oh yeah -- I did start a cycle two weeks after surgery (after I told my doc about it to make sure) and ran that my entire time on rehab which seemed to help a LOT.

 

[cjjrwe]

I've had the same, used the patella...as silencer said, it is usually done for people who are active, athletic, etc. I said "hell no" to a cadaver tendon. Anyway, I did a lot of other damage too, so while I did heal fast, it did take months to be able to lift and run with it. I still do not like to sprint on it, just seems a little loose. I also had to see a podiatrist, apparently you compensate and change the way you walk (in some cases), so I had custom shoe inserts made that have helped a lot.

It has been an injury that is always with me, while I can do everything I could before, there are some exercises, etc., that I pay for in pain in order to do, but no pain, no....lol

 

[ladderman155]

Tore my knee while playing football. I tore my acl,mcl and medial meniscus. I used the patella to repair the acl and had the meniscus repaired while he did the acl. It took about a year of tough rehab before i learned to trust the knee again, and to this day i havent had any problems with the knee. As long as you follow your rehab program you shouldnt have any problems.

 

[Hulk0311]

I had knee surgery in Feb of this year, MCL, medial miniscus, and cartilige repair. I found a great surgeon who has worked on quite a few pro athletes and I will say the recovery time is all on how good the surgeon is. I had a shoulder surgey by just a regular Kaiser doc two years ago and have still had problems with the shoulder. As far as my knee I would say I am about 95 percent better. I have been able to go all out on legs for about three weeks now which is great. I am still not one hundred percent confident in the knee and have a little pain with going into a deep kneeling position but other than that it feels great. If you can try and find a physical rehab place that deals with athletes, I found they push you much harder which is painful to go through but pays off big time in the end. As far as ACL's my friend had his right ACL repaired after a complete ACL tear and it took him about 6 months to start lifting heavy again and about a year to feel one hundred percent. Good luck and just remember it ook pain to get you there and it will take pain to get you recovered.

 

[TigerShark]

Sorry to hear of your injury, man. I've been there, as well.

I tore my ACL playing ball, and had the patellar autograft reconstruction. The surgery is much more traumatic than the injury itself, certainly no picnic. However, 9 years later and my knee gives me no problems, in fact, I rarely think of the reconstruction, nor do I ever think of the reconstructed knee any differently than my other knee. My legs are now far stronger than they ever were before the injury. I attribute this to two main reasons.

First, I got the best orthopaedic surgeon in my area; the guy has written medical school textbooks. Maybe there are others that could have done the procedure equally well, but my surgery turned out very well. I researched some modern post-op rehab protocals that advocated starting rehab very soon after surgery based on the theory that the sooner you get the muscles working the better the rehab outcome, but my doc was rather conservative in the timing of the rehab. He had me immobilize the leg for 6-8 weeks post-op, and advised that it was better to let everything substantially heal prior to serious rehab. Man, I couldn't wait to get on the stationary bike, one of the first excercises that your doc will probably let you do. That brings me to the second reason.

Rehab! Give it 100%, bro. Even if your livelihood doesn't depend upon it, rehab like you are a pro athlete and your livelihood does depend upon it! Range of motion, strength, everything... Your leg is going to shrink in size after the surgery and be almost unrecognizable to you. You will not be able to lift weight that a 8 year-old girl can lift, at first. Don't let it get you too down; you can come back stronger than ever. At 2 months you will feel weak and unsure, but keep blasting and at 6 months you will be very encouraged with your progress. You will go through more pain from the surgery and rehab than you ever did during the actual injury, but if you have the drive during the rehab, you will come out of it stronger than ever. When the day comes that you are squatting more than you did pre-injury, and realize that you have lost nothing performance-wise, you will wear the scar as a badge of honor; I do.

Lastly, after you overcome this, spread some encouragement to someone else that tears an ACL. I remember how devastated I felt when the doc told me that I tore mine. A couple of guys that had gone through it before me told me what to expect and encouraged me. To this day I appreciate their knowledge, and I try to help those that I hear are going through it.

If you are a warrior, you will overcome this. Keep blasting, bro!

 

[ladderman155]

Sorry to hear of your injury, man. I've been there, as well.

I tore my ACL playing ball, and had the patellar autograft reconstruction. The surgery is much more traumatic than the injury itself, certainly no picnic. However, 9 years later and my knee gives me no problems, infact I rarely think of the reconstruction, nor do I ever think of the reconstructed knee any differently than my other knee. My legs are now far stronger than they ever were before the injury. I attribute this to two main reasons.

First, I got the best orthopaedic surgeon in my area; the guy has written medical school textbooks. Maybe there are others that could have done the procedure equally well, but my surgery turned out very well. I researched some modern post-op rehab protocals that advocated starting rehab very soon after surgery based on the theory that the sooner you get the muscles working the better the rehab outcome, but my doc was rather conservative in the timing of the rehab. He had me immobilize the leg for 6-8 weeks post-op, and advised that it was better to let everything substantially heal prior to serious rehab. Man, I couldn't wait to get on the stationary bike, one of the first excercises that your doc will probably let you do. That brings me to the second reason.

Rehab! Give it 100%, bro. Even if your livelihood doesn't depend upon it, rehab like you are a pro athlete and your livelihood does depend upon it! Range of motion, strength, everything... Your leg is going to shrink in size after the surgery and be almost unrecognizable to you. You will not be able to lift weight that a 8 year-old girl can lift, at first. Don't let it get you too down; you can come back stronger than ever. At 2 months you will feel weak and unsure, but keep blasting and at 6 months you will be very encouraged with your progress. You will go through more pain from the surgery and rehab than you ever did during the actual injury, but if you have the drive during the rehab, you will come out of it stronger than ever. When the day comes that you are squatting more than you did pre-injury, and realize that you have lost nothing performance-wise, you will wear the scar as a badge of honor; I do.

Lastly, after you overcome this, spread some encouragement to someone else that tears an ACL. I remember how devastated I felt when the doc told me that I tore mine. A couple of guys that had gone through it before me told me what to expect and encouraged me. To this day I appreciate their knowledge, and I try to help those that I hear are going through it.

If you are a warrior, you will overcome this. Keep blasting, bro!

Excellent post, especially the part about encouragement!! Im a firefighter in a busy city and the knee never gives me problems, and im crawling alot!

 

[TigerShark]

Don't know if you had a contact or noncontact injury, but there's a discussion of the difference between the two types of injuries and how that impacts rehab and recovery in this article.

New England Patriots' Wes Welker progressing very well after knee surgery, but still a long way to go - ESPN

 

[mindstar]

had my knee done back when I was playing rugby...

my advice: try not to get fat during injury/rehab; give it everything you have and leave pride at the door, it took me 6-8 months to fully recover. My first day back in the gym I was squatting a broomstick.

good luck bro.