1 Year Post Op!

Since tearing my acl in Sept '08 and having it reconstructed in April '09 I've come to the following conclusions: Tearing your acl sucks, rehab blows, but getting through it all makes you appreciate being healthy and being able to play Ultimate Frisbee! At one year post op, I'm still not done with rehab, but I'm feeling (and playing) pretty damn good.

A brief history since the injury:

Sept '08 - During one ultimate frisbee game, cutting one way then doing a 270 turn and a full sprint, gave a loud pop as I fully tore my ACL, partially tore my mcl,lcl, and pcl, and a large tear + displacement of my lateral meniscus.
April '09 - ACL reconstruction surgery using quadrupled Hamstring tendons, plus removing 60% of my lateral meniscus.

• For the next 10 days I had an immobilizer + crutches, and I was allowed to ditch one or the other (not both).
• After that, I was allowed to ditch both the crutches and immobilizer.
• Standard rehab for the next 2 months.
• Started light jogging at 3 months.
• At 4 months, started plyometric routines + more quicker agility stuff.
• Started personal training at 4.5 months post op, 2 days a week (about 5 times as intense as physio)
• Received the green light for sports at 6 months post op. Started playing Ultimate Frisbee again

Problems that arose and their fixes:

• 3-4 days after surgery, I had immense pain when standing up. This was apparently due to blood rushing. Massaging the affected area helped relieve this pain. Problem went away on its own in 5-6 days.
• At 7 Weeks I had a large amount of pain on the outer side of the knee when walking. I started using a foam roller to massage my IT band and the problem went away within a few days.
  
• At 7-8 weeks post op, my knee starting catching when going from straight leg to a bent one. This affected walking. My physio guessed this was the inflamed bursa sacks or possibly scar tissue. Stretching the quads helped stop this from occuring for a bit. (although it would eventually come back). It wasn't until about 7+ months post op that I stopped noticing the problem.
• Tingling in toes. This actually started before surgery. Sometimes my middle toe on the injured leg would start tingling. I never found out what caused it but I haven't felt it in the past 3-4 months. I even forgot about it until I re-read parts of my blog.
• ~ 8.5 months post op, I had a little bit of swelling a day after an ultimate game. I took a break for a week and tried to run again, but started feeling very strong pain around my kneecap when running (even a light jog). Doc said a weak inner quad muscle + tight IT band was probably the problem. I had my trainer focus a lot more on the inner quad. 3 Weeks later I was fine running again and the swelling hasn't returned.

The current situation:

• Knee feels fine when running / jumping.
  
• No more swelling
• Large tennis-ball size area around incision is still partially numb.
• Inner Quad is looking damn good.
• Surgical leg is still smaller than good leg.
• Still seeing a trainer twice a week
• I'm still very nervous when I first step out onto the field of an ultimate frisbee game.
• I'm still somewhat cautious cutting while an opponent is close by.
• I was able to walk 4 hours without any problems.
  

The future:

• Starting in May I'll be playing Ultimate 3 times a week. It'll be great to play again in nice sunny weather!
• I'll be seeing a trainer once a week to keep my legs strong.

Although I'm not at the same level I was before the injury, I'm happy to be playing Ultimate Frisbee again. Sure, there are still issues: knee clicking, cracking, stuff moving around, knee getting stiff when standing for long periods. But overall, I can't complain.

Time to enjoy the summer!

11 Months Post Op!

The recent (2 months ago) pain / swelling in knee is now gone. Although my left leg is still smaller than my good right leg, it is noticeably bigger than before. All the strengthening I've been doing for the past 2 months has paid off! I'm back to playing ultimate 2-3 times a week with no pain.

Unfortunately, I've also found I've gotten into the old bad habit of playing careful with my surgical leg and am overloading the good leg more. This is a no no, and hopefully I'll get more confidence back into my leg and treat them equal!

Even though I'm 11 months post op and my new ACL should be rock solid, I'm still nervous while playing and won't make the aggressive D's if the cut is too hard. Hopefully this will go away with time.

Goals for the next month:

• Make surgical leg bigger / badder / stronger
• Treat both legs equally
  

10 months Post Op!

Over the past month I've been slightly out of commission for ultimate as I re-work my inner quad and IT band. On Tuesday I was able to play a game without any pain and no extra swelling.

I've been doing 3 exercises every morning (wall squat hold for 30 seconds x 5, reverse lunge hold x 10, IT stretch with foam roller). I can feel quite a big difference in my inner quad now than before. Although it is still smaller than my good leg.

My physical trainer sessions have revolved around my surgical leg. Basically 30 minutes of pure burning for my weaker leg.

Goal for the next month:

• Try to get both legs equal in size.

follow-up

I visited my sports doctor today to go over the pain in my surgical knee when running.

Apparently the pain in my knee from running is from the kneecap not tracking properly and it's from both a tight IT Band and a weaker Inner quad muscle. The good news is that it's nothing to worry about. He recommended 3 things:

- hitting the foam roller every day to smooth out the IT band
- more strength training for my inner quad.
- wear a knee sleeve during sports to help the kneecap track better.

He also mentioned my surgical acl is slightly looser than my normal knee but that it's still perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. The surgeon tries his best to make it match the other leg, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

9 months post op!

One step forward, one step back.

The swelling / extra fluid that showed up 2 weeks ago is completely gone. Even the fluid that was there normally after surgery is gone, which was a nice surprise.

However, I now have pain in my knee while running. The pain is located above the kneecap. Funnily enough, going from a stop to a run doesn't hurt, only when I'm running at a steady pace. My guess is some form of quad tendinitis / overuse injury, or possibly cartilage damage. Unfortunately, the 2 weeks I took off didn't help as during my ultimate frisbee game last night I still felt pain while running and was relegated to guarding the "slow guy".

This is my 9 months post op post, and unfortunately this past month hasn't been too great. However, the acl is still in great shape and my knee is completely stable. At this point I may have to take some time off depending on the what the doc says.