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.
- 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.
- 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!
