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!
16 comments:
This is a good post. I am now three days out and the pain has gone down a bit. I see the doctor tomorrow and start PT on Tuesday, so hopefully I receive some news about my progress timeline. Did you have trouble sleeping without pain meds the first few days out?
I didn't have much pain without the meds (except when standing up). Most of my troubles sleeping was the immobilizer that I had to wear (along with the cryocuff).
However, I had the hamstring graft, which historically is a fair amount less painful than the patella one.
Keep up your ROM, as it's the most important thing!
Hey Andrew,
I have a feeling they don't tell you how sore your big scar/where they stitch your ligament in will be when you stop taking the pain killers. It sucked for me so much -- I couldn't stand at all.
I'm now 6 months post op. Blackfish Tryouts are Tuesday. I've been cleared for drills but not scrim yet.
I'm doing this awesome program called "On Field" (http://www.onfieldclinic.com/). I tried playing a point at a college practice at the beginning of March. I was totally freaked out. I had no confidence or control when stopping/turning.
Shortly after, I started doing On Field. One month later I'm 100% confident. I feel stronger and faster than I was. There's still weakness in the knee -- I know there's certain movements I used to do that I can't any longer. That's ok though, because they teach you the most stable ways to start/stop/speed up/slow down/turn.
I highly recommend it. I don't know for a fact, but I'm guessing the program is like CrossFit where you can license it and run it anywhere. I'm sure some physios teach it in your area.
Thanks for the link! Not sure they have it near Toronto though. I'll have to ask around.
Cheers,
Great blog. Lot of useful information for anyone else going through the same issues.
Curious to know how much the recovery has cost you financially. Have you had to pay for any medication, physio, equipment, etc?
Glad to hear you've made a full recovery and you've been able to get back to doing what you love.
Cheers bro,
Aaron
I had to pay for Physio, Chiropractor, meds, and crutches.
After injury it was probably around ~$400 a month for physio for about 2-3 months
After Surgery it was ~$400 a month (physio + chiro) for 4 months.
So in total
$1200 - before surgery physio
$1600 - after surgery physio + chiro
$200 - random equipment for physio at home and meds.
So around $3000
Now at about 4.5 months post-op my physio released me "you don't have to come back anymore". I started seeing a personal trainer. Now, this isn't really required, but I felt it was important (I wanted my legs really strong to prevent future injuries). He was $50 for 1/2 an hour. I saw him 2 days a week for about 5-6 months. So that'd be another $400 a month,
So, optional, I paid another $2000+ for personal training.
Now I just see him one day a week ($200 a month), to keep my leg strong.
Thanks,
Andrew
Andrew,
I came across your blog when looking to find someone who had the same symptoms as me post knee surgery. I had an ACL reconstruction 18 months ago, developed scar tissue and have just had the scar tissue taken out (alongside a trimming of the lateral meniscus). I have had a long gap between surgeries due to pregnancy and after my first surgery it was about 10 months before I could walk more than about 100 metres due to all the complications I developed. Since my second surgery, I have re-developed a catching of the kneecap when I go from a straight leg to a bent one. This means I can only walk "properly" very very slowly. If I walk with my leg slightly bent at all times, I am fine, although eventually my calf starts hurting from the unnaturalness of it all.
My PT says I just need to strengthen the quad and it will go. After my first surgery, it was months and months before this sensation disappeared, but I think it wasn't as bad a second time round.
Is this what you describe in your blog? Could you give a few more details on it? Do you have an understanding of what it was all about and what helped you recover?
Thank you!
Anna
Hi Anna,
The catching sensation felt like something was stopping my knee from bending. My Chiropractor said it was probably the fat pad underneath the knee cap getting stuck (or inflamed bursa). To this day I can still feel some resistance but it's nowhere near as bad as it was before.
One other thing to note is my catching occured even if my weight wasn't on my leg. For instance, while the chiro guy was working my leg, he could cause it to catch just by straightening and bending quickly.
When it bugged me when walking, I'd stop and stretch my quad (heel to butt). That usually solved it for 10 minutes or so.
I don't entirely know why it went away, although I did a *lot* of strengthening exercises (with a higher focus on the inner quad). I'm actually still seeing a personal training to keep my legs strong (and this is almost 2 years post op).
Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Andrew
Hello Andrew,
Thank you so much for replying. It sounds like we have the same thing – I too can make it catch by moving the knee very quickly without weight bearing. But it is at its worst when the weight is on it as I bend it from straight. I think an inflammation of the bursa sack or fat pad could well be it, as after my first surgery by patellar tendon got totally stuck down with scar tissue and it was months before we got it moving again with massage. Logically, it will have got stuck to one of those two parts. At the same time, the catching of the patellar started. I guess I probably have a weakness there that just resurfaced.
It's encouraging that read that you are back doing sport and it's just sorted itself out – possibly due to the quad strengthening. It's hard to find anybody on the internet with a knee complication that's outside the usual script who doesn't have horror story that descends into 8 operations and a total knee replacement.
Anna
Awesome post! Was google-ing around after feeling some random knee pain (probably some scar tissue breaking, after TaiChi and KungFu training)
Got a big smile on my face after reading it :) Especially:
"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."
I'm 13 months post op (ACL & meniscus tear) now and hoping when I reach 2 years I'll also get to that magic 98%
Have many great years of enjoying sports!
Great to find your blog. I am 9 months post ACL truptured completely 19 years ago playing soccer, there was no op available in Uk back then. I had op in the end all this time later (I am 48) after 2 meniscus tears in last 3 years, due to my knee twisting too easily. I am these keen walker, birding guide & cyclist. It's been a rough road to recovery, especially first 8 weeks when completely ballooned knee up by trying to walk too far, then hamstring tears twice after stretching post exercise at 10 weeks. Since then bit by bit steady improvement, plenty of cycling seems ok, & did my first post op sportive of 63 miles last weekend. Minimal probs whilst riding, bit of swelling days after but ice seems to keep under control. Worst thing for me is definitely protracted periods of standing, this causes swelling & stiffness, I then struggle to get heal to butt. I like Andrew still have slightly less muscle bulk, even with a few hundred miles cycling! Most noticeable is inner quad same as Andrew, going to speak to my physio abt specific exercises for this. I am truly hoping for less swelling after 12 months, hanging my nose over 100 mile sportives! Here's hoping! A big thanks to everyone who has posted here as I think it helps everyone get perspective & realise ACL reconstruction is not a complete 100% immediate fix. Thanks Andrew & any comments or exercises re: inner quad much appreciated. Chris
Just found your blog, and I bookmarked it. I was concerned about the catching feeling in my knee that started around the same time yours did -- 7-8 weeks post op. I worried that it might be meniscus damage even though my ortho said it looked "perfect" during surgery. There's no pain, just like there's a soft, gel-like lump inside my knee from time to time. If it goes away in month 7 like yours, (or even month 17) I won't sweat it.
I plan on reading your whole blog when I find the time. Thank you for chronicling your experience in such detail. It's hard to find much info about post-op experiences that isn't summed up as "and then physical therapy. The end."
Sorry, apparently my catching was like another poster, not like you. Nonetheless, it's good to know someone else had my problem and moved past it in a reasonable amount of time.
Hi Dan- I have the same experience you describe- odd gell like/fluid sensation that rolls under the kneecap when I bend my leg! Did you ever find out what it was and did it get better? I'm 9 weeks post ACL recon and still get this!
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Hi,
I am worried. I had my ACL surgery and everything went well for a month or two post the surgery. I was doing physio. Flexion was improving. I stopped my physio as it used to be very painful and I used to get cramps. I thought I would start back in a day or two. I started taking it for granted. I never really started my physio again. I was able to walk by then without crutches. I thought, may be I will recover easy and fast. Now I am 1 year post the surgery and I have a lot of pain while flexing it > 125. My leg is very weak. I can only start to jog and it started to pain.
Anyone who knows whether a condition like mine still has chances of full recovery ? or its very late and I will always experience this pain ? Does a late physio has an impact on overall recovery ?
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