Houston we have liftoff!

- Can I play sports?
- "Yes"

Oh, what a sweet sweet word.

I didn't know what to expect going in. I figured it was a coin toss 50/50 chance of being allowed to play. I put my cards and effort on the table and had to hope for the best. After a 2 hour wait to see a random doctor in the clinic, he gave me the good news and congratulated me for graduating the 6 month mark. Tested out the ACL and said I'm clear to play. No brace and no restrictions. Just go easy on it at first. Also, try and even out the 2 legs in terms of muscle size. Out of the blue, the massive headache I had all morning suddenly disappeared.

I'll be sticking with personal training 1-2 days a week until both my legs are equal and who knows, maybe I'll stick with a personal trainer forever. I figure the stronger my leg / core muscles are the less risk of re-injury or injuring the right leg. Lesson learned: don't tear your ACL.

Now, to find an ultimate team to sub for...

6 months Post Op

Yesterday was my 6 month mark since surgery. It's very hard to believe it's been so long since the surgery, but even longer since the injury. In 2 days I'll visit the surgeon for the go ahead for sports!

Over the past 2 weeks I've been in Ireland and about 7 out of the 10 days I did 30 minute rehab exercises in the morning. I also did lots of walking and hiking up cliffs:


Overall, the knee felt good. I had to do my regular quad stretches to get rid of the knee catching. One interesting event which gave me a lot of confidence in my knee was when me and my girl Alice were running around a cliff, going up and down the rocky terrain. At the end she mentioned how I didn't have reservations about running and jumping on the rocks. It was a defining moment that I didn't think about my knee and worry I'd re-injure it.

I feel like I'm ready to play sports again, now I just need the doc's permission!

2 Days Left!

24th Week Post Op!

As I approach the final 2 weeks to Judgment Day I've started to exam my leg, comparing it to my good one. It's currently 1/2 inch smaller than my right, which isn't too shabby. Agility drills are approaching a normalcy that I'm quite proud of now. I've started to do a regular jump off the left leg and it's feeling quite normal. Walking, however, has some minor issues but overall nothing too serious. The fat pad still catches every now and then, but a quick quad stretch fixes it.

I'm heading to Ireland for 10 days and since I don't want to lose all the muscle I've gained I'll be doing 30 minute workouts every morning with a combination of the following exercises:

drop squats, one leg raise onto chair, one leg squat with other leg in front, one leg squat with other leg behind, various core exercises, jumping jacks, cross country skier, 5 plate lunge, hammie drop, squat jump onto bed, and calf raises.

Due to the fact that this is Ireland I'm going to and beer is cheap, I highly doubt I'll be doing this every morning, but this is the goal!

12 Days to go!

22nd Week Post Op

22 down, 4 more to go!

I saw my physio for probably the last time this week. I only have to come back in if I have questions. Right now all my workouts are done with my personal trainer twice a week, but I'll probably bump it up to 3 times a week to makeup for the lost physio session. My PT is a bit more charismatic than my physio... ie "Don't jump like an old lady, jump like you're athletic!". The sessions are very very intense and I find myself barely able to walk afterwords, but this is exactly what I'm looking for.

The past few weeks of PT have brought a lot more confidence in my leg. They've also brought a bit more tingling in my toes. I'm not sure if this is something to worry about or not. It doesn't affect my ability to move my toes or any part of my leg / foot. From internet research, the best guess is that the nerve is getting irritated by either the remaining swelling or inflamation.

1 year since injury

Today marks the one year anniversary since my injury and the last time I played a sport. Cutting hard one way, then slowing down, then doing a 270 while speeding up caused my knee to explode. I'm a very fast / agile guy and my specialty is stopping on a dime and changing directions quickly. I've been playing sports for years and every game I'm running / cutting hard so why did it happen that game as opposed to any other? I've come to conclude it was a multitude of factors:

1. Playing 4 nights a week - doesn't give your muscles time to heal up. The weaker your muscles are, the more strain is put on your ligaments.
2. Quad / Hamstring ratio strength - I never did any exercises (lunges) to build up my hammies. Hamstring's protect your ACL. I never built up the muscles around the knee either. I'm sure my quads were way too strong for my hamstrings.
   
3. Tight Hammies - I never did any stretching and when attemping to touch my toes I was about a 1 foot away from them.
4. Turf field + Gaia cleats - locks you into the ground. The gaia ultimate cleats I use are kind of like football cleats and they provide very good grip. However, the turf field I was on sort of locks you in, ie. there's no give. Someone I played with tore their ACL on that field too.
5. Age - I was 28 at the time. Apparently when you're 18 the ACL can handle 3000N of force, whereas when you're 30 it drops to anywhere in the low - mid 2000N's.

I've been trying to find a silver lining to this whole experience and all I can think of is that I can possibly prevent others from going through this. Yesterday at ultimate practice I showed my team the exercises I do and tried to explain how important lunges are. It's something really simple to do every morning to build up muscles to protect the knee!

5 months Post Op!

5 down, 1 to go!

It's hard to believe it's the final month! Due to me moving places this month I've started to slack on routines. Thankfully personal training started up last week with some intense workouts which has really helped me build confidence in my leg. Also my cardio seems to be fairly decent (according to my physio).

I've also started to actually run for the disc now instead of the usual rumping. Although it's not a full out sprint, I do try and push myself to catch the disc regardless of how far away it is. It feels great!

Size wise, my left leg is still slightly smaller and still has some inflammation. But overall, the muscles are looking much better! The fat pad catching problem is still around but a simple 20 second quad stretch gets rid of it.

My goals for the next month are the same as the last month: Get that left leg to be equal to the right and have equal confidence in both legs!

One month left!

20th week post op!

20 down, 6 more to go!

I have to admit I'm getting a little nervous that in 6 weeks my left leg won't be up to par. Unfortunately this weeks' new pair of shoes has given me extremely painful blisters on my feet that has left me limping around on both feet and unable to do my physio. Personal training started this week, however, all he ended up doing was manual therapy on me... which is somewhat disappointing. Apparently we'll be starting on muscle strengthening next week.

My physio has tossed around the word "proprioception" but I've never fully appreciated what it meant until I started juggling while standing one legged on the bosu ball. Normally, both my legs are fairly equal while standing on the bosu, but add juggling to the mix and it's completely different. I can balance a lot better on my right leg while juggling then my left. This is good news in one way: I can measure improvements in the propriocepters in my knee while doing this routine!

I've also crossed the 50 day mark, woohoo!

19th week post op!

19 down, 7 more to go!

The last week has been good to the knee. More agility exercises were given (figure 8's, S's) Everything feels normal and I have to say I'm quite happy that I'm still fairly agile. I'll be starting personal training next week to help speed up the recovery.

I've also noticed the large patch of numbness below the knee is slowing fading away. I can actually feel things on it now and although it's no where near normal, I'm happy that it's returning.

My physio was examining my knee today and the difference in muscle strength. Everything looks really good as I'm approaching the size of the other leg.

18th Week Post Op!

18 down, 8 more to go!

I've started back up into physio 2 days a week now as I'm now cleared to do the harder physio routines. Most of the exercises are about legs & core and jumping onto the bosu ball. I found all the exercises fairly easy so I'm hoping for tougher ones for the next session.

I may pickup a personal trainer for 1 day a week at a gym mainly for 2 reasons: a) I'm finding it's becoming more difficult to push myself on my own and b) the physio place I go to (Athletes' Care) doesn't have a big area to practice running / agility drills.

4 months in review!

4 months down, 2 to go!

I met with another random doctor today to go over my knee. The new ACL is great, flexion and extension are great. I mentioned the catching problem and she said to build up my muscles as there's a significant difference between my two legs. I also mentioned the pain in the back of my knee while fully flexing and her response was "It's nothing to worry about". Not exactly the answer I was looking for but oh well.

After looking over the surgical report that said I'd lost 50% of the lateral meniscus and the cracks in the cartilage she asked: "Are you planning on going back to Ultimate?". I responded with a resounding: "Oh Yeah!". "You're one of the diehards eh?". I have an appointment in 2 months with the actual surgeon who will either give me the green light to play again, or the red light backhand to the face. I've got a lot of work to do the next 2 months to get both legs equal in strength, but I'm up for the challenge!

The past month changes:

• Tingling in foot is now gone.
• Fat-Pad slightly catching every now and then, not as bothersome as it used to be
• Running is a lot more normal.
• One-legged hopping is better
• I can skip rope much more confidently now!

My goal for the next 2 months is having both legs equal in strength, balance, agility, and flexibility.

60 days left!!