ACL surgery

Hi! I had ACL surgery 3 weeks ago, using cadaver ligament. I did not have any pain at all, I used pain killers for first 4 days every 6 hours, after that just at night , not because of pain, it’s just helped me to sleep. It is very uncomfortable to sleep with the brace. I was off crutches on 5th day after surgery. Week ago I had 130 degree range of motion, which is great! My PT is very happy . I started to use bike week ago and I am doing it every day 10-15 min. My knee is feeling better every day, sometimes I feel little pressure and pulling , but it is all normal. I think the most important is to be very optimistic and do everything what doctor and PT say to do. Also you have to do PT at home every day.

Hi everyone. I am now 6 months post-op following a ski accident at Vail, CO. I had a hamstring graft and worked very hard at PT and chiropractor to get the “bad” knee strong again. I have now hired a personal trainer to take me to the next level - passing the “hop” test for my surgeon on Tuesday. It has not been easy - shed many tears, but the bottom line is, if you are committed to rehab, you will get there. I hope doc will tell me I can return to Vail in March to successfully ski the run that I could not finish. I am 56 years old and am doing serious jumping and stability exercises to get me prepared. Don’t give up - there is light at the end of the tunnel for ACL patients!

Woohoo.….… I saw the surgeon today and the knee is strong enough to ski this winter. Don’t give up hope - the hard work and pain are definitely worth it if you wish to return to previous level of activity and quality of life.

My son is now three months post opt after LARS. he is a kicker. he was able to get back into the game at about five months post opt. the last game he played he kicked it into the enzone and was kicking about fifty yards at practice. he was hitting the score board on extra points at about 7 wks. We had it done in Canada and it was well worth it. he is running and rarely complains about pain. he will play college ball next year. please email me if you have any questions. it was not a easy choice to make but so glad we did it.

sorry that was five wks post op that he played his first game and he a 37 yard field goal.He is now nine wks and is almost as good as before. emotionally this took its toll. the coaches were not resceptive of him coming back so soon so that also lead to dissapointment as he would have liked to play more.this lars surgery was amazing

Why so much frenzy about rushing back into intensive sports? Isn’t it better to make sure that the knee is healed and in complete working condition? There is so much that has happened in that joint, after any kind of operation, that is not visible from the outside. Are the risks really worth it? (This is health we are talking about after all). Is “rarely complaining about pain” OK? …just a thought…

why the frenzy, because he is 17 and his senior year and it was important to him. and of course we wee scared to death and still wonder. Regardless of what kind of surgery, he would have pain. as parents it was not a easy choice to make but after researching we went with the artificial ligament so he could play his senior year and will play college next year. He is doing great and is going snowboarding this wk and will be in a national kicking competion in Las Vegas in Jan. if he had the surgery here he still would not be kicking. it is four months post op if anyone has questions feel free to email me. cbpafox@aol.com

I tore my ACL going on 2 months now from an ATV accident. I have no health insurance, but I already paid for the doc visits, and my MRI showing that, Yep, I COMPLTLEY tore it in half, along with fractures in my tibia bone which my doc told me I had to stay on crutches for the past 8 weeks to heal first before I could even think of surgery. Oddly enough, my mensicus was intact for such a hard blow. The Doc I was seeing was in Florida where I went to heal up for a while with the help of my parents. Well, I am now living back in Texas, and I missed my last doc apt., so Im not even sure if I should be off crutches, but I cant stand them anymore! Plus i really dont want muscle atrophy kicking in! I have never hurt myself before, and Im not active in sports or anything, although I am just 25, and DEF NOT lazy. The doctor I was seeing never mentioned pre PT…looks like its a big deal to do. My question is would it be worth coming out of pocket for pre PT or should I just get the surgery and then do PT? Im sared to be put under and go under the knife!

Tiffany, you will definitely benefit from doing pre-op PT. But, you may be able to do it on your own or at a gym so as to keep costs to a minimum. You could probably get a home program from a PT. That’s what I did.

With all of the people who have submitted on this blog throughout the years, I wonder if anyone can speak to their experience of reconstructing the ACL with Tibialis allograft, and how it fared while playing football in High School or College. Did the allograft hold up? How long did it take to get back to playing football? My HS football paying son recently had an Double Bundle Tibialis allograft ACL reconstruction.

I tore my acl and lcl playing volleyball. im in the 10th grade and was really scared. i have never had anything major happen to me. i had surgery september1. the first week sucked so bad. im currently going to rehab, hoping to get my leg/knee stronger for softball season. i have a college looking at me, and ive be keeping in contact with them, and im scared that if i tell them about my knee, they wont be interested. im really scared, that i wont be able to catch again. is there a chance i will ever be able to catch again?

I have a different story than most here, I severed my acl in a moped accident (age 18 am now 47) had repair with an allograph at age 42 and meniscus repair 6 weeks after allograph surgery. So I lived 25+ years with NO acl and learned what I could and couldn’t do and accepted my limitations. I now live with those limitations the worse being because my knee was so instable fo so many years I now am a total knee replacement candidate ( have to wait till age 50 for this ) and because I always favored the one knee my other knee is trashed. If I could go back in time, I would fix it immediately and not wait because the effects of the collateral damage just aren’t worth it

I just had ACL reconstruction surgery in 2/9/10. So I’m 14 days post op. I tore my ACL playing tennis in July 2007 but was unable to have the surgery @ that time due to a blood clot in my “bad” knee (DVT). I had PT instead to strengthen my knee & it felt pretty good but mentally I held back from everything I did because I was scared of additional damage. In any case a lot went on moved to another state & I messed the knee up again - washing the dog of all things. So I found a good OD and scheduled the surgery for this winter. I did research on the graft and went with the hamstring autograph because it was proven to be just as strong as the platela tendent with less long term pain. So far so good. Healing well, staples out, started PT day 3 post op, full extension, ROM about 85 deg (additional swelling due to being on Lovenox). Was able to walk with a brace since day 9 w/o crutches. Things I learned: the process is exhausting because everything takes more energy, your mind is ready to get back to normal before your body is, staying positive works wonders as do others prayers. Thanks 4 this blog. It’s an aswome resource.

I really thought that reading these posts start to finish would help me make my decision of what type of surgery to opt for, but I’m still very confused! (and I have to decide… yesterday!) I tore my ACL snowboarding a month ago, thought it was a bad sprain until 2 weeks ago when I had the MRI done. My doc told me that most ‘elite’ athletes will do the patellar graft and that for me considering the cadaver route was probably best. Thing is, I’m 27, I play pretty rough and I’m active in triathlons and adventure racing and I won’t give up contact sports, winter sports, etc… Perhaps I’m not an ‘elite’ athlete, but i don’t want to sell myself short. Also, I need to be back on feet pretty soon b/c I’m a bartender and I can’t afford to miss work for more than 2 weeks or so after surgery. It seems like the healing process is a great deal shorter with the cadaver route. (this a bonus because my insurance is pretty lame and won’t cover very much post-op physical therapy) I’m so confused! Hoping I’ll have a revelation tonight! :o)

I tore my ACL 2 years ago and opted not to have the surgery. I did well until around 6 months ago when I noticed my good knee hurt a lot. Fearing ruining my good knee, I had the ACL reconstruction 2 weeks ago using my patellar ligament. Everything is going well. I am off the crutches and only use my brace if I know I will be walking a lot. Will be starting PT next week and don’t regret my decision at all.