Who's had their ACL repaired?

qslim

qslim

The Man with the Big Yellow Car
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Just got mine done this morning. I'm chatty as shit when I'm on pain meds so excuse all the off topic posts coming in the next few days.

My left knee's been bothering me for years now. Last year when I hit 40 I bought myself the sweetest BMX I could never afford as a teenager and started ripping the pump tracks with my 7 year old. Turns out I'm not 17 anymore, and when I biffed a jump and landed shortside on a tabletop I felt a little tweak in my knee. Hasn't been the same since, it's so unstable that I was at the point where when I run it was impossible to even turn - I had to slow down to a walk and point my body carefully in the next straight line.

Hopefully this shores it up - the surgery was very quick and I was in and out of the hospital in like 3 hours. even sent me home with this nifty cooling machine to use instead of ice packs. You fill a little travel cooler looking thing with ice water and it circulates it through a wrap around my knee inside the brace. Doc said to start moving my knee today and I should be back to walking carefully with no crutches in 2 weeks. Pretty amazing what they can do these days. It's only my second surgery ever so I was nervous as shit this morning and I'm glad its over. I can't stand hospitals.
 
Wow, I had no idea it was that quick. I thought it would be a lot more serious of a surgery.

All I know is that when I pivot on my knee, I get shooting pains in it. Only happens if I do something weird like pivot. Been like that for 10 years at least.
 
Chris said:
Wow, I had no idea it was that quick. I thought it would be a lot more serious of a surgery.

All I know is that when I pivot on my knee, I get shooting pains in it. Only happens if I do something weird like pivot. Been like that for 10 years at least.
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No man, couldn't have been simpler.

I only got pain doing very specific movements, but here in the last year it just felt unstable. When standing with weight on it i had to deliberately focus on flexing my leg muscle to keep it from locking out. It was weird. Didn't necessarily hurt, just felt like it might bend any direction at any time. I was still rowing, road cycling, running, but skiing this past winter also did a number on it. Hopefully this did the trick, doc said I can start using my rower lightly next week and should be back to full ops in less than 6 months - though he did say that if I ski or do any hard MTB (which I will) he wants me to wear an ACL brace from now on.

Also my damn ball joints just got here today dammit - they were supposed to be here this past Sunday.
 
qslim said:
No man, couldn't have been simpler.

I only got pain doing very specific movements, but here in the last year it just felt unstable. When standing with weight on it i had to deliberately focus on flexing my leg muscle to keep it from locking out. It was weird. Didn't necessarily hurt, just felt like it might bend any direction at any time. I was still rowing, road cycling, running, but skiing this past winter also did a number on it. Hopefully this did the trick, doc said I can start using my rower lightly next week and should be back to full ops in less than 6 months - though he did say that if I ski or do any hard MTB (which I will) he wants me to wear an ACL brace from now on.

Also my damn ball joints just got here today dammit - they were supposed to be here this past Sunday.
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Funny you mention skiing. I used to sky my entire life, and I think that's what ended up doing this to my knee. I stopped skiing entirely, because every time I would ski, it felt like my knees were going to just give out. I didn't want to make it worse, so I figured it best to stop.

The good news is that I don't do anything to intentionally aggravate it anymore, and from what I can tell, it's fine as long as I don't do anything like that. Mountain biking doesn't seem to be bothering it (though I just started again recently after a 12 year hiatus). Maybe a brace would be a good idea for me as well, just to be safe rather than sorry.

At least it was a pretty simple surgery. How big was the incision(s)?
 
I've had both knees done, 6 years apart by 2 different surgeons. The latest one was done 3 years ago. First one done 6 years prior took twice as long to recover. The recent one, I was in and out of surgery in 4 hrs. and on my way home. Spent about a week and a half on crutches. Sounds like they have a better method of controlling the swelling now. The swelling was the most painful part for me. I ran long distance in my younger years, so I'm sure that attributed to the damage. I can't run anymore, but no pain, and 95% back to normal.
 
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Chris said:
Funny you mention skiing. I used to sky my entire life, and I think that's what ended up doing this to my knee. I stopped skiing entirely, because every time I would ski, it felt like my knees were going to just give out. I didn't want to make it worse, so I figured it best to stop.

The good news is that I don't do anything to intentionally aggravate it anymore, and from what I can tell, it's fine as long as I don't do anything like that. Mountain biking doesn't seem to be bothering it (though I just started again recently after a 12 year hiatus). Maybe a brace would be a good idea for me as well, just to be safe rather than sorry.

At least it was a pretty simple surgery. How big was the incision(s)?
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Yeah you know I could have gotten along with it just fine if I wasn't really active. I had to stop doing squats last year, that particular movement was a big source of pain. Also walking up steps or climbing ladders was starting to be slightly problematic, but nothing I couldn't work around. My personal breaking point was last year when my son got a new football & wanted to go out front and throw it around. I couldn't pivot and start running for it, I also couldn't change directions at all. I don't ever want to tell my kid that I can't do something with him because of a bad body part, so I decided to finally address it. He got his first MTB a few weeks back, and he's been asking constantly for me to take him - which of course I did, gritting my teeth most of the time.

I'd say find a good ortho wherever you are and just take your time doing research. I found one here in SLC that came highly recommended from athletic groups all through the valley, and I also got a second opinion from someone else. I take having my body cut open very seriously and wanted to make sure this was the right decision.

As for the incisions I haven't seen them yet - I have to keep this fixed brace & wrap on for three days, but the doc said I have four of them about an inch or so long - two above and two below. I'll take gross pictures when I take this thing off :D
 
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qslim said:
Yeah you know I could have gotten along with it just fine if I wasn't really active. I had to stop doing squats last year, that particular movement was a big source of pain. Also walking up steps or climbing ladders was starting to be slightly problematic, but nothing I couldn't work around. My personal breaking point was last year when my son got a new football & wanted to go out front and throw it around. I couldn't pivot and start running for it, I also couldn't change directions at all. I don't ever want to tell my kid that I can't do something with him because of a bad body part, so I decided to finally address it. He got his first MTB a few weeks back, and he's been asking constantly for me to take him - which of course I did, gritting my teeth most of the time.

I'd say find a good ortho wherever you are and just take your time doing research. I found one here in SLC that came highly recommended from athletic groups all through the valley, and I also got a second opinion from someone else. I take having my body cut open very seriously and wanted to make sure this was the right decision.

As for the incisions I haven't seen them yet - I have to keep this fixed brace & wrap on for three days, but the doc said I have four of them about an inch or so long - two above and two below. I'll take gross pictures when I take this thing off :D
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Yep, I've modified my squats as well. If I do too much weight or don't have the perfect form, it can be painful. I get the pivoting thing too, as I that can sometimes effect me. What I've been doing this past decade is just modifying everything I do so that it doesn't bother me, and it very, very rarely does.

I'm curious once you're all recovered though how your knee feels and if you have anymore issues pivoting or anything else. I'm not exactly sure what your surgery entailed or how they go about fixing it.
 
Chris said:
Yep, I've modified my squats as well. If I do too much weight or don't have the perfect form, it can be painful. I get the pivoting thing too, as I that can sometimes effect me. What I've been doing this past decade is just modifying everything I do so that it doesn't bother me, and it very, very rarely does.

I'm curious once you're all recovered though how your knee feels and if you have anymore issues pivoting or anything else. I'm not exactly sure what your surgery entailed or how they go about fixing it.
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They snipped my ACL & grafted in a cadaver ligament. My doc said he saw a minor tear but believes that this might be something genetic or inherent or whatever you call it because my right knee feels about the same as my left did ten years ago. He also said there was a flap of something that he had to clean up, but that was this morning right after surgery so I was still high as fuck. I'll have to ask him what he was talking about at my follow-up.

When he was doing the consult he had me lie flat - he put one hand above my knee and the other on my ankle and started pushing & pulling my lower leg into my kneecap. There was slight movement (he said about 1mm) when my leg was fully extended, when he got to about a 60 degree angle I could hear the looseness (like an old balljoint) and he said he felt to him like 4mm. It was a real weird sensation; no pain but it felt like the thing was gonna come apart.
 
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pagrey said:
Glad it went well, knee problems suck.

Bicycles are for young folks or people with really really good health insurance.
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90% of the reason I’m still in the reserves is for the health insurance. Zero out of pocket for all of this except PT - I think that’s $15 a session. The good fortune of this insurance is not lost on me. If I was using my civilian corporate insurance I’d be paying until I met the 12k deductible because these two doctors I chose were out of network.
 
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My sister tore both her ACLs, not even a year apart for both. She was up and walking around a few days later, never once used crutches. She iced the hell out of it with that same machine. That was probably 15 years ago. She said when it gets real cold both her knees ache a little bit, but neither surgery has slowed her down. She is still very active and runs/CrossFit/swims etc...
 
Yup, tore my ACL wrestling. Skied on it with a brace for 6 months. It wasn't super painful, just had no stability. I had a the repair and i think i was putting weight on it in like 5 days or so. it was quick. What was NOT quick was recovery at the harvest site. My replacement was taken from my patellar. So recovery wise i bet a cadeavor would be way faster but then theres more risk also. That was over a decade ago hope it keeps doing as well as it has.
 
I detached my ACL in my left knee and went for 3 years with it like that. I was driving a cement mixer truck and slipped on the wet cement dust at the batch plant as I was loading my truck. I was awake for the whole surgery and watched them clean my knee out. My first day back to work was on 9-11-2001. They almost wouldn't allow me to go to Iraq in 2004 because my still wasn't 100% stable.

I only took my pain meds for one day and was up walking on it the day after my surgery.
 
I had knee surgery in October, left on a month long overlanding trip in mid-December, didn't think about my knees the entire trip.

I threw the crutches away on the second day. They were more trouble than they were worth. So were the pain pills so I stopped taking them too.

The key for me was physical therapy. Oddly, at least according to my surgeon, the ultimate success of my particular surgery is unaffected statistically by whether or not one engages in a course of physical therapy. The difference is ease and speed of recovery rather than outcome. PT is not always prescribed.

Whether or not a surgeon prescribes physical therapy often boils down to whether the patient has a cheapwad insurance company. Insist upon it if it isn't offered. "I'm in my late '60's and need to be ready in 6 weeks to sleep on the ground for a month" were the buzz words that worked for me.
 
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Day 3 - took the bandages off & ditched the crutches unless I'm using stairs. Can't bear a lot of weight but I already have full range from 0 to 90 degrees. Four small incisions about an inch long, it's amazing how they can get in there through such a small opening.

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One week later, I just mowed the lawn. Pain is virtually non existent as long as I’m in my brace. Stairs are no problem as long as I move slowly and deliberately, and I can bend my leg to almost 90 degrees before it gets tight.
 
How things have changed, I screwed up my knees playing high school football. My senior year 1979 last game of the year about two minutes to go I get hit just below the knees. Well my knees went out, I had to have my feet pulled so it would go back in place. When I would walk after that sometimes it would pop out of place and down I would go.

So in 1985 I had enough falling, and having my leg pulled to snap it in place. I got surgery done for the first time on my right leg, screws, washers, and new ligaments made from my quad muscle. They put these huge knitting needles type things in my leg to drain my knee because it was huge. I think I was in the hospital three days, then I had a straight brace so I couldn't bend my leg.

My knees are still a mess, and most likely will remain that way, because I've seen a few doctors over the years before I could get my knees replaced I would need my hips done because they couldn't handle the extra pressure blah blah. I don't have the best luck when it comes to surgeries, (Never good when your heart stops, and they break out the paddles) but that is a story for another day.
 
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mxz800 said:
How things have changed, I screwed up my knees playing high school football. My senior year 1979 last game of the year about two minutes to go I get hit just below the knees. Well my knees went out, I had to have my feet pulled so it would go back in place. When I would walk after that sometimes it would pop out of place and down I would go.

So in 1985 I had enough falling, and having my leg pulled to snap it in place. I got surgery done for the first time on my right leg, screws, washers, and new ligaments made from my quad muscle. They put these huge knitting needles type things in my leg to drain my knee because it was huge. I think I was in the hospital three days, then I had a straight brace so I couldn't bend my leg.

My knees are still a mess, and most likely will remain that way, because I've seen a few doctors over the years before I could get my knees replaced I would need my hips done because they couldn't handle the extra pressure blah blah. I don't have the best luck when it comes to surgeries, (Never good when your heart stops, and they break out the paddles) but that is a story for another day.
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Ooof, that sounds awful.

A coworker of mine is one of those ironman triathlete guys, he had to have both of his hips replaced at the same time a few years back. It was outpatient! He was up and using a walker the day after the surgery.
 
3 ACL surgeries on my right knee. Tore the ACL in 1988 playing basketball, didn't know it then just waited for it to get better, which it didn't. Finally saw an orthopedic doc, who diagnosed it & scheduled surgery. He removed the remaining ACL, but did not repair it. It felt fine, I was young, and continued to play sports, basketball & softball using a knee brace. It started going out of joint with certain movements, which, as described above, I could pull and twist a certain way to get it to go back. After about 9 years, I had had enough, and underwent arthroscopic surgery for the second time. They used a cadaver achilles tendon to replace the missing ACL. That worked for quite a few more years, but then it started going out again, even though I had given up basketball, but continued with softball. One game I was batting, swung the bat, and went down in a heap, and could not walk for a while. I got it back in joint, but saw a doc again. He told me that if the angle of the ACL was changed a bit, I would have no more issues with it going out. In for surgery again in 2009. He took part of my patella tendon for an ACL, and put it at a different angle slightly. The last surgery was the hardest to recover from, but I have to say, it worked. My right knee has felt normal again since, and I am able to play tennis now, but is my only active sport beside riding bikes along the river here. Long road, but worth it in the end. I also used the Igloo cooler type ice machine after the last repair - way better than bags of ice...

You'll be so glad in the not-too-distant future you had this done.

GLWR
 
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