Who's had a knee reco - ACL?

[Ulahoopski]

Hi all. Today I'm two weeks post knee reconstruction for a ruptured ACL that I did playing footy earlier in the year. The first 10 days were very positive as I could see and feel progress every day through things like pain improving, swelling going down and little achievements like getting out of bed day 1 morning using a frame, getting around on crutches day 1 afternoon, going to one crutch day 5, getting around without crutches day 9. The last few days however, I'll admit to feeling a bit flat with the soreness of my hammy, and tendons around the knee, some pain begind the knee cap and the realisation that its not all going to improve as quickly as I want it to.

I'm hoping to hear from anyone who's been through a knee reco themselves and what timeframe they made progress over. Any advice, tips, things to avoid etc.

I'm really feeling for Matty Scharenburg knowing that he's been through this and now has to go through it AGAIN. Not fun.

Any contributions greatly appreciated.
Cheers

 

[xxxWillxxx]

From someone who has been in your position my advice would be don't compare yourself too closely with others, everyone heals and repairs at a different rate and there are so many variables its not really worth trying to measure. It takes however long it takes and don't think of it as a race. For what its worth i was still walking with a crutch at the same point you are at now and in a fair amount of pain. From memory after 2-3 weeks started on the exercise bike. was able to jog a little 3-4 months post op.

Also don't try and overdo things. Listen to your physio, in this situation its much better to slightly under train than overtrain. Don't neglect flexibility whilst trying to regain strength in the leg, that causes serious problems on its own. Ice packs and regular hydrotherapy are your best assets as well.

Good luck mate, its a huge mental barrier to overcome especially when you are at the start of your journey.

 

[vjknight]

if anyone is a bit squirmish, never watch the half time of the 1990 second semi (VHS version)

knee reco in action. old style.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

It's still early days. You are better off focusing on getting full extension, managing swelling and having a strong quads/VMO contraction than on functional goals like walking a particular distance or being off crutches yet.

Agree on the ice packs, the simple solutions are often the most effective.

 

[partypie]

Joint mobility and getting the supporting muscles moving without putting any pressure on the graft is the key early on. You are going to have pain on and off from wherever they took the ACL graft from for quite some time - the bit of my hamstring where the graft was harvested from ached on and off for months afterwards. I also did the 4-hour icing cycle thing for most of the first couple of weeks (yes I set alarms) and then on the days of my physio as well until bed time (always went for early morning appointments) - NSAID's didn't help me much in that respect but the ice did.

The main thing though is to keep listening to your physio and don't ever push things too far regardless of how good or pain free you feel because the pint at which you stop feeling pain is the acute danger period for recovery from an ACL reconstruction.

It takes many months before the graft matures (it actually takes a few years to reach full strength for the record) and you can screw it up disgracefully easily if you push too hard too soon, as your proprioception (basically kind of like subconscious spatial awareness you normally have to engage the right muscles to take strain off the joint in reaction to different situations / movements) will be shot for a long time, but you wont even know it until you body doesn't compensate properly for a movement you're trying and you pop the knee again.

One thing my physio had me doing pretty early on (as soon as I could bend the knee) which you could ask your physio about was a simple exercise with a small stool (the type with the low horizontal bar you'd rest your feet on if you were sitting on it). I'd lay down legs spread with the stool standing upright in between them (positioned about to the beginning of the calf) and then slowly repeat the movements of bending the knee back towards me far enough to clear the stool legs, extending the leg out straight in between the legs of the stool above the foot rest without touching the sides (harder than it sounds especially at first), pulling the leg back and returning to the "rest" position outside the stool legs - it didn't do much apart from getting everything moving a little (glute, hip, hammy, quad and even calf worked a bit) but it did help a lot with my joint mobility.

That might be a bit old school for physios nowadays but it worked for me.

Also don't neglect the other leg and make sure you put some work into it, initially just body weight stuff like one-legged squats (I did mine on a step thingy so the leg in the splint had some room to "move" and used a hand for balance), calf raises, maybe leg curls laying on your stomach with a resistance band if you have something to put the other end of the band around and, as dumb as it sounds, keep stretching it daily (I used to morning and night - you can do a hammy stretch on your back and a quad stretch laying on your belly for the good leg without having to use the bad leg).

Your good leg is going to be a workhorse for the next 4-6 months at least, so the more you look after it as well early the better off you'll be in the long term.