ACL Info

[Elisa]

On Oct. 24th I ended up tearing my ACL in my right knee while sking. I have decided to have sugury to repair it and have been doing PT to get my range of motion back. It's been a hard not running and doing my usual activities. I went to the orthopedic surgeon this past Monday, Dec 13th to see when I can get surgury. He told me that I might not need sugury b/c the ligaments around my knee are strong enough to give me stability, even though my ACL is torn. He stated that I might be one of the 3% of population this happens to. He wants to recheck it in three weeks when I can hopefully straigten out my leg. Has anyone who has had an ACL tear heard of info like this before? Everyone I know whose had an ACL tear has been recommended to get surgury if they want to continue doing sports.....any advice would be great! I am a bit confused! :confused:

[Vinman]

tons of folks here have been through ACL recon. Basically what your doc is saying is that a small percentage of people can do things like ski or play sports without an acl, but the vast majority can not do this.

I would also reccommend getting the surgery. If you use the search function at the top of the page and plug in ACl, I'm sure you can find a ton of info that has already been posted on this board. Good luck.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

On Oct. 24th I ended up tearing my ACL in my right knee while sking. I have decided to have sugury to repair it and have been doing PT to get my range of motion back. It's been a hard not running and doing my usual activities. I went to the orthopedic surgeon this past Monday, Dec 13th to see when I can get surgury. He told me that I might not need sugury b/c the ligaments around my knee are strong enough to give me stability, even though my ACL is torn. He stated that I might be one of the 3% of population this happens to. He wants to recheck it in three weeks when I can hopefully straigten out my leg. Has anyone who has had an ACL tear heard of info like this before? Everyone I know whose had an ACL tear has been recommended to get surgury if they want to continue doing sports.....any advice would be great! I am a bit confused! :confused:

first post eh? welcome to the madness...

Surgery / non-surgery is the great debate....and I believe that most folks who regularly post here will say to get the surgery.

In my case, I was able to function really well with my torn ACL. Hell I went skiing a few times and had a great days with no problems and my knee never gave out (although I did wear a brace and held myself back a bit). I was mountain biking and road cycling like there was no tomorrow. And I was even running a little.

My ortho said that I could probably get by without surgery...and could continue to do MOST things, but I possibly wouldn't be able to do them at the level I want to or was used to. For example, I love to play soccer (that's how I tore mine), and my blown knee really couldn't handle the lateral movements or sideways impacts enough to play...so I decided to get surgery. For skiing, my doc said that I could easily ski groomers and mellow terrain carefully with no worries, but then i'd really be putting myself at greater risk for further knee injury if I kept hucking, competing, skiing aggressively, etc.

i didn't want to alter my lifestyle in anyway or change the level at which I participate in sports so I decided that it was better to get surgery ASAP (had it done on 11/16), and sit a ski season out. there's always, always next year.

It's a tough decision for sure and it is very tough sitting out a winter when all you've done for 20+ years is spend time in snowy mountains for the winter. But after the first week of surgery, progression in rehab comes on fairly quickly and you focus on that. I'm finding that the yin/yang of acl reconstruction is that although you lose alot of the activities you're used to putting your energy into (and remember, this is only temporary), you gain new activities (even if its rehab) to pour all that energy back into. Just remember you'll be stronger coming out of this.

[altagirl]

Typically you want to wait to get the swelling down and ROM good before surgery anyway, so having him check it isn't going to hurt anyway. I really don't know how easy it is to tell from a doctor's visit how stable it will be under the stresses of skiing and such. Maybe someone else knows.

My doc did give me the option with this ACL that I could rehab, try skiing, if it blows out again, wait for the swelling to go down again, hope I didn't do any further damage, and then have surgery. Just seemed like putting off the inevitable to me... I know with my first ACL (other knee), it didn't get diagnosed right away - I could ski on it, and it felt normal, but it would suddenly give out every 5 ski days or so - I'm not one of those lucky types whose joints hold up well without an ACL.

[scoober]

I can only repeat and agree with what has been said so far. I tore my ACL last January, and decided to hold off on surgery until after the summer was over. I was able to cruise groomers no problem and then I had a huge summer of road and mt biking (including racing). But... no soccer, ultimate, lacrosse or things of that nature.

Even though I did put surgery off (the bike is my top priority), it was always my intention to have it performed. I just thought it was silly to not go for surgery and to automatically limit my body to a lower level of performance than it is truly capable of. Something's broken, and it should be fixed.

Here is my bad assumption of the day: it sounds like your ortho doc deals mostly with old people, office workers with carpal tunnel, and general non-athletes and doesn't understand the need or want to get back to peak performance. If that's the case I'd find someone who specializes in sports med.

[altagirl]

Here is my bad assumption of the day: it sounds like your ortho doc deals mostly with old people, office workers with carpal tunnel, and general non-athletes and doesn't understand the need or want to get back to peak performance. If that's the case I'd find someone who specializes in sports med.

Possibly. It's also possible that the original poster didn't adequately explain what sports and at what level they want to get back to to their doc (well, and seeing as how it's her first post - we don't exactly know what level of skiing she wants to get back to either...) I know my doc said he always presents the non-surgical option too - it is elective surgery, after all. You could choose to give up aggressive sports. Can't imagine it myself - but it wouldn't seem ethical to make it seem like you HAVE to have surgery. It's not cancer or something life threatening that needs to be taken care of - not to mention there are risks associated with the surgery. It may not seem like an option for most of us, but it's still an option.

[scoober]

Possibly. It's also possible that the original poster didn't adequately explain what sports and at what level they want to get back to to their doc (well, and seeing as how it's her first post - we don't exactly know what level of skiing she wants to get back to either...) I know my doc said he always presents the non-surgical option too - it is elective surgery, after all. You could choose to give up aggressive sports. Can't imagine it myself - but it wouldn't seem ethical to make it seem like you HAVE to have surgery. It's not cancer or something life threatening that needs to be taken care of - not to mention there are risks associated with the surgery. It may not seem like an option for most of us, but it's still an option.

Hey... I'm entitled to one bad assumption a day (my rules) and that was it. :) More or less a shot in the dark. It's amazing how having one surgery performed can make someone such as myself an expert in terms of health care.

On the orthopedic side of things, besides informing me of the risk of accellerated arthritis in the knee, my doctor really could not really give me any medical or health reasons to necessitate the surgery. He definitely brought up the risks of the procedure itself.

However on the sports med side of things he definitely presented me with a list of "You won't be able to ___ at the same level you are used to."

[Arnold Babar]

Well, Elisa, you'll probably get more advice than you want here, but welcome. Our top people have already responded with all the appropriate answers. If top performance is important to you then surgery is the option. Take a look at some of our posts, and you'll realize that it is not a procedure for the faint of heart. There is pain, and a long rehab process from which you get out what you put in. I know someone (soccer mom not active) who had acl reconstruction and put zero effort into rehab, and after almost a year she still isn't right. You have to go into it with a positive attitude and be prepared to work. Don't be scared, just be prepared. Best wishes to you. Let us know how you decide.

[altagirl]

Hey... I'm entitled to one bad assumption a day (my rules) and that was it. :)

I'm allowed to play devil's advocate on your self proclaimed bad assumptions, no?

[Elisa]

Thanks for all the replies....it does help. The funny thing is I am not that great of a skier and did this from being too CAREFUL! I keep thinking "Why didn't I hurt myself the time I crashed so hard BOTH of my skis came off and went down the hill without me?"

I want to get back to my main level of activity which is the ablitiy to do ANYTHING without worrying about my damn knee giving way or wearing a brace. It is so FRUSTRATING to not be able to do ANYTHING in regards to sports. I wonder if I will ever be able to squat down on BOTH knees again without thinking....is this going to hurt my right leg. I NEVER knew how much we RELY on our knees!!!

[basom]

I want to get back to my main level of activity which is the ablitiy to do ANYTHING without worrying about my damn knee giving way or wearing a brace. It is so FRUSTRATING to not be able to do ANYTHING in regards to sports. I wonder if I will ever be able to squat down on BOTH knees again without thinking....is this going to hurt my right leg. I NEVER knew how much we RELY on our knees!!!

knees blow. worst joint ever.

if your doctor tells you you will be able to achieve a full range of activity (cutting sports like bball, soccer, tennis, ect. and skiing) with out the use of a brace then i'd like some of those drugs he's taking. You can and will be able to do these things to a certain leval with a brace if you choose to not get cut.
i have a friend who has a similer knee, acl does very little for him and he's lived activly with out it for 15 years. he has enormous leg streangth, and does ultra long bike races. he's a fitness freak. for him the mechanics of his knee and his muscle strength render the acl usless for most leg motions. However, he used to be an avid alpine skier. hasn't been on alpines for 15 years. he wont risk it. he switched to tele for a few years (very mellow and conservative) and had to bag it due to pain, and now he rides a snowboard. prolly 40 days a year, and pretty agressively too. but he mentioned last year how he wished he could alpine again, but its the one thing he wont do, even with his giant legs, and 1% knee mechanics.

so maybe you could switch to snowboarding? but i'd say you will need a brace, the damage you can do without the acl keeping things tight can be pretty bad, and you will have greater chances of the good old degenerative arthritis, which is nice.

good luck with your decision