Thread: Torn ACL,PCL & MCL - looking for information.

I had surgery on 7/6/09 to reconstruct my ACL and PCL with allografts and had an open MCL repair at the same time. I am now five weeks post-surgery. I have been on crutches since the injury ( 5/28/09) and have been told that I will be on crutches until week 10 or 12. Can anyone who has had a similar injury give me some information on their experience? I am really sick of the crutches and want to walk again so badly, but am following the Dr. orders to the letter. At this point I have been able to reach 0 extension and 60 flexion, but have to warm up to that ( especially having a hard time maintaining the extension). My PT is not encouraging about my chances of returning to regular running and tae kwon do. Can anyone tell me if they or someone they know has been able to recover from this injury and how their knee and ability to do high impact sports returned - and how long it took?
I am really getting bummed and feeling like this injury will limit me forever and I will always have to baby it or it will tear again.
Thanks for any help or advice!

I had tore my acl,pcl,mcl and lcl and my Doc would not operate on any of the cl's except for the acl. he told me that most of the time the other cl's heal themselves. and if he operated on them I would end up with a stiff knee. he made me wait 5 months and extensive rehab before he reconstructed the acl. My mcl is still a bit loose and he thinks I will still be ok and if not he would go in down the road to fix it without the issue of having me end up with a stiff knee. I am 2 months post-op and doing just fine glad I listened to my Doc. I am sorry about your situation as I can feel your pain and frustration.

So, I think our situations are similar, but with a different injury. I shattered my tibial plateau and had surgery to repair it along with a broken tibia. That happened 6-5-09. I had to keep my leg in a brace which was set at 0 Deg extension and flexion for four weeks. I've been working on getting flexion back and can get in the 60-70 range now, but it's pushing it to get that far.

I do feel as though I am getting flexion back little by little. it takes a lot of work/pain, but it is starting to come back. What kind of exercises are you doing? I've been doing wall slides (laying on the floor and sliding my foot down the wall) probably 5 times a day but only about 5 minutes each time. I also have been stretching it with one of those exercise balls and putting a rope on my foot and laying on my stomach pulling the rope oer my shoulder. There's lots of little things out there that over time can make a big difference.

Looks like your knee is possibly worse than mine, which is hard to do. Here is my journey:
[ame="http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29361"]ACL pop, surgery, and beyond... - Teton Gravity Research Forums[/ame]

Hit the rehab HARD and good luck!

B)

HI - thanks for your reply. I have been doing PT since one week post-op. My exercises are mainly range of motion - bending my leg (passively - with my hands, not supposed to bend it by itself) and then a prone hang - lying on a hard surface on my stomach and letting my legs ( from above the knee) hang off of the end so that it passively stretches my knee into extension. I also do "quad sets" - which are just a contraction of the quad muscle while trying to push my knee down to as flat as possible. One of the frustrations for me and my PT is that there are really no exercises that I can do for one ligament which doesn't compromise the other two. I am going to see my surgeon on Monday (will be six weeks post-op) and then will find out if I can progress in the PT protocol that they have me on and start bearing some weight ( 25% each week for four weeks). I don't know what else they might add for exercise, but it won't be much. I am really careful with this knee as they ( medical/PT folks) have scared the shit out of me with their comments about how bad this injury is - it makes me afraid to really hit it hard, but I would be more aggressive with my exercise if I thought it would help not hurt my knee. It sounds like you are saying it will, so I will keep trying.
Thanks and hang in there. The only thing that makes sense of this process for me is that by the time I can actually walk again, I will most likely be grateful to do ANYTHING and not be so bummed about the bleak prospect of returning to very limited activity.

just saw all of your posts, sounds very similar my knee problems and i can tell you a little of what to expect in the coming months.

Surgery looks exactly the same(ACL, PCL repair, open MCL repair) except I had a combination of auto/allo graphs. I tore everything on 12/14 and did not get surgery until 2/9, but i was almost completely immobile for that entire time span due to a back surgery.

After surgery, i was in a brace that was locked out straight for 3 weeks, no rehab during that time except quad sets. After 3wks i was doing PT 5 days/week for 6 weeks, then down to 2 days a week through the middle of June(16 weeks post-op)

Your PT sounds very similar to mine, as do the docs orders. Many PT exercises i couldn't do because of the multiple ligament damages, and my doc slowly increased my weight bearing by 25%/week right around the 6week period too.

Once you are allowed to walk again, do it as much as you can, but BE CAREFUL for the first week or so because your leg will be so week it sometime will just buckle.

Be prepared for setbacks and delays in your recovery. Some weeks i would gain 10degrees of flexion, others I would only gain 2...this is normal. Your leg is going to be very very very weak for a long time. It took me about 3 months to get my quad to start to fire again, it was like my brain forgot how to work it. Only in the past month or so has it really started to work well again.

Docs/PTs are correct, you need to be very careful that you dont slip/fall and twist that knee, it could easily put you back to square 1. Listen to the docs/PTs, do what they tell you to do, no more, no less. Specifically ask them about individual exercises, because there are some that you can do as much as you can(straight leg lifts and quad sets come to mind).

Look forward to the day when you can pedal a stationary bike again. Once i was able to do that my improvement increased drastically.

Fuck 'limited activity', im striving to be able to do everything that I did before I hurt myself. At 11wks post-op i spent a weekend in Yosemite hiking all over the place; no problems. I recently returned from a camping trip deep into Glacier National Park where we averaged 13miles/day with overnight backpacks. The doc wont allow me to run or do anything else besides hike/bike/swim yet, but that should change in about a month.

Keep your head up, its a long and painful road, but you'll get to a point sooner then you can imagine where you can walk without a limp, and everything is downhill after that.

PM and we'll talk further. Good Luck!

Thanks for your reply. I'm sure you can understand how I am feeling when I say that the information I get ( and therefore the hope or despair I feel) is all over the place. I just e-mailed and got a reply back from Dr. Mark about his take on this type of repair and the outcome. He says that the pcl will repair itself and by having surgery on all three, I will have a stiff knee. What's done is done and I will just work as hard as I can to get the best outcome from my knee. I was also in a straight brace for over a month between my injury and surgery, so I haven't walked in three months. Starting to put weight on is at least some progress. I am pretty sick of my "heavy workout" being quad sets, which I can do until my leg shakes and don't feel like the quad is getting any stronger, or the extension any better. I am absolutely doing everything that the docs and PTs say and being the best patient possible even though I could just puke. I would like to imagine that I will go back to tae kwon do and running and be able to do those sports at the same intensity as before, but after all of this shit, I will take what I get and just do the best with it. If I have to change sports, or do modified versions of my sports, then I will.
By the way, how did you tear your ligaments? I tried to throw my husband ( a hip throw in TKD class) and when all of his weight was off the ground, I hesitated so as to not drop him on the mat and he came down right on my knee with my leg planted behind him ( he weighs 230). That is not what we usually do in tkd and I don't plan on doing it again. I just hope to kick and jump and maybe break boards again.
THanks for the information. I will keep posting as well.
Beth

Originally Posted by bsmetana

By the way, how did you tear your ligaments?

I was caught in an avalanche. Complete dislocation of my right knee, along with a broken pelvis, broken cheekbone, pulverized L1/L2 vertebra leading to complete fusion from T12 to L3. I set off metal detectors now...

Getting advice from Dr Mark is fine, but unless he has seen your MRIs i wouldnt be concerned about what he says(he told me as well that i would probably need another surgery to relieve stiffness). While most people may have a stiff knee after the surgery both of us were in good shape before and have goals to work towards that drive us to fully recover.

Where you are now in your PT sucks; your very weak and it feels like its not getting better. I was there, i know. But it will improve with time and effort, just keep at your PT and worry about whether or not you'll be able to do TKD again much much later.

I am now 7 weeks post-op. I have been unable to unlock my brace until last week and after that, finally able to drive! I am now bearing 50% body weight and have a new brace ( neoprene with metal, hinged side stays - about half the lenght of the previous one). Life is much better with a bendy leg and smaller brace! I swam today!! ( one legged). I also walked (crutchless and braceless) in the four-foot deep water - feeling like a stiff-legged old woman, but walking still.
I am still only 72 degrees flexion at best, but still it is progress. I hope that everyone else with this injury is hanging in there. I am trying really hard to stay positive and work hard.
Thanks for the info and support - anyone who is at an earlier stage than me can feel free to e-mail and I will share anything that I know or have been throught so far.
I am attaching a photo of my knee after surgery - I will get a recent one and send that soon for comparison.

I am now 9 weeks post-surgery for ACL.PCL and MCL. I have had a very frustrating road - one step forward, two steps back. I am now at 89 degrees flexion after a week of pain from being manipulated aggressively. I have had my new wonderful neoprene brace for two weeks and I can finally wear pants!! Bad new is that my incisons are opening up. My surgeon says no worries - the openings are from subdermal stiches and will heal , Can anyone tell me whn they could stop wearing their brace - at least while sleeping? I am still wearing it while sleeping and also elevating my leg.
I am starting to walk without crutches, but only for a limited time.
How are you all? Please respond and we can compare notes.


All hail Mc Roon for his wisdom with this wicked injury. Any good news?

my boyfriend did ACL, MCL, PCL, and meniscus all in one go. He obeyed the docs orders on the crutches and (since I has my own surgery 12h. prior) we hit PT 2-3 times a week.

He got a hamstring graph for the ACL and just cleaned out the rest. He got a lot of range of motion back pretty fast. If I remember, he got past 100 in flexion in 8 weeks. But, we did A LOT of stretching in the sauna. We were probably at the rec center every day on the bikes and doing heat stretching. He also opened up his incision, but I think it was he was playing with his scar tissue too much.

As for now (almost 2 years out) He's doing great. Last season was our first season back (we had surgery in December), and he did great. Skinned and sledded a lot. He sent a lot of cliffs and seems to be skiing just as well as he ever did before. Only, when he goes into the park he says he feels squishy in his meniscus. But from what I hear that one never gets better. He still can't touch his heel to his butt anymore.

My sister also did her ACL, MCL, and meniscus years ago, got a cadaver, and had to keep going in to fix it. She skis fine now. She only complains about it when she's trying to find an excuse to call it for the day. (Not sure if they're really related) She also can't touch her heel to her butt anymore.

Thanks so much for your reply. Things are going a little better for me the last week or so. Three incisions are popping little holes but my doc says not too worry - just sutures underneath coming through ( I have been in a tight neoprene sleeve-type of brace for about three weeks now) and put me on anitbiotics just in case. I just got 100 degrees of flexion yesterday - at about 10 weeks- and my doc wants me at 120 by twelve weeks, so I should get there. Progress finally seems to be happening a little faster. I was so discaouraged for a long time feeling that I might never walk normally again, much less do sports. Getting a report like your really gives me hope that one day I will feel somewhat "normal" again.
Thanks!