Thread: My ACL/PCL tear

Ok ive been reading through this forum for a while now and alot of these stories have been very helpful with my injury and letting me know im not alone out there. anyways i figured i would post my story/rehab maybe it can help someone out like alot of these stories have helped me.

I am 20 y/o and my injurey happen on 8/7/11 i was wakeboarding and was doing a 360 over the wake. i ended up falling and during this my left foot came out of the boot and my right stayed in, the board went underwater and my leg twisted dislocating my knee and patella (kneecap). I ended up getting pulled to shore where people that were on shore called 911. spent 4 days in the hospital and the outcome was not so good, doc told me i tore my acl &pcl completely and knew i did damage to my lcl mcl and patella tendon but could not tell the extent of it. i ended up waiting a month to get surgery which took place just over two weeks ago on 9/9/11. they replaced my pcl with a allograph(from a cadaver) and acl with a autograph( graph from your own body, in my case my hamstring tendon).

surgery was estimated to take 6 hours and only ended up taking 3 1/2 they told me my knee looked great and they did not have to operate on any other ligaments. after surgery my leg was completely numb from the knee down on my right leg (bad knee) and had numbness on my left leg as well(from taking the autograph). This initially scared the shit out of me cause i hate being numb and the doctors told me it would go away it was just the nerves being irritated from surgery. the numbness took a little over a week to go away completely.

now im just over two weeks post op and im feeling pretty good i havnt had any problems with pain but i do have pretty bad swelling which is causing my knee to feel stiff and is pushing on alot of nerves which gived me weird feeling on the front of my knee at times.

I am currently in physical therapy 3 times a week and 100% weight bearing i can get my knee to about 80-85 degrees flexion after warming up and some stretching and almost 0 extension but like i said the swelling is playing a huge role right now and i feel like its preventing my from moving forward but im trying to be patient with it.

i will be posting as the weeks go by updating the thread, feel free to ask questions or post comments as i like to read about other peoples rehab experiences. thanks for reading

Yikes man, your knee is a lot worse than mine was. I just had a clean ACL tear. Best of luck to you.

Your doing really well to be near 90 degrees flexion and 100 percent weight bearing at only 1.5 months out from injury. Be patient. I have had a similar injury. I would say there are nerve issues/little pains that will freak you out at first but try to not worry too much. Everything in your leg will mesh back together in time.

my thread is here:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ee-dislocation

if you would like to check it out. feel free to ask me any questions if you want.

good luck

thanks for the replys, and to cadah your injury if pretty crazy man i have read through parts of it before but i just read the whole thing and wow! your doing awesome man. but to clear one thing up im not sure if you read it wrong but im now 100% weight bearing and almost 90 flexion at just over 2 weeks since surgery not months. i asked doc if it was ok to have this much weigt on it and he gave me the ok with a reason why but i cant remember what he said, anyway im not going to argue with him lol.

i had pt yesterday and it consisted mostly extension exercises. im almost straight but not quite there yet. knee is still swollen a decent amount and makes it pretty stiff esp when i sleep all night with it bent then try to straighten it in the morning. pt tomorrow and friday to ill keep you updated with my results

Has the PT suggested a compression wrap to keep the swelling down?

If the edema/lymph buildup persists below your knee try to find a PT that is Trained in kinesiotaping

without sounding like a douche, you do know the swelling is OK, especially at 2 weeks p op multiple lig. repair. as long as you have capsular edema you won't feel the locking home in full extension like you do on the non op side, IMO there's no need to jam the piss out of the knee. your motion seems well above the norm, take the time to work on draining the edema, restoring normal muscle reqruitment, etc.

good luck

hey guys no i dont take it the wrong way i understand what your sayin. ive been icing it as much as i can and doc says it can be swollen for 6 weeks or so. and what is a capsular edema? sorry this is all new to me. im assuming this is the word for swelling and i wont be able to get full extension with the swelling in there? thanks for the info guys!

and for lookinback- i have been using a compressing wrap since friday and i just borrowed my friends dads bmini cold therapy cooler and wrapping my knee with that seems to help much more than just using a ice pack. i have the worst patients ever so this injury is real hard for me all i wanna do is go out and do normal things on my feet but im learning to take it slow and let it heal, i dont wanna hurt it again

Originally Posted by matt0192

hey guys no i dont take it the wrong way i understand what your sayin. ive been icing it as much as i can and doc says it can be swollen for 6 weeks or so. and what is a capsular edema? sorry this is all new to me. im assuming this is the word for swelling and i wont be able to get full extension with the swelling in there? thanks for the info guys!

and for lookinback- i have been using a compressing wrap since friday and i just borrowed my friends dads bmini cold therapy cooler and wrapping my knee with that seems to help much more than just using a ice pack. i have the worst patients ever so this injury is real hard for me all i wanna do is go out and do normal things on my feet but im learning to take it slow and let it heal, i dont wanna hurt it again

sorry, yes, just fancy terminology for swelling, and yes again, your joint is like a water balloon, squeeze one side and you push the fluid to the other. for people who are very goal oriented (athletes, etc) its easy to get sucked into staring at your knee and the limitations. take some time to appreciate moving a little slower, more deliberately, IMO, do everything on both legs, you can really speed up the process of shutting down the reflexive/automatic guard that comes with injury/surgery, realistically the first 12 weeks should be frustratingly easy but far from boring, your walking, there's a lot to gain awareness of, hang in there

thanks for the info! yea i deff do get sucked into starring at it im trying to become more patient with it i know these things take time. pt went good today got a full 90 was very happy for that also did some walking and drills with the latter. got pt again friday ill keep you all posted!

hey guys went to pt today and im now 3 weeks post op. got flexion to around 95 and got a full rotation on the bike so it was a pretty good day! looking forward to next week its feeling better everyday. swelling is starting to come down but still pretty swollen which is causeing the most discomfort n still feels pretty tight. ice ice ice!

Looks like your on good pace. I'm 1.5 months post-op and my flexion is at 130 so it only gets better with time!