Thread: ACL allograft surgery report thread

4 months and smidge and I just went x-country skiing. (3pin with high leather for stability). I threw a few nice left tele-turns but I could tell I was not ready for right handers after tinkering with the basic snowplow in various positions. Thank goodness the snow was forgiving today. If it was time last year in these conditions me and my 205 E-99's would have been playing on light blacks and dark blues. (I think my best ever was 6 linked turns on my fav light black in perfect conditions.)

Of course there was some swelling after but nothing unusual. I got a lot of sympathy in the lodge with my knee up and iced. :-)

It's a long slow process...

Erin

5.5 months. snowboarded and tele skied friday and saturday, back to back. can't believe how good it feels! i rode at about 85% on the board, through chop and tracked up soft snow with no problems at all. i'm about 60% on skis. (legs just aren't strong enough for super confident tele turns right now...but making tele turns is like the best quad rehab ever, i think )

certain motions hurt, but overall my knee felt great, no complaints! navigated some mellow low angle trees on the board and everything was fine, albeit slower than normal. knee isn't swollen or hurting at all. i iced and ibuprofen'ed the heck out of it though.

keep in mind, i'm taking it slow and staying completely in control. but i am PSYCHED!! it feels amazing to be out there again. i'm soooo happy with my results so far and i now know that i will definitely make a full recovery. so don't fret everyone, you'll come back too! your knee will be fine! hooooray!!!

Originally Posted by ikkin

keep in mind, i'm taking it slow and staying completely in control. but i am PSYCHED!! it feels amazing to be out there again. i'm soooo happy with my results so far and i now know that i will definitely make a full recovery. so don't fret everyone, you'll come back too! your knee will be fine! hooooray!!!

Great to hear... it's been like a tad over 11 months since my OP w/ auto hammy graft and I'm still holding out when teleing.... But then again, I'm also still missing some quad and the muscles around my knee ain't that strong either. But should be back to my usual mockery next year, and still have a lot of skiing to be done this season....

p.s. ....

Originally Posted by WWCD

Awesome!

Is a UT trip this spring now in the budget?

the budget is open for negotiation...and i'm easier to sway than el cheapo.

Originally Posted by hemas

Great to hear... it's been like a tad over 11 months since my OP w/ auto hammy graft and I'm still holding out when teleing.... But then again, I'm also still missing some quad and the muscles around my knee ain't that strong either. But should be back to my usual mockery next year, and still have a lot of skiing to be done this season....

thanks hemas! glad to hear you're out there!

and erin, sounds like you're making good progress, that's great!

23 weeks.

still plugging along. been slacking on the gym visits a bit, but getting there around twice per week. running is still pretty painful, which is weird, because skiing/snowboarding don't hurt at all. i think its just the impact.. although i still haven't hit the 6 month mark on this allograft and my leg muscle still needs to regain quite a bit, so hopefully it'll feel better someday. they say you can run at 3-4 months though, so i'm a bit behind on that one. can only do a mile or so on the treadmill, and only when the weather is in a nice high pressure pattern. anyway, riding both days this weekend, i'll report back afterward.

6 month update. everything is fine. been skinning and skiing a few more times, nothing challenging, but no problems. slacked off the rehab a bit over the past 3 weeks and my knee is starting to feel it. sore allover for no reason...need to get back to the gym again and keep hitting the weights. i think its sore 'cause i haven't been using the muscles and they're probably atrophing a bit. anyway, everything is stellar other than some clicking and popping, which i'm pretty sure is scar tissue, and i still don't have equal hyperextension, but my "normal" leg has ridiculous hyperextension, something like -8, so i'm not sure they'll ever be equal again. i'll keep working at it though.

doing well overall though. hooray!

7 months now!

played softball (the ultimate easy sport) and had a solid spin clipped in on the mountain bike (not quite as easy) this weekend. knee was fine in both situations. my fat ass, however, was not.

extension seems to be inching (centimeter-ing?) closer to to my good leg every day.

i cannot believe how fast this 7 months has flown by. it all seemed so daunting in the beginning. right after surgery i thought things would never go back to normal. then i thought i'd never make it through the ski season. and now its april and i'm getting some spring skiing and my knee feels great! awesome.

starting to have some issues, description here

its weird, everything feels great except for those two things. and my knee doesn't seem to hurt internally, i.e., where the actual new ligament is. it seems to hurt where the ligament is attached.

issues seem to be fixed! looks like it was purely related to scar tissue...PT person broke that up and it feels MUCH better. my new PT girl is my new hero. she gets cookies today.

anyway, i'm 8 months out now and feeling darn good overall. i don't even think about my knee on my road bike. mountain biking is fine as well, i've taken a couple spills and landed off balance with all of my weight (and the weight of my bike) on my repaired leg and its felt solid with no pain at all. haven't been doing much running but i'm planning to up the ante on that soon...which should make my dog happy. i'll report more as the summer hiking season progresses, but now that this minor pain issue is gone i'm super psyched again. yay!

funny thing starting happening to me as if on cue from your thread...i am getting some cracking and popping in my knee, doesn't hurt, and i am around 3 months post op...

Can you tell me what movements your PT did to break it up?

hmmm...

well, fredstrees, what she did hasn't changed the cracking and popping at all, it still does that, but the cracking/popping doesn't hurt so i don't worry about it.

i was trying not to wirth in pain, so i didn't see much, but she basically dug her thumbs into the painful spot and moved both laterally and horizontally across the area. she would feel around for "crunchies" and then dig her thumbs in and around them to break them up. vinman might know more about the specific technique.

i'll let you know if tonight's treatment helps with the cracking/popping at all. hope everything is going well for you!

still cracking and popping, but less. knee is feeling damn good overall. i think it'd be feeling even better if i hadn't been slacking about getting to the machines at the gym lately. been riding the bike more though. also been really focusing on forcing my knee into those last few degrees of extension, doing the patellar mobs, etc. still not hitting the weights too hard, but i'm running around, biking, and doing lunges/squats/etc. in my office every other day. things are feeling good. still not 100%, but then i'm only 8 months out. hoping to play (aka, beat my husband) some tennis this week/weekend.

ikkin,

Glad you're doing so well. I work out in my office too. Nice to have a door. I spend most of the day with my leg on my desk with or without an ice wrap. I'm still limping and swollen. Finally gave up the cane. Need to find a job in a smaller building because everything seems to be at least a quarter mile away when you're limping.

You mentioned in one of your posts about changing where you went for PT. I can't find the post again and I'm curious about this. I like the person I have for PT now but he's leaving the State right before I have surgery.

There's another person there that can do it but so far I haven't met her and all I have to go on is "She's really cute." That might get "me" there but I'm not sure it will get my "knee" anywhere. If she's really good and really cute I'll stay but I got the impression she was more cute than good.

Thanks,
Ken

Wow. Been a loooooong time since I've updated, sorry about that.

Had a great summer/fall of mountain/road biking for rehab. Never really pushed it too much on the rehab though. I stopped going to the gym- which was probably a mistake- in April or so. Kept doing basic exersizes at home and in the office though. And some biking.

Long story short, I'm now 1 year, 1 month allograft post-op and skied five hours yesterday at Jay in VT to work off the Turkey. Conditions were variable, mostly firm with some softer snow stashed here and there. Bottom line, the knee was great. I barely even thought about it, in fact. Here's a pic for posterity.



And it feels great today. Legs are sore as hell (not used to tele lunges), but nothing feeling off in the joint, knee feels solid, no swelling yesterday, I'm feeling pretty great about the upcoming season!

Hope everyone in gimp land is doing well!

Thanks for posting out your saga. Very cool to see that skiing thing happening for you again. Gives a bit of hope to those of us who are looking forward to the nice ACL surgery and a return to flying down a mountain!

~S

Originally Posted by ikkin

Wow. Been a loooooong time since I've updated, sorry about that.

Had a great summer/fall of mountain/road biking for rehab. Never really pushed it too much on the rehab though. I stopped going to the gym- which was probably a mistake- in April or so. Kept doing basic exersizes at home and in the office though. And some biking.

Long story short, I'm now 1 year, 1 month allograft post-op and skied five hours yesterday at Jay in VT to work off the Turkey. Conditions were variable, mostly firm with some softer snow stashed here and there. Bottom line, the knee was great. I barely even thought about it, in fact. Here's a pic for posterity.



And it feels great today. Legs are sore as hell (not used to tele lunges), but nothing feeling off in the joint, knee feels solid, no swelling yesterday, I'm pretty pretty great about the upcoming season!

Hope everyone in gimp land is doing well!

hey ikkin, nice knee drops!

Its sweet to be back isn't it? I think I'll post a little shot of my own for everyone to see. check out my thread when i get it updated....

thanks guys. the knee is about to embark on a three week trip from jackson to bozeman to whitefish to possibly revelstoke in january. i'm sure i'll have lots to report then.

You did a wonderful job describing your ACL experience on this site. I came across your thread three days before my scheduled ACL surgery. My surgery was on the 25th of February 2009. It answered so many questions I had and gives me something to track my own progress from as I embark on my long road to recovery. I'm psyched to start my own thread to help some other poor souls as you helped me. Thanks again.

^^^^you're welcome! glad it helped!

knee update: let's see, it skied (tele) fine all winter, no problems at all. starting jumping off some small stuff toward the end of the season with no worries.

played my first full 90 minutes of soccer since the surgery (1.5 years ago now...wow) this week and it wasn't very happy afterward. pretty swollen and stiff the next day. but then the day after it felt fine. and feels fine now. i think it was just protesting that amount of running. overall, all is well.

Thought I'd update this for a friend. Over three years out now. Wow, time flies!

I no longer think about my knee. Ever.

I ski (including small 5 foot drops), ski tour, play soccer, hike, fall off my mountain bike, run, cut, twist, jump, etc., and it rarely bothers me. Did a short triathalon last summer. Had some spectacular mountain bike crashes at Whistler. Climbed and skied Mt. Shasta, Mt. Hood and Mt. Baker. Knee was fine every time. Hope I'm not jinxing myself, but other than some minor cracking, I have ZERO issues with it. Zero.

Despite having less muscle than my non-injured leg, it feels stronger and tighter than my non-injured knee. I'll get a little weirdness when the weather changes, but nothing to write home about. I am 100%! Yay!

Hope you're all healing well and/or happy and healthy!

i saw this popped up out of obscurity. We had our surgery pretty close together and this thread was very helpful to me. Glad you are doing well. I feel exactly the same as you. The one thing that is funny, in a not so funny way, is that my repaired knee feels so good, that ever since I had surgery my other knee bug me from time to time. Probably partically teared and will go eventually--hopefully not!

Husband just went through ACL surgery last April, after tearing it in March. He is 100% already.