Squat pain after ACL patella graft
I had a Patella graft on my right knee three months ago today; tore it a year ago last month skiing at Baker landing sideways out of a spin. Things went really well right after the surgery. I regained ROM within a couple weeks and strength started coming back fairly quickly. My physical therapist and surgeon were both really impressed but things went downhill from there. Currently, I’m experiencing a lot of anterior knee pain when I try to squat; going down stairs is tough too and I seem to favor the injured leg to compensate. At this point I can only go down about four inches when I try to squat. The first physical therapist I had said that I should be doing mini squats at about five weeks post-op even though it was really painful on the tendon. I listened to her and just tried to push through the pain for about three weeks at which point I switched therapists. The new therapist basically said STOP doing anything that causes tendon pain because I could develop tendonitis. Seems like it’s too late for that now. So everything else in my rehab is still going well. Balance and strength are coming back. I can do leg presses and leg curls with no pain but the squats are just killer. I have no problem starting from a squat and standing up but the pain kicks in as soon as I try to go down. This really concerns me because I imagine it could be a big problem with skiing. I’m now wearing a patella strap, which helps a little and applying a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory cream but things seem slow. If I do anything that involves squatting (I’m trying to avoid it for now), the damn thing gets sore for a day or two although I’ve noticed it’s not staying sore as long or as bad so maybe things are improving. I ride the bike about 40-60 minutes a day…I don’t know what I’d do without it. Anyone out there had similar experiences or know how long it takes to get the squat back. Will it ever happen or am I doomed? My doc doesn’t seem that concerned with it and the therapist is kinda wishy washy. Any advice would be awesome!