ACL Surgery

Hey guys i have been a member here for awhile but dont post much much. But i was in a boat accident about 5 weeks ago and found out i need acl surgery. What can i expect such as recovery time and when can i start moving around?

I just had my acl reconstructed on the 6th and was cleared to walk without crutches a week later. As far as recovery time, I was told 4-6 months. One thing I was not ready for was the amount of pain I was in after surgery for about 3 days. It really kicked my butt.

One of my team mates tore his acl in a soccer game he said rehab was a lot of pain with all of the shocking. He got a machine before surgery that helped him a lot. He will be able to snowboard sometime in late january to early february (he had surgery in the middle of october). His case was pretty severe though.

im not sure i believe that. i had my acl surgery august 1st and the minimum amount of time that i can get back on the water or snowboard is 6 months.(February 1st). Unless he only partially tore his i cant find that possible.

I had mine done last December. I had the patellar tendon replace the ACL and was able to ride (very lightly) about 6.5 months after. I also had the passive motion machine. I spent about a month in that thing for 6-8 hours a day. Thank god for xbox but ya the first week or so was pretty painful (I was off crutches after the first week but still very slow and in a straight leg brace) and the rehab was pretty intense but follow all the instructions you get to a T and you will be fine. I am closing in on one year post surgery (Dec 12th) and have been riding a lot and have played intramural baseball and football and been very happy with how my knee did (wearing a brace of course)

im about a month and a half post surgery. I also used my patella tendon to replace my acl, i had two stitches to patch up two partial tears on my medial meniscus. I was off of crutches in a week and a half, and i can get around pretty well. My surgery was october 9th. I'm looking to start my agility training in mid december and will hopefully be running and doing full workouts in january. My rehab doctor said i should be back to 100% to wakeboard again come april. My advice would be to rehab as hard as you can. Do all the exercises your doctor tells you to do. The harder you work out, the quicker you recover.

My daughter had hers done last month. Went with the cadaver. Less pain stronger knee when all healed. Recovery is 4-8 months depending on how the body recovers. She was on crutches for one day and goes to rehab three times a week. Has to wear her brace 24-7 for the first 4 months. She did three rehab sessions before surgery. The ice pack in the cooler that circulates ice water is a must. We rented ours from the medical center.

The cadaver is definately less pain but not really stronger. I am pretty sure it depends on how old the corpse it came out of is in and what kind of shape that person was in. 90 year old women sometimes do not have the tendon strength needed to withstand wake boarding.

I had mine done 3 months ago (Hamstring) and have worked hard to get strength & flexibility back but it has coe slow. EVERYONE HAS DIFFERENT HEALING TIMES. Most docs will tell you 6 months Minimum. Yes many people feel normal after 4 months but the tendons are not fully established until 9 to 12 months so you are still taking a risk even at 6 months if you resume normal wakeboard pounding.

Did the patella it took me about 5 months to wakeboard again, and about 1 full season until 100% again. Rehab every day for the next year and you'll be alright. Take it easy on the rehab and your knee will never be the same. It's your choice. Your main goal should be to get it stronger than your good knee as quickly as possible with controlled exercises and then begin regaining the body control with skill exercises.

I'm not sure your sports or wakeboarding background but if your willing to put in the work the patella is the only way to fly. If you aren't gonna man up for this go with the cadaver.

Thanks guys for letting me know about this. I am pretty nervous about it as i never really had a surgery before. I just got measured for a knee brace so i will have that next week. Hopefully i can get the surgery done asap. So i can get back to work.

I did mine a few years ago. Replaced my ACL with my hamstring on the same leg. I also shredded my meniscus pretty badly. I wasn't cleared to snowboard / wakeboard for 8 months.

Im feeling as good as new though. Still wear the CTI 2 while wakeboarding. Snowboarding is kinder on the knees.

My advice is to take your time to ensure a proper recovery and no matter how tempting it is to jump back in... take it slow and easy.

In the recovery phase also try to stress flexibility with strengthening.

I'm with Cory all the way! Work hard and I swear it goes by faster than you think. I had surgery on July 29th, and had worked my butt off leading in to have it done. I had a great therapist that really pushed me. Cool thing was, his name was James Bond.. I rode again on the 1st of November!! I really took it easy and no wake jumps and it was a lot less stress than the plyo's he had me doing. Doc says should be able to snowboard when our season starts. I just can't push it to hard for a while with that. Good luck and keep your spirits up!!!!!

i had surgery on sept 10 and wont be back to hockey or anything til january or feb the pain is bad for a few days after surgery but it gets better and i did mine wakeboarding so it really sucks

For the record Bobby, I never used a brace, at my docs request, during rehab or anything. I'm not much of a wakeboarder, but I can rip on a pair of snow skis. I over juiced a 30 foot step down gap last year and landed in the flats, probably fell 20 feet out of the air on skis, and rode away (scared s***less) with both knees intact. There are a lot of people on this board who, if they wearing a brace, would make a claim like the brace saved their knee, so the brace must be worth it. Braces should be between you and your doc, if you still pretty agile, you likely won't ever need one (in fact it would be counterproductive).

Tore mine in a college hoops game 2 years ago. Mine was replaced with my hamstring tendon from the same leg. Knee is strong as ever. As mentioned earlier, rehab is the key. Painful, yes, but if you slack off, you will regret it.

I just got my ACL repaired on thurs Nov 6th. I was walking without crutches the following thursday. Now I can walk around, up and down stairs (carefully) and have nothing more than a dull ache in my knee/leg from time to time. There was some very minor pain for the first 4 days or so but the oxycodone killed that. I had the hamstring tendon graft procedure and had absolutely zero pain in my hamstring for some reason. It just feels like a slight hamstring pull and tight like I used to get when playing sports when I was younger. Everything else in my knee was in great shape and I had 4.5 months to recover from the acl tear before surgery which helped in my speedy recovery time becuase I had no swelling or real pain in the knee anymore. I will tell you to ice, ice, ice, ice. It helped me a bunch.

Now my knee is tight I will admit and I start therapy tomorrow morning, this is where I'm expecting the pain to come in. It's gonna kill to have them start stretching me out, knee and hamstring. My one week post op appointment with the surgeon and he couldn't believe how healed the knee was. Swelling down about 95%, all of the incisions were about 70% healed, etc.. Everyone heals differently but I'm just telling you to stay optimistic and take it easy for the first couple of days and then get back to business as soon as you can. Laying around doesn't do a person any good imo.

(Message edited by 05mobiuslsv on November 19, 2008)

(Message edited by 05mobiuslsv on November 19, 2008)

http://www.wakeworld.com/articles/2002/acl1.asp

I thought this might help, guys..The only thing that I would go back and change about this article is that I prefer the CTi2 Brace now, although I am now riding brace free.

McFly

My son had his done acl and mcl replaced, cleaned up the miniscuss. circulating ice cooler and cpm machine was walking on it a couple of days later in 2004, Marty's info was a great help.. but had a complete tear again in 2005 had not had surgery again, just works out the legs and wears a cti2 brace when riding.. rehab rehab rehab my son slacked on the rehab and went straight to riding, he say's if he has surgery again he will do more rehab. He was only 14 the first time,19 now. He might be getting smarter...

I had my ACL replaced with a graft from my petella and some miniscuss repair Aug 25. I was walking after about 4 days, hurt pretty bad for about a week. I wake surfed about 3 weeks after surgery and did alright(super stupid but I had to get out once before the season ended)my balance was off and it hurt to get up but I rode ok. I wouldn't have done it without my Don Joy brace that thing is bullet proof. Not sure if I'm gonna snowboard on it yet this season, my knee cap is still pretty sore and hurts to touch still. Guessing landing on it is gonna be beyond painful. I've been crushing it rehabbing it, haven't missed a day or a rep and my leg feels pretty good. I was able to finally actually run without pain about two weeks ago.

I tore mine in a soccer game in late august. I had surgery october 15th and went with the hamstring autograft. I got the femoral nerve block, so my leg was completely numb for the first 18 hours. I took the painkillers regularly for the first 3 days, so I experienced very little discomfort. I was off crutches two days out of surgery. I used the immobilizer for a couple of days until my cti vapor came it. I've been working hard in rehab and doing exercises at home daily. I started going back to the gym two weeks ago to try to build up the strength in my leg. My hamstring was very sore and tight for a couple of weeks, but I think I may have worsened it by pushing it too hard in physical therapy. I can't run for at least another month and a half, but my knee feels fine. Maybe I was just prepared for the worst, but overall the experience hasn't been nearly as bad as I expected.

jrw160-

I am 4 months out of my acl surgery with the hamstring graft. The hamstring is still giving me some issues. Go with high reps and low weight with the leg curls. I tried pushing hard through the pain and it only set me back. I will be 6 months out surgery in Jan and hoping to be riding some snow by then.

I pushed through the pain doing leg curls with no weight the first two weeks, which apparently is a bad idea. I had a knot in my hamstring and a lot of soreness. Heat and ultrasound worked really well in loosening my hamstring back up. They neglected to tell me that it shouldn't really hurt when you are doing any of the exercises.

We have some real supermen here on ww walking 2-4 days after surgery with no crutches. Part of me wants to call bs but everyone is different. In my case I had to listen to what my body was telling me, I tried to walk a little bit everyday but couldn't. On day 6 I just started walking fine it was weird, with a limp of course.

I think everyone is different and some doctors are different.

I had my last one (allograft) done by Stephen Howell in Sacramento. I never used crutches...I was walking the same day. I had relatively little pain...most of it managed by an ice machine.

My experience with him is not unusual compared to his other patients...I talked to several before I went with him and all were walking very quickly. After his surgery, at 10 days I was where I was after 4-5 weeks with my previous surgery....and that was without any passive motion machine as I'd used previously.

His technique is different than most others. He's my guy if I ever need another ACL...even if it means travelling cross country.

What does he do so different besides the allograft?

He's very specific about the angle and size of the tunnel--so much so that I first had a bone graft done to fill in the previous tunnel. After the graft takes, he can then reconstruct the ACL. According to him, the geometry of the graft and its fit in the tunnel are the keys and that most doctors don't pay these items enough attention. They get it close but not perfect.

He uses titanium pieces of his own design to attach the ligament so the attachment point is strong from the start. The standard method is to use plastic screws and compression fittings that are supposed to dissolve over time. But he says they don't (and showed me the remains of the undisolved screw in my knee on the MRI). He also doubles over the ligament instead of running it through just once.

His technique is different enough that folks come to him to learn how to do it. Besides his practice, he's also a biomechanics professor at Davis.

So, take it for what it's worth. Everyone has their favorite guy and I' recommend Howell. I won't let anyone else touch my knees after my experience with him.

John, you bring up a very good point. At the end of September I severed my ACL, tore some miniscus, had an internal fracture of the femur and had partial tears in the patella tendon and the lateral ligament. Jacked it up pretty bad. The next day my wife took me to the local emergency room who in turn sent me to an ortho.

The doc had me start PT to regain range of motion and told me he was scheduling surgery. I have friends on Wakeworld who have had ACL reconstruction and started talking to them about it. I realized how big of a deal it actually is and started doing some of my own research on the net.

I am typing this from a hotel room in Houston after having my reconstruction on Thursday. It was a SEVENTEEN hour drive to Houston from my home in Iowa and I can't express to you how well worth it the drive was... In other words most of us have insurance and I encourage everyone to research the best option for them and don't accept whats put in front of you. My local surgeon told me he was going to perform a Pateller Tendon graft even though it stated in my MRI report that it was torn up pretty bad. I felt much better about going to a world class surgeon who specializes in ACL reconstructions and performs all the different options, as compared to the local Iowa doc who spends most of his time mending little boys' arms.

I was walking the next morning without crutches after my second ACL surgery. I believe that was mostly due to the fact that I had gone thru the surgery 3 years before and knew what to expect, so I worked out even harder before surgery so that I would be stronger when I came out on the other side.

(I took the Patellar Tendon out of my right knee to repair the torn ACL in my left knee on the second surgery.)

McFly

Damm i am not looking forward to having this surgery. But i need to have it done before i go back to work and get in another boat. I appreciate everything you guys are telling me about this.

McFly you're my hero...

Just listen to your doctor, nu bu. Work hard in therapy and your body will let you know when you are ready.

The harder you work today will make tomorrow much easier!

McFly

i have been going to the gym atleast everyother day and have had therapy for 4 months now. the leg i had acl and meniscus surgery on is now stronger than my other leg but still gets more sore than my good leg. if you do what your therapist says and do stuff on your own then youw ill be fine

It's getting better, I swear I can feel it getting better everyday. Marty I can't believe you had both knees cut on and were walking the next day. I hope I'll never have another one of these surgeries again..

Well i found out tuesday that they are going to do surgery on my hip first before they do my knee. I have a crack in my hip from that accident that isnt really healing. And if they do the knee surgery first and start walking on it would probably hurt my hip alot more.