Reward: missing ACL!

My ACL is completely missing. My doctor said he couldn't find it on my MRI. Has anyone had any luck with rehab? Is surgery my only option to continue my life style? wakeboarding, motocross, snowboarding, ect...

Mike, how'd you know it was missing. Did you blow it up, or was it creating problems over time?

I know some people continue to ride without it. I guess it depends what you are comfortable with. A good brace will help, but there's nothing better than surgery to correct the problem

Oddly enough, somebody left an ACL on my boat last time we went out and nobody is claiming it!

I did mine Wakeboarding/Football, tried to go without surgery. Lasted a few months, hurt it again. Tried I more time and 6 months later did it again. So I had surgery! That was in 01'. Knock on wood its been all good ever since! I played football one more year, wakeboard 5 days a week in the summer, ride, and snowboard! I wish I would have just done it in the first place. I miss some wakeboarding and a season of football messing with it before I did!

Ill take it! Mine was giving me trouble last summer from motocross. I wore a knee brace all last summer for wakeboarding and it was cool until i looped out my bike in a 3rd gear wheelie. Apparently i cant run over 30mph.(ha,ha)

Get the surgery. You run the very high risk of damaging cartlidge and potentially tearing other ligaments. This will ultimately lead to a knee replacement, which equals lots of pain and limited mobility.

I think i might try to get better with physical therapy for this summer and get surgery next winter. The dr. says he won't operate until all of the swelling goes down and i have a "full range off motion" anyway.Physical therapy is 4 times a week.

I'm guessing no HMO if you can go to PT 4x/week..

Some people can get by without an ACL with good muscular strength/stability and/or a good knee brace. Hope it works for you, Mike.

Not quite as critical of ligament but have no PCL in my left knee. It just disapeared over time. I had quite a few injuries to my left knee riding skateboards as a kid. Back then they couldnt repair both the ACL and PCL injuries. The PCL was more damaged and we just decided to let it slide. 20 years later My ACL still works but the PCL degenerated to where it is no longer visible.

In short it doesnt surprise me if you have injuries in the past that it would finally just go away.

If you need a GREAT doc go see Dr Warren King. He has offices in Sunnyvale and Palo Alto. He is a top notch doc of most the pro sports guys in the Bay area. If you can go see him in Sunnyvale. His office is full of pictures and letters of thanks for the Pros. It gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that these guys trust him.

Oh, good luck on the knee. More then anything, patience is the key to getting back out there. It will happen, just let the body do its work.

(Message edited by derby on February 09, 2007)

First of all my main question is: why is your doctor having an MRI done while there is still a large amount of swelling? Unless something has changed recently its pretty common for most folks to have to wait for the swelling to go down in order to get a reliable read of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Unless you immediately had the MRI done before any swelling occured?

FWIW: I just got done with a similar situation, only back in november. I think you will have a better idea on whether to wait or not depending on how it feels after the swelling has gone down; until then its a lot of speculation.

FWIW I had an ACL allograph performed by "the King" on December 20th 2006. I was cleared to run 3 weeks after, dismissed from therapy at 4 1/2 and it feels better everyday (knocking on wood).

If anyone were to ask me where to go I would suggest him (provided he is in your insurance list of providers). I have had an absolutely great recovery and I think its due to some things I did before and after the surgery (I have discussed this with both the doc and the therapist - who had asked what I did). If you want, send me a PM and I can give you a buzz and tell you more about my experience.

I thought about not having mine done until the Dr. said you could live with it but you might step of a curb one day and BANG! Rehab wasn't the best thing, but it wasn't terable.
I'd say get it fixed for sure.

I will i just don't want to be layed up all summer recovering.It ha been 3 weeks and I'm walking semi-normal. "I'd like to think the lord baby jesus" for the invention of vicodin. I cant stand to be off of work. I'm bored out of my mind.

I got mine fixed yesterday, I would be interested to see if you have a positive drawer sign or pivot shift on exam...i.e. how unstable is your knee? Mine would slide out of place with any side stress, and felt "funny." Now it doesn't feel anything like fun...it freakin hurts! If you get it fixed, go the patellar tendon route, seems to be the strongest although the medical literature is not convincing...

Starnes - Did you stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night? Glad you are doing well.

Most of the time if i walk slow its cool. But I have a really big lifted truck and yesterday I got out wrong and my knee felt like it went backwards. Very unstable,It hurt like it did when i wrecked.

Mike- if you have insurance and can afford to be off work, just get the surgery. If you want to be active and have fun, you need your ACL. Or, you can pick up golf and nascar and you'll be fine.

Either decision you make, dont forget that if you plan on riding without an acl thats one less piece holding your knee together, push it again and it will probably tear some other ligaments as well.

Chris, the second day is usually the hardest as thats when all the "good stuff" generally wears off.

I was without an ACL for 10yrs before I had mine replaced. I was 32ys old when it happened. It was slowly being destroyed by sliding in sports.
Returned to playing softball (and sliding with the injured leg),beach volleyball, rollerblading....3 mos after initial injury - no brace.
Learned how to wakeboard without ACL.
Key is to learn about proprioception and maintain strength & coordination.
The problem is that the moment you slack off and quit with that program, you'll hurt yourself and need the surgery. That's what I did slacked off for a year and tried to go bak to sports.
Tweaked my knee a little and decide to have the surgery.

(Message edited by phantom5815 on February 10, 2007)

Mike. Get that thing fixed. If you continue with out it arthritis will set in and you will be looking at a replacement down the road.

yeah, that freaked me out when the Dr. said that I could live without my ACL ,but I would probably have arthritis in the next 10 years.... I'm only 28

He also said i have the joints of a 65 year old man!

There was no sign of arthritis in my knee when I had my ACL repaired. I even have the comparison pics from 10 yrs prior.
I've had more pain in the knee joint since I've had the repair done.

Mike,
If you have the means-right insurance- contact either Dr, Dillingham, Fanton or King- three of the best in the Bay Area/Nor Cal.

Thanks to everyone for the information. Its crazy how many people have the same injury and it does help me to know what to expect. I guess most people who wakeboard ride snowboards and dirtbikes too.