ACL surgery anyone?

I injured my knee last February playing basketball. I had no idea I'd hurt anything until I couldn't bend my leg the next morning. After that it's a long story of frustration but I finally got an MRI about a month ago and it's a partially torn ACL with no evident other damage, which is great. I was a semi-serious runner and cyclist but I'm down to less than 5K a week running from 40ish and my cycling is dropping due to soreness too. My job is a very physical job. I do heavy tough work on a rolling boat and am on my feet for 10-12 hours a day.
I have an ortho consult appointment this week. Does anyone have any experience with ACL surgery and recovery times? I'm really hoping to have replacement surgery as my knee is unstable and sore with low grade pain 24/7. Would I be likely to be able to use my leg normally after 2 month recovery and continue rehabbing while taking it semi-easy at work? My job has a 2 month window mid-winter and a 6 month window over the summer to make it happen and if I'm a candidate, I'd love to have it done before I completely blow out my knee.
Any and all opinions welcome.

Ouch. Best of luck going forward; I narrowly avoided needing ACL surgery after a car accident a few years ago - I had a partial tear that I rehabilitated through physical therapy. A friend had a total tear from a martial arts injury, though, and had a good year+ of post-surgery recovery.

Are you able to do strenuous things after rehabbing with physical therapy? MY biggest problem right now is that when I need to lift and move with something, any twisting motion in my leg means I'll be painfully sore for 2 or 3 days afterward. Even something simple like putting in my years firewood becomes something I dread because I know I'm going to need a week to recover. I'd love to avoid surgery if PT can put me on the right path. I'd also like to maintain my fitness through running and cycling, but beggars can't be choosers.

Homard wrote:

Are you able to do strenuous things after rehabbing with physical therapy? MY biggest problem right now is that when I need to lift and move with something, any twisting motion in my leg means I'll be painfully sore for 2 or 3 days afterward. Even something simple like putting in my years firewood becomes something I dread because I know I'm going to need a week to recover. I'd love to avoid surgery if PT can put me on the right path. I'd also like to maintain my fitness through running and cycling, but beggars can't be choosers.

Yup, though IANAD and YMMV - I would get a recommendation from an orthopedic doctor rather than decide for/against surgery based on someone's experience in a web forum!

Also, strenuous for me sounds a lot less strenuous than strenuous for you

Had a friend go through it. Lots of rehab, takes quite a bit of time, but he's back to normal. The recovery is a pain in the butt, but it's not like you have a lot of choices here; a torn ligament is a torn ligament, and I wouldn't trust my knee for the rest of my life having to hope the other ligaments in my knee were going to compensate. It's not the kind of injury you're going to be able to hope away.

I had several torn ankle ligaments I had surgically reconstructed back in 2007. I had a month in a cast, six weeks on a cane, and another six weeks on crutches. Probably a good 7-8 months of PT, had to learn how to walk again. I'd had the injury for a while, and one of the reasons I had extra trouble in PT is I'd been compensating for the weakness in my right ankle, and was walking funny, which would have screwed up my recovery had I kept it up.

It sucks, but get it done. The older you get, the longer the recovery will take.

Don't worry, I'm going to have a good talk with the doctor. I do appreciate the discussion though as it puts my mind at ease and knowing the experiences of others gives me some background I wouldn't otherwise have. I'm only 38, which is fairly young. I'm also fit and active and depend on my legs for my living. I'm also no stranger to working through pain. I think I probably will push for repair, but in the end, it won't be my choice. Here in Canadanaland, the doctor chooses and that's that.

I blew out both ACLs playing lacrosse in college, each during a different season.
This was back in the early 90s, I would imagine procedures and therapy has improved since.

My Left knee was a total blown out ACL and some meniscus/MCL damage. Surgery was a graph of my hamstring to replace the ACL and they 'cleaned up' the MCL and meniscus. I could not do anything for about two weeks (?) and then I started basic leg lifts and exercises. It was a lot of therapy but it healed quick to basic mobility. Keep in mind this injury was bad. I think within two months I was back to running and rehabbing it to play the next year. Cybex machine once a month for testing. It worked out and I played the next year with no issues.

My right knee was injured 2 years later. Only a partial tear of the ACL and small meniscus damage. This was treated by cleaning up the frayed ACL. Was a in/out surgery, all arthroscopic. Rested a day or two and was fine afterwards. Not "PLAYING again" fine right away, but I could do basic things, light run and lift. Injury was in mid April and I played for a summer team. So I had to have been recovered by late June when practice started. Don't recall any issues with that.

I think you have to talk to your doctor and see if the surgery is all arthroscopic and go by his advice. If it is and there is truly no other damage, I would think you could be okay pretty quickly afterwards. Boat work in rolling seas… the ACL is what stabilizes your knee (if I remember right) so this may be a problem as you do need to heal. I would think 2 months would be fine if it is just a quick scope and nothing to severe. Don't baby it in therapy. Sounds like you would not (with cycling and your job) you sound active, so i would think you would be fine. It will be sore, but it goes away.

My best advice, is choose sport surgeon, if you can, they push therapy because their goal is to get the player BACK into their sport as soon as possible. I know friends who had similar injuries and were told to stay off it after surgery, take 3 months workers comp and stuff. Both my doctors were thru the college and did sports injuries only. In both cases I was doing therapy right away.

Don't know if any of this helps or puts any worries to rest. From what you described, sounds like you should be okay. A Partial tear they may just clean up the ACL. I was told, when it tears it 'looks like a mop' all those frayed edges and stuff. They clean that up thru the scope and your good to go. Your doctor and therapist will know better though. Good luck.

Hey, I had a full ACL replacement and partial Miniscus repair done in 2002 (arthroscopic) and agree that 2 months recovery should have you feeling a lot better (80% maybe? If you stick to your physical therapy). For me the pain wasn't bad at all -- I only took pain meds for about 2 days -- and the recovery was mainly getting my strength, flexibility, and stamina back.

Yes, I would second getting a sport surgeon and a physical therapist that works with athletes -- the PT will likely push you to a faster recovery than someone who is used to working with older, less active patients.

Good luck! It's really not a bad surgery at all. I'm sure it's improved in the last 10 years, too.

If you're still running and cycling, stop! I can't imagine running with a partially torn ACL. When you talk about replacement surgery, are you talking full knee replacement? You wouldn't need that unless your cartilage is gone, which they would have seen in the MRI. So it's just a matter of them repairing that ACL and, as others say, about 2 months of recovery. However, everyone is of course different. If it takes longer for you to recover, so be it. Don't push it. The risk is too great and you could screw up your knee for life.

The physical therapy is of supreme importance. Follow the physical therapy exactly and you will recover faster and be much stronger in the long run. Also, as others have said, sports doctor.

So I popped the end of my patellar tendon out of my tibia, partially tore my ACL, and did some meniscus damage as well several years ago. They only reattached my patellar tendon, and had me do PT for the other two. It took me about 4 months to recover, but I was a bad patient and didn't really push my PT as much as I should have. Your age will also have a lot to do with how long your recovery is, I did this when I was 35.

Not only did I run on a torn ACL, I ran 3 races in consecutive weekends on it. a 5K, 25K bike, 3K duathlon, an 8K race and a 4K, 30K, 4K duathlon. All this was because my doctor and PT both told me I had nothing wrong and that I should keep working through it while stretching and strengthening. I won't be going back to said PT again for sure. Amazingly, these races didn't leave me with anything but maybe a day or 2 of increased soreness. Carrying around 50lb weights while walking has done a number on me in recent weeks though.

Cycling seems to be fine and often helps. I've read a lot of recommendations to cycle as much as possible before surgery to increase muscle mass. Anyway, I continue to appreciate anecdotes and I'll know more Friday.

I know a guy who about blew out his knee; torn ACL, torn MCL. He was back to mostly normal after about 6 months post surgery, doing heavy running, lifting, etc.

Personally, I had orthoscopic surgery for a torn medial meniscus in 2008; I was back to normal after four months or so. It's still sore now and again though, but nowhere near what it was before surgery.

If you actually do have a partially torn ACL you should rest it. If you continue with intense running and biking your are going to completely tear it and will not have much of a choice; You will have to have surgery. I am not an orthopedic surgeon, but I am a doctor, and you are not doing yourself any favors by continuing to put stress on an injured ligament. You either need to rest it now and let it heal, or you will likely have to have reconstructive surgery once it completely tears. I don't want to come off sounding like a jerk, but ACL reconstruction is no joke... even after surgery your joint will never be as good/stable as before.

As soon as I found out it was a torn ligament (about a month ago) I immediately put a stop to running and have only done light cycling on a trainer. My problem up until that point was that I was being encouraged to continue running and cycling by my doctor and physio because they had both misdiagnosed me. I am currently resting it as much as I possibly can because the last thing I want to do is make it worse...it's bad enough already.

I work in Physical Therapy and can answer the question about how long the rehab will take. It will vary based on multiple factors. In your favor is that you have great muscle tone, downside is a short window. Be faithful to the program designed for you and talk to the doctors and your therapist about a brace. With the nature of your work, it will help protect your knee while it finishes healing. Good Luck!

Wow, that sounds horrible. Hope you get better soon.

I have a knee problem at the moment where my right knee kinda hurts in between the joints when I stand up sometimes/or walk upstairs. It isn't all the time and not super painful yet but I think I should go get it seen to. Who should I go to? A physio or a doctor?

Well, I had my appointment today. First off, I'll say that MRI is an incredible piece of technology. I was able to see my whole knee in 3D....wow. After a whole battery of tests by both the doctor and an attending medical student, they decided that my knee was completely stable and that the tear in my ACL was minor. They also were concerned that they couldn't say for sure that the ACL tear wasn't an old injury. In the end, much to my dismay, the do nothing and wait an see approaches are what are going to be used for the time being. I have been prescribed a customized and very expensive brace and told to have at it. The ortho doctor recommended as much cycling as humanly possible as it's the best risk free way of strengthening a knee.

When I realized that the wait and see approach was what was coming, I actually broke into a cold sweat and felt sick to my stomach in the doctors office. That was my initial reaction to knowing that I'd be riding the pain train for a long time with no end in sight. Upon 6 hours or so of reflection, I think this is the right course and no matter how much I want a quick fix, there just isn't one. I need to own it and do everything in my power to make it better on my own. If I can't get any joy, I can always try to head down the surgery path later. I think the toughest part of this is going to be getting over the mental hump of using my knee with a brace normally and trusting it.

Is it a Townsend brace? I love those. I consider mine to be one of my favorite and most valuable possessions! They are remarkably light and comfortable and strong (which is why they are so damn expensive). It won't take you long to get used to whatever knee brace you're prescribed.

I believe the company is Breg. I view braces fairly skeptically. Science doesn't seem to favor them. They do seem to provide subjective benefits to brace wearers, so I figure every little bit helps. My own subjective view of my somewhat crappy elastic brace that I use now is that it makes everyday activites much more comfortable.

For anyone who might have interest in this. I have been wearing my brace working and also cutting wood this winter. I feel great when the brace is on my leg. Unfortunately, whenever the brace is off my leg, it is loose and more painful than ever even if I'm just laying around. The knee is getting looser. If I could get some sort of cyber implant brace, I'd be all set I guess. For now, I'm unable to cycle or run at all and have constant knee pain. The good news: I've been put on a waiting list for an exploratory scope today. The bad news: The waiting list is well over a year long.

Just had my left knee scoped on Tuesday to clean up a torn meniscus. Spent Tuesday and Wednesday on the couch and am walking around on crutches now and doing my PT. Why so long for the waiting list for the exploratory scope?

Sway wrote:

Why so long for the waiting list for the exploratory scope?

Homard wrote:

Here in Canadanaland

cheeba wrote:
Homard wrote:

Here in Canadanaland

Ah, yes, went back and re-read that. Best of luck on the wait. The scope, itself, was a snap. Not even sure my doctor put down his coffee to do it.

Even for Canada, it's a pretty excessive wait. That's how it goes though. It could be much worse, I could be looking at not being able to do anything about it because I can't afford it.