I tore my acl and both my medial and lateral meniscus in April and I got surgery at the end of may. My doctor said no aggressive skiing until late April next year so obviously no park skiing but I was wondering if I could go touring or something and take it mellow. The past few seasons I've been skiing over 100 days so I will be pretty bummed if I don't get to ski at all this season. I'm sure some of you guys have had this same injury so any feedback would be awesome.
Acl and meniscus recovery questions
- Thread starter BabyRoy
- Start date
sharhodes
Member
It's going to take a little while till you feel good enough to get aggressive again, took me a season or two to get comfortable. Touring in variable conditions could pose some threat. I would consider taking rehab pretty seriously to make sure you don't reinjure the knee. Good luck man
CT_CREW
Member
rehab hard (with real prescribed PT exercises) and don't come back too hard too soon. touring is good, gotta be smart though. I tore mine, did some PT and then hiked a bunch of mountains all summer, tried to come back hard while working park crew at keystone 1st season back. Two years of constant knee pain and problems later I'm going back under the knife twice for a bone graft, ACL, LCL, and Meniscus re-do.
As others have said, kill it in rehab. I hate to say it, but you should probably listen to the doctor. I tore my ACL in January of my sixth, and last, year living in Tahoe. I got the surgery in March. It sucked, but I was leaving the mountains for grad school so I didn't mind taking most of the next year off. The next season I got back into it as a weekender, 30-40 days a year. My ACL is fine a decade later. It would really suck to live in the mountains and not be able to ski much, but I would urge caution. If you do your rehab and take things slow with skiing you will be able to come back as strong as ever.
I tore my ACL in highschool in January, had it repaired in Febuary and was basically 100% playing football by October and had a great ski season after that. I rehabbed super hard but was careful to stick to what the PT recommended. I also was 17 so your body bounces back really well at that point in your life. Luckily I had a clean ACL tear with no other damage in the knee. They usually say 6-9 months for ACL recovery, possibly longer with complications. But, if you're lucky and you crush your rehab and everything goes smoothly, you could be cleared for cutting sports as soon as 5-6 months which would be awesome.
I had my lateral meniscus scoped this may and it wasn't a huge tear. I also broke 3 vertebrae, fractured my pelvis and tore my hip labrum in the same crash, but the only thing really bothering me at this point is my knee because my quad and hip flexor are so weak my patella tendon isn't tracking properly. My PT said it will probably be a full calendar year until that goes away. That has me worried about my ski season as well, but I'm just gonna crush PT everyday, live on a stationary bike, and hope for the best. Moral of the story, physical therapy is your new religion. Get those quads and hammies stronger than they've ever been before and you'll have a fun season no matter what. Even if you're not getting as sendy as you once did right away, you'll get back to where you were eventually.
I had my lateral meniscus scoped this may and it wasn't a huge tear. I also broke 3 vertebrae, fractured my pelvis and tore my hip labrum in the same crash, but the only thing really bothering me at this point is my knee because my quad and hip flexor are so weak my patella tendon isn't tracking properly. My PT said it will probably be a full calendar year until that goes away. That has me worried about my ski season as well, but I'm just gonna crush PT everyday, live on a stationary bike, and hope for the best. Moral of the story, physical therapy is your new religion. Get those quads and hammies stronger than they've ever been before and you'll have a fun season no matter what. Even if you're not getting as sendy as you once did right away, you'll get back to where you were eventually.
B-100
Member
Go slow, wear a knee brace, and hit some groomers just to try and get the feeling of skiing back with your new knee. It will suck at first but waiting until you feel good and then easing back in will be better than redoing your knee and being away from skiing for even longer. At least you'll be able to spend days on snow instead of watching your friends tear it up without you for all of next season because you wanted to push it before your knee was ready.