ACL Reconstructive Surgery

M

MitchConnors

Member
My ACL surgery is a week from thursday. I know its for the best, but im pretty fucking nervous, what are peoples experiences with it and the recovery?
 
the worst part about it is not being able to do anything for a long ass time. i was in excruciating pain one morning because i forgot to take my PK the night before.
 
dude, i was nervous too don't sweat it. It went so smooth for me! I gotta admit right after i woke up my knee hurt a lot but they managed my pain really well with the morphine. When i got home i pretty much just played cod for a week straight it was chill and after rehabing a couple of months im pretty much all healed up now
 
youll be fine use the drugs but dont abuse them, youll be back as soon as you want to be just work out really hard and make sure you get your range of motion back as soon as you can, and yoga will work wonders as far as getting comfy on your knee goes
 
cryo cuff worked pretty well, just had to change the water every now and then. i got percoset and oxycontin for my pks. along with 800 mg ibuprofen
 
ya man the cyro wasn't that big of a deal, just change the water when it gets luke warm and you'll be good. The pain meds were the best part though
 
Got surgery March 23...just went to the doc last week and he gave me the ok to ski and do whatever I feel...I injured myself by getting cut off while riding a 45-55-60 jumpline on my last speed check run...spent a whole week building the jumps and was pretty fucking excited with how they turned out...two people went rolling over the knuckle and two where standing on the backside of the takeoff as I was cruising up the takeoff on the second jump...I freeked and turned slightly to the right to avoid killing my customers...completely jumped away from the pile for the jump and went about 60 feet distance and fell from about 30+ feet onto the deck of a small jump next to the main jumpline...landed tumbled and really didn't feel much pain...got up walked around and sat back down cuz i had no strenght...waited for a snowmobile ride got up and right knee collapsed...after x-rays and MRI found i tore my acl meniscus and had an impact fracture on my femur...did three weeks of physical therapy so I coud walk again and then had surgery...walked the day of surgery with a straight braice never really used the crutches...took some painmeds and had one of those thermocooler things and that with the painmeds worked magic...couldn't do much strength training or cardio until mid august because of the impact fracture but i used the time to do as many of the range of motion exercises as i could...now i have a personal trainer who makes me vomit and passout three times a week...i thought i would never get the range of motion back but i did...can pull my knee all the way to my duff...still is slightly swollen, like very little but noticable and doesn't feel 100% but i think some of it is mental...when trying to regain strenght don't forget the other knee...i know some people who worked so much on the bad knee that they ended up tearing the other knee the next season because of the lack of mucsle to stabalize it........well now that my novel is complete i gues i will say good luck......i wanted to write something up about it on here so i guess if you felt kinda how i did before surgery it helps to hear stuff from others
 
woke up and couldn't feel my legs. The doctors hadn't done anything that would've caused it and none of them could exlplain why it happened. after about a week i got full feeling back.
Sorry to be a dick if this freaks you out haha but thats my story
 
This is just one of those things in life that is similar to guniepiggin a jump...u got a pretty good idea of how fast and well most of the time it works out...sometimes your a little short and scatch the knuckle or land a little deep...or a gust of wind grabs you and you fuck up big...you gotta do it so get ready for some awsome painmeds!!!surgery didn't really hurt much at all...getting back range of motion was about as bad as it got.... well i take that back droppin a turd and wipe'n my ass was the worst....showers and takin a dump will be an adventure!!!
 
don't stress it man, you will be fine. not being able to do anything too physical for a while totally blows, but use that time to chill and learn something new. maybe pick up guitar or some other kind of hobby you have been wanting to get into. and rehab rehab rehab. take that shit seriously you will be glad you did. oh and talk to your dr. about braces and stuff for the next time you get on the snow. my dr set me up with a company called townsend design i believe, they sent a rep out to my house and took all the measurements of my leg and hooked me up with a custom brace. it's super comfy and i don't even notice i am wearing it anymore, best part was that my insurance paid for it.

good luck man, you will be back at it before you know it
 
got mine at the end of may. The surgery went really smoothly and the only bad part about it was the pain which honestly wasn't that horrible i was walking with a leg brace in a week and half. I was out of the leg brace on flat ground in 2 and half. I'm still not able to play sports, but that comes next month so im mad pumped. All in all though youll be fine its just a long recovery and make sure u do ur physical therapy.
 
Insurance paid for my custom fit braice.............dont know totally what it feels like skiing but my personal trainer now is totaly worth the money.
 
I've never had acl surgery, but I've broken my knee cap twice from snowboarding, and have had 3 knee surgeries on it. Currently have two titanium screws in my left knee cap for life. I don't know how the pain will relate to an acl surgery, but from my experience definitely take the prescription pain med they give you before the nerve block wears off (if you're getting a nerve block), and stagger it with ibuprofen. So like every two hours you're taking something. By my third surgery I had it down to a science. That's really the only advice I can give you since recovering from a broken knee cap is a little different than a torn acl.
 
My brother had it done in may and he's almost fully functional now. He's got some work to do and is taking it easy but he's getting there. Maybe he'll post.
 
Where is your surgeon?

I had mine done last July in Banff. I wasn't nervous at all. I had a great surgeon and she really put me at ease in my meetings with her. She knew what needed to be done just by pulling on my leg. My PT was great as well. They both prepared me for what was going to happen. I knew a lot of other people that had ACL replacements as well. They helped me a ton too.

I was told I should get a brace if I could afford it. Luckily my insurance paid for it, so I was only out of pocket until I filed my receipts. I wore it before surgery for support at work, and now I only wear it to play sports and ski. I don't have to wear it, but I keep it on as a reminder to myself to slow down a bit.

I was on hydrocodone and aceteminophine for pain. I wasn't allowed to use a cryo-cuff, because I was taking part in a study. The worst pain was due to the arthritis I am developing in my knee. It ached where they drilled holes in my bones. The drugs wouldn't touch the pain, so I just stopped taking them because I was scared of getting hooked on painkillers.

I had two major issues after surgery. The first was trouble sleeping. I couldn't sleep an entire night, then I would be sleepy during the day and need a nap. Then I couldn't sleep at night. And so on. The second, which contributed to the sleep issues was night sweats. I would spike a fever and sweat so heavily, I would wake up and have to change the sheets on my bed. Sometimes I got up and put dry sheets on three times a night. It was so bad that my pillows were soaked with sweat as well.

PT was rad. I met some cool people and some hot girls there. The harder you work, and the more time you put into physio, the better your recovery will be. And listen to your surgeon. If they say no skiing until January, no skiing until January. It will be worth it, they know what they're talking about.

 
My surgery is in Ottawa, ive had all the convos with the surgeons, physiotherapists and so on but it's my first surgery so im naturally going to be nervous. The surgeon said a brace was a thing of preference but i shouldnt need one. Is arthritis a common thing in people experiences?
 
My surgery is in Ottawa, ive had all the convos with the surgeons, physiotherapists and so on but it's my first surgery so im naturally going to be nervous. The surgeon said a brace was a thing of preference but i shouldnt need one. Is arthritis a common thing in people experiences?
 
Definitely follow your PT regimen, I forgot to mention that. My last surgery was 7 years ago, and my left leg is still a little skinnier than my right because I wasn't as dedicated to the PT stuff while at home as I should have been.
 
This was my first surgery. I think the only person that was more relaxed than me was the janitor. Do you trust your surgeon? Do you trust your PT? Does you knee feel good now? It will feel good after. This is the start of your journey. If anything I was excited. I was looking forward to not having pain in my leg, not having to worry about walking down stairs. Surgeon told me I don't need to wear it anymore either, but I worked hard to get back to where I am. I don't want to do it again. It's just a reminder to me.

The arthritis is just something that was starting to develop in my knee before I hurt it. I'm older than most NS out there, but as Indiana Jones said "It's not the years, it's the mileage".
 
haha sick quote "It's not the years, it's the mileage". Im excited to not have pain, and move on with my life, i guess its just fear of the unknown. Ive been told everything, but the experience is still unknown. Of course i trust my surgeon or else i would be going through with it and the pt are some of the best in the city. I guess i will have to wait till next thursday and just start in the adventure
 
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