ACL Tears

loganimlach

loganimlach

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I know almost everyone big in skiing has gotten the news at one point or another that they had tore their acl. Many people ski without them with the help of braces. But getting the news today that i need surgery to replace it with a cadaver acl and repair damaged miniscus made my heart feel like it was getting torn out of my chest. For you that have had the surgery, what was your recovery time like? How did you handle the down time? And those of you that didnt, how does it feel when you keep skiing on it? I'm just venting, and looking for some answers, so anything you got, lemme know.
 
Hey, sorry to hear about your knee. i blew mine a while ago and it was one of the most devastating things ever, but you get through it. I didn't ski on mine after I blew it cuz 1) cuz mine killed like a bitch and 2) you start to depend so much on your other leg and i know people that have blown their second just by skiing after. I think most doctors will tell you you have to wait about 4 months to start turning again, and 6 months to start jumping or doing any kind of intense stuff. I'm probably not saying much that you dont know, but whatever. From my experience and most people I know that have had it done, the month after surgery is pretty shitty.. youre going to love those painkillers after surgery haha. Make sure you get a good physio that knows what they're doin, and make sure you dont just workout ur new knee cuz I know people that have gone back and blown the other knee (that would suck...) Keep your head up high, go into surgery knowing that you'll ski again soon and yeah, time doesnt ZOOM by but after a month or two, you'll start to feel pretty good and you'll be in the gym and workin feelin good. You'll have lots of time for mental preparation cuz I guess to me and alot of people half the trick is being able to visualize right? haha maybe thats just me... well anyways I've been told not to set dates with goals (not too specific) cuz everyone's diff and everyone heals in diff times. If you expect too much of yourself you're just going to be disappointed when you don't get to ski after that 4 month mark. Day by day, set your goals like that. Oh ya and you'll see that your knee might not feel good for a while.. and then you'll be all like damn whats going on, and then it'll just rocket and you'll be stoked. So don't let yourself get too down, think about how many skiers have gone through it and come back even stronger. Welcome to the club and goodluck ;)
 
Don't get a cadaver, get a graft.  If you get a cadaver, your body can reject the tissue and you can have to get more surgeries and healing time will be like a year and a half instead of 4-6 months--that's what happened to one of my friends.  I had a quadruple semitendinosus only hamstring graft and I was skiing around hitting rails preseason in a little over 4 months (and it hurt then, but at 5 months it was fine), and my graft is now 300% the strength of my old ACL.  Healing time varies a lot depending on what kind of surgery you get.  The patellar tendon thing takes forever.  
 
Also, get your legs as strong as possible and get as much of your range of motion back as possible before surgery because the better you are going in, the better you're going to come out. You will loose a lot of your muscle and have to get it all back.  I would also try to get surgery as soon as you can because the longer you wait, the longer it's going to be before you can ski the way you probably want to.
 
Li
You the man buddy...So sorry to hear but you are a strong kid and will be back shreddin harder than ever...keep your chin up man...
 
i had acl surgery in may and i was back on skis by mid december. i took it real easy at first pretty much just skiing circles n squares. eventually i got more confident in the strength of my knee and became comfortable going faster and skiing steeper terrain. i started hitting rails this month. n i'm not gonna jump til next year because i don't want to risk re-injury too soon. it's best to just take things slow and move to the next level when you think you're ready. don't just go out and jump the first day back.

after surgery pretty much sucks for a while. just take it slow and don't rush anything. make sure you do all your p.t. and get your knee strong. it's a bitch but in the end all the p.t. pays off. my doctor told me i could start jogging after 4 months and get back to sports after 6 months and be at 100% in about a year so it is a long recovery process.
 
I'm going through the same thing, i just tore my ACL this past saturday, actually it was a complete acl and partial mcl tear. I've been told its a longer off time for skiing but i go in to see the doctor again in a few days so hopefully i'll get better news. I believe im doing a hamstring graft, there is a very slight chance a cadaver will not strengthen completly, the only real upside to it is the immediate recovery is slightly less painful so im just goin with my own.
 
yo, i tore my left acl 4 years ago, and my right acl 4 days ago. after surgery sucks a lot, but only for a month. after the first month, you'll notice it starts feeling better pretty quick, as long as you do lots of rehab. don't slack on the rehab, and try to include it in your daily routine and lifestyle. Buy a road bike, or light mtn bike if you dont have one already and ride everyday. also look into buying your own ultrasound machine (www.sonicrelief.com) . Ice everyday. avoid impact sports. eat well: lots of protein, calcium and vitamins and minerals. take glucosomine and chondritin sulfate pills as well as cod liver oil pills (this helps strengthen and lubricate joints and soft tissue). go swimming lots. do lots of balance exercises; you'll probably want to make yourself a balance board out of an old skate deck and a 2litre bottle filled with water. do lots of tension/resistance exercises with rubber tubes/bands. your physiotherapist will fill you in on the rest. good luck
 
This is what I said in another ACL thread..:

I tore mine in late February almost two years ago now. When I was little, I was taught to basically be a hardass about injuries and not complain if something hurts. To just suck shit up and keep going. I have a pretty high pain threshold, I won't lie. After I initially tore it and heard a pop and everything, I thought that I just tweaked it or something so I actually hit another rail afterward. I straight up collapsed and it took me a while to get back up. I gues someone had called ski patrol but I gritted my teeth and told them i was fine. I had surgery on St. Patty's Day about a month later. I'd say the most painful part was honestly when they drained it a few weeks before surgery. Either that or the few days after surgery when everything just aches really fucking bad and no amount of hycrocodine or whatever can make it go away. If you have big dogs that like to run into you, watch out haha. It's pretty damn sensitive right after surgery. But all that goes away fairly quickly. I stopped using crutches a little under a week out.. I fucking hated them. I'd rather be gimpy as fuck..but that's just me. I got a custom CTi brace about 5 months later or so? To be honest I was almost fully recovered by August that year, and I should have done a little moe rehab. I felt great by ski season but I still used my brace all of that year. Mental rehab's the most challenging part. I still won't hit down rails. But anyway, my knee has only bothered me a few times in the past year, and that's if I work it really hard. Like, long ass mountain bike ride, skiing 3 feet of pow in Alta a few weeks ago, that sort of thing.

OH I just remembered..with me anyway, about a year after I had surgery the scar tissue began to break up. And it happens at the most random times but holy fuck that is painful. My knee would give out and have the sharpest pain shoot through it. That lasted a month or two. It goes away. I'm not sure if that happens to everyone though.

I tore my ACL and my meniscus. I had a hamstring graft, and I reccomend it moreso than a patella graft..but that's just me.
 
i messed up my knee Oct 28th, and had surgery dec 12th, hamstring graft for the acl, they repaired my medial miniscus with a couple of screws, and salvaged what was left of my other miniscus. Make sure you work hard before your operation. its definitly key, you wanna get as much range of motion and muscle mass back as you can before you go into surgery. Before surgery i felt strong enough to ski without an acl but its not worth the risk, you'll end up fucking it up more. My buddy skied on his knee without an acl for 2 years and eventually he fucked it up so bad that the miniscuses inverted or some shit and his knee locked. He still got to ski for those two years but not as hard as he wanted and recovery for him took much longer than if he had gotten surgery in the first place. make sure you do your PT and realize that this kind of injury takes time so there is no reason to rush the recovery or you'll end up doing it again. and nobody wants that. I havent gotten back on skis yet, but my knee feels great and i'm working on getting my strength back. Its crazy how fast you lose it. Get a wii or an xbox or something to keep yourself busy. who knows you could even read a book! Good luck and enjoy the pain pills.
 
i torn my acl, mcl, and meniscus. i had surgery two or three weeks ago. the first week sucks, the bending sucks, and the crutches suck. I should be able to ski again in july, but ill have like 5 permanent screws in my knee for the rest of my life.

and to the chick who said a cadaver is bad, thats bull shit. there is only like a 1% chance of rejection, healing time and time to 100% is actually quicker because your hamstring/patella aren't half gone.
 
from what my doc told me the longest recovery is the patella graft which is old school and not the way to go becasue sometimes it'll give you other knee probelms. There is a risk of rejecting a cadaver acl which would suck balls but its a good way to go besides the fact that you have a dead persons acl in you and who knows if the person your getting the acl from was athletic or what ya know?. I got a hamstring graft, no risk of rejection and after its healed the doc said the graft looks healthier than a cadaver becuase its your bodies own tissue. I'm 12 weeks out from surgery right now and the hamstring on the leg they took the graft from feels just as strong if not stronger than my other leg.
 
I'm Kinda scared for my knee right now, i havn't got to the doctor yet.

hope you have a fast revovery.
 
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