torn acl

[FTC]

so whats the deal am i fucked or what?

ive been postin a lot lately since the last 2 weeks ive been home sittin on my ass cause i jacked up my knee. x rays showed no broken bones, possible tiny chip in the middle of the knee joint. had an mri last friday and today they told me the acl is toast.

right now i can walk but somethin definitely isnt right, lots of fluid and it pops and clicks when i walk.

how long does a recovery take? they were sayin take a hamstring tendon and put it in place of the acl? does that sound right?

 

[tbone01]

I ripped mine and waited near 4 years to fix ended up have to do a extreme surgury called osteotomy(sp?).I tell you now get it fixed ASAP and go with the cadaver ACL the down time is a hell of alot less.Good luck,Peace T

 

[Hugemidget]

I completely torn mine 2 1/2 years ago. Had it rebuilt and its better then ever. Only thing was it took a good 3-4 months of physio and no heavy leg training for about 8 months. good luck and hit me up if you have any other questions

 

[OLYMPIAN]

I completely torn mine 2 1/2 years ago. Had it rebuilt and its better then ever. Only thing was it took a good 3-4 months of physio and no heavy leg training for about 8 months. good luck and hit me up if you have any other questions

I had surgery done.. but it took me around 6 months of physio..that was 7 years ago.

 

[Hugemidget]

yeah come to think of it, I didn't cut those numbers a lil short. I prolly didnt start leg training again for about 7-8 months. Oh man what a shitty year that was..

 

[FTC]

sounds like lots of therapy. next question is how long till you guys were movin around on it? my job entails climbing wood poles with hooks, and staying up there for a few hours to work. i want to get back asap but healthy of course...

 

[Hugemidget]

I was off work for 5 weeks and that wasn't enough. Be prepared to be off your feet for 3-4 weeks and no real labour for at least 4-6 min

 

[ALLO]

I used to work in surgery and my specialty was orthopedics, so I can give you the low down on an ACL repair, how it goes and whatnot, and you decide if it is for you. For a normal everyday person( non athlete) ACL repair probably isn't necessary, but for an athlete, it is an absolute must. You can have it 1 or two ways. A cadaver Acl can be shipped in( sutured in the morning before you roll in the O R, or the doctor can take part of your patella tendon, part of your kneecap, and part of your tibia to make you a new ACL. In my area, it really wasn't the patients choice for 1 reason and 1 reason only, COST. It is cheaper to harvest one from your own body, but we have done them both ways.

Depending on what suture the doctor uses, it is ALMOST impossible to tear a reconstructed ACL. The screws that are used on either end to hold both pieces of bone in are screwed directly into the bone, so the bone will grow over it, same with the cadever ACL, only there isn't bone on both ends of it. Alot of time the suture used to reinforce the graft is made from the same material kevlar vests are made from, so it is pretty damn strong. Rehab? Very long and very painful, but then again, ACL reconstruction has put professional athletes back on the field. Good luck.

 

[J.Matrix]

Sorry to hear FTC. I tore mine about 5 years ago during football. ACL, catrilage on both sides, fractured my femur and had something else happen but I can't remember what the doc said. Anyways, I used my hamstring tissue for the surgery, my hammy burned like a sonuvabitch when I woke up in recovery, and it'll hurt over the next couple of weeks if you try to flex it, but it's nothing you can't handle. As far as rehab, they had me bending my knee the NEXT DAY after the operation and for the next 6 months I was doing rehab. That is by far the worse part, but when it's over, it's over. I was off my feet and on crutches for the first 4 weeks following the operation. It's a terrible injury and a bitch to rehab from, but honestly you'll bounce back from it. The last day of my rehab was 2 days before our first game of the season and I was cleared to play and had a great year. It just takes time and is painful at points, but it's worth it when it's all over. Good luck bro

 

[FTC]

well i dont consider myself a pro athlete by any means, but i like to play hard- dirtbikes, snowboards, heavy weights, and my job is really physically demanding- climbing wood poles and being out around the clock butstin ass.

given the choice what is the preferred method? i read the patellar tendon is stronger than the hamstring, hows the cadaver? i think my doc is gonna push the hammy tendon...

oh, and am i ever gonna hit a nice deep set of squats with 4+ again?
im goin stir crazy over here!

 

[ALLO]

well i dont consider myself a pro athlete by any means, but i like to play hard- dirtbikes, snowboards, heavy weights, and my job is really physically demanding- climbing wood poles and being out around the clock butstin ass.

given the choice what is the preferred method? i read the patellar tendon is stronger than the hamstring, hows the cadaver? i think my doc is gonna push the hammy tendon...

oh, and am i ever gonna hit a nice deep set of squats with 4+ again?
im goin stir crazy over here!

The reason the patella tendon is stronger than any of the other is that both end of the graft are bone. Cadaver and hamstring grafts are all tissue. A cadaver graft probably cuts about 2 hours off your surgery time.