ACL Tear

[Kaisu]

Thanks for the replies.

I am extremely worried about the rehab process.

Don't sweat it. I spent an hour on the stationary bike per day. - no resistance. It was awesome. The knee that moves is the knee that heals... big plus.. no weight gain.. actually weight loss... due to the bike.

I saw a physiotherapist for about 3 weeks. It was difficult for me to get to it (45 minutes away) and I took over the rehab process on my own. I am motivated and educated about my body. I don't recommend everyone do without a PT, but my knee is great.

I've read about tendonitis and pain when kneeling on the donor site in post op patellar tendon graft surgery. My surgeon doesn't like the hamstring tendons and said the allograft (cadaver donor) would be the worst choice in his opinion. He is actually the third surgeon I saw and was the only one that gave me what i would call a "no BS" assessment of my situation and options. He told me what was going to work and what was not going to work then explained why. So I feel pretty good about the surgery itself. Of course that's only based on my gut feeling.

I love the way your surgeon thinks and I think he is right on the money. The hamstring is the natural ally of the ACL. Over developed quads with underdeveloped hamstrings are one of the predispositions to ACL rupture. Why disrupt the hamstring?

The other benefit of the patella graft - bone to bone at both fixation ends.

The allograft is a nightmare. Adds about 10K to the cost of the surgery and you have NO guarantee where that graft came from. Google "body parts ring" to see what I mean. It has a higher failure rate than the patella also. I have no issues with kneeling or tendinitis. There is a reason it is the gold standard.

Trust your gut.

Good luck!

[Redcell19512]

Well, I had the surgery on September 2nd. Everything went well. I had a little bit of pain at the patellar tendon donor site after surgery, I'd say it was a 4 out of 10. By day two I had no pain while in bed and minimal pain while walking. I haven't needed the vicodin since the first day of surgery. I started rehab 5 days post op (it was late because of the labor day holiday). I was already at Zero degrees extension which they said was the "hard part" at this stage anyway. I'm currently up to 116 degrees of flexion. I have a great therapist. She keeps telling me she's going to push me to my limit, and I keep telling her that she's "failed..try harder next time".

Since things were going so well I guess I had to be knocked down a peg or two. My girlfriend and I were out driving this past Thursday and an elderly driver decided to turn and cross into our lane of traffic (we have no idea where she was going...had she completed her turn she would have been in somebody's front lawn. She hit us on the driver side front corner panel and totaled her car and my girlfriends. I'm not sure how but I ended up without a scratch on me, wasn't even sore the next day. I was even able to pop my girlfriend's door open after the crash (not bed for a week post op). My gf's hands are swollen and bruised and she's got a nasty contusion from the seatbelt.

I learned a few things. Bigger cars are good to have. Sitting back away from the airbag is a good idea (it never touched me). Seatbelts are super. And...no matter how good a driver you are, you are only as safe as the worst driver who is passing you at any given time.