Blew out my second ACL this weekend

Hey Will, did you have your surgery today?? If so, hope it went smooth. Give us a report!!

I'm scheduled for May 11.

 

Good to hear you were able to discuss the options with your surgeon. Being comfortable in the procedure and your surgeon is key. My TKR process taught me that. Certainly know what you mean about range of motion & the choice of one good & one bad. That is why I elected not to have surgery on my good right knee's ACL tear. I knew the degenerative condition of my left would not fair during the recovery process.
None of it is easy and it good to hear you have a date & a solid plan for yourself.

 

Ben/All,

Wanted to updated you guys - I had my surgery back on the 28th. Took about 90 mins for the procecure. Donor area was patella tendon (not hamstring as I originally stated). After reading through this post and doing some further research, patella seemed to be the option I was most interested in. I went back in to speak to the doc and before I even began explaining, he told me it would be patella and this was his preference. I liked the BTB connection someone mentioned earlier, and I also heard the donor region of the patella heals back. I did not want to do cadaver or pig, but he did have a backup allograft just in case.

I was in a fair amount of pain for the first 2 days. It was almost as painful as the original injury. Now there is only mild pain but I've been staying on my back with my knee elevated and iced. The 6th is my post-op appt so assuming I will get cleared for physical threapy at that time.

MRI had revealed bone bruising but luckily it was not severe enough to require any different treatment. In summary, I'm happy with the experience and looking forward to my rehab. I wish I knew enought to be able to give you a comparison between hamstring and patella...

 

i blew mine out on my dirtbike. it was my left knee. i went with the graft and im happy so far. only 2 half months post op and ahead of rehab schedual!!

 

I blew mine out back in january while skiing and had surgery in february. I did the hamstring graft. As of two weeks ago i was already back to running, lifting weights and ice skating. I dont really even notice it to much any more. I've been shocked by the quick turn around, although i'm still surprised by how much muscle mass i lost in my thigh from the 2-3 weeks where i was on crutches. Just make sure that you follow what your therapist recommends to a T, and you'll be fine. Good luck with the surgery!

 

Blew out the ACL and Meniscus in my right leg about two years ago. My doc recommended and used cadaver graft. It took about six months to get back to running and about a year for full range of motion and having the confidence to do what ever I wanted to do. Good luck to your recovery.

 

BTB FTW

 

I haven't had mine done, but I replace several a week. I'm a Physician Assistant for a group of Orthopedic surgeons, so if you have any questions about the procedure, or pros vs. cons on different grafte, don't hesitate to shoot me a pm.

 

ouch!! . . . never done blown out an ACL but i did break my right knee clean in half. The patella bone, two pieces. doctor said he had never seen a complete down the center clean break. . . now it just hurts when it rains
good luck to you.

 

Which technique to yall favor patellar tendon autograft, hammys or cadaver? We're pretty much exclusively patellar tendon but it is fun with the occasional gigantic chunk of cadaver tissue to work with.

 

Thanks everyone for the good wishes and for relaying your personal experiences!

Will - good to hear the surgery went well. How is the range of motion at this point? I'm pretty sure I want to do patella too.

I'm angling to do an opposite knee (contralateral) patellar graft this time -- i.e., take the patella from the leg that is already somewhat comprimised by a previous ACL reconstruction rather than comprimise a whole new leg.

But I'm not convinced that my surgeon is comfortable with the idea. I'm meeting him again on Thursday to talk about it some more. He used to do only patellar grafts back in the day like 15 years ago, then transitioned to doing mostly hammies and cadavers. Just want to make sure I'm not taking him out of his comfort zone at all. I'd rather have him talk me into something that i'm not 100% comfortable with than me talk him into something that he's not 100% comfortable with. After all he's the guy with the knife in his hand.


jrobson and/or airun - do you guys have any experience with contralateral graft surgeries? Is it a lot more work for the operation? I mean obviously, there are more sutures to cut and button up, but in the end is it a lot more effort on the operating team's part than operating on just one leg?

 

Man, that's pretty quick! Be careful not to push it too hard too soon.

But I know what it's like to be eager....my first ACL surgery was in Feb 2003 and I did a 60 mile road bike race that May, exactly 3 months post hamstring graft -- completely 100% against my surgeons recommendations, but the race went fine.

 

try using your hands

 

So I may have done the same thing I go in for an MRI today.

 

Bummer. What happened?

What's up with all the Washingtonians here lately with busted knees?

 

Our guys tend to use a hamstring tendon autograft. This has proven to have less complications over the long run and our patients have shown the best results with the hammy's.

 

I am on my second ACL in my left knee, both from snowboarding. First one was a hamstring graft from the left knee in 2005. Tore it again last year jumping off a 40ft cliff in Jackson backcountry. This time my surgeon, who also is a US ski team doctor, took a portion of my hamstring from my right leg to put in my left knee. DO whatever your surgeon feels comfortable with, and go to one THAT DOES THESE SURGERIES OFTEN. Mine does multiple ACL's in a week, a common injury in a ski town. Make sure you shop around for a surgeon and get the best guy for the job, it is your leg and your life afterall. Mine has the hamstring technique down pat and did a fantastic job on the surgery. And he cost the same as the other guys in town who are not ski team docs and do a few of these a year.

After surgery, get a GOOD physical therapist, because a GOOD PT is KEY in your recovery. DOnt expect to have the new ligament put in and thats it. You need to commit 2+ hours a day in the gym rehabing your knee. Otherwise the surgery is pointless and wont work.

After 4 months, I was running 4miles a day, hiking with my 30lb chainsaw+45 pound fire pack up and down mountains all over the west, and outhiking kids on my 20 person crew who are 10 yrs younger than me. BUt I really put my time in at the gym and PT, and that was key to my recovery. This season was a record snow year here in Jackson and I have snowboarded over 120 days without problems. Today, I ran 5 miles in 35 minutes Funny, because with all the meniscus they cut out and major pain, I started to lose hope I would ever run, snowboard, hike ECT again....DONT GIVE UP. Work through it. Getting your knee strong after your surgery is the most important thing.

I am a wildland firefighter for the FS/BLM in the summer and my legs are my moneymaker so I took my surgery/rehab very seriously, as should any active person. It will only turn out a good as YOU make it. Good luck to you.

1. Get the right surgeon for the job
2. Get a good PT
3. Get gym membership and use it
4. Get knee strong before surgery, helps with recovery
5. It isnt the end of the world, it will hurt A LOT, but you will recover
6. PM me if you have anymore questions

 

OP - how did you surgery go 2 days ago? Hope all went well and best wishes for your recovery. I've been off the computer for a week or two now and just getting back online. I now have 85% ROM 2 weeks following surgery and I am off crutches and brace. Like someone mentioned before, I'm surprised at the atrophy in my quads. However I am also amazed that such a procedure can be performed and I can already bear full weight and slowly walk around and up stairs.

PT has been a great help. The first few days following surgery I only remember bits and pieces. Lots of pain meds, decent amount of actual pain. A week after surgery, I was getting clear-headed, but getting up and moving around for an hour would completely exhaust me. Tried to vacuum a little once and it felt like I sprained both my ankles a few hours later. Toddler is still running laps around me but I'm feeling better every day. Today I can see a definite decrease in swelling. Stay positive!

Sounds from the thread like we can all start a support group for blown out knees. I even see a thread on TW for dogs that blow their ACL. I have a friend whose rotty was playing in the snow and tore 1 partially, 1 completely.

 

I'm hangin in there, still pretty much bedridden. This is day 3 post-op, and so far I have made a few daring treks from my bed to the bathroom, and even hung out on my sofa for a couple hours last night...but mostly I've been laying low. The first 48hours the day after surgery were rough. Really rough. Once the anesthesia wore off the pain kicked in in a major way, relentlessly, in both knees. Oxycodone didn't even make a dent. Utter agony the whole night of day 1 post op. Man, I thought that night would never end, I counted every second, lol. But I rounded the pain corner and I'm feeling better overall. I already worked to get my full extension back here at day 3 (remember, I did opposite knee graft harvest so that leaves me with two knees that were cut open that need full rehab). I have about 90 degrees flexion on my reconstructed knee, and about 120 degrees flexion on my graft harvest knee. That SOB seriously hurts on that side when I try to flex past 130 or so. That's the biggest thing is gettin ROM back as soon as comfortably possible. My quads are already shot, too, after only a couple days of being inoperative. Totally useless. Anyway, thanks for checkin in. You will be back to most activities before you know it man. It's getting past that first few weeks that is the tough part. Hang in there! I'm counting on you to give me reports of the light at the end of my tunnel!

 

I feel for you had my replaced (cadaver) last Feb. I'm back to work but my knee still wanders in and out of socket (my best guess.) Get good PT. I had issues with my surgen, and insurance cost me a good recovery. Best of luck to you, I imagine all will be well because I am pretty happy with what I have now and I find I had mistakes made by the pros in my case.