Has anyone had ACL surgery?

[Hopscotch]

18 year old daughter tore her ACL in Feb skiing. She also had a minor fracture in her kneecap. Based on the MRI and the examination, they think most likely also tore her meniscus but they won't know until they get in there for surgery. Just wondering for anyone who has had this surgery, how bad was the recovery? Daughter is usually in pretty good shape but since she's been on crutches for 3 months she is pretty out of shape right now. She did start doing pre-op physical therapy a couple weeks ago. She's only met with a doctor near her college so I haven't been to any of the appointments. Would love to hear from anyone who has had this surgery to hear how it went.

 

[tazdev3225]

My grandson went through this for the past year. He's 15 and a 2 sport athlete. He tore the ACL and a minor meniscus tear the 1st week of February, surgery was in Mid March and was out of sports completely til January. The surgery was not fun and he was in a pain but by the end of a couple of days he was tolerating it with Motrin. My daughter is a nurse and was very cautious with the pain meds. The drs. did order some kind of machine that he needed to use that exercised the knee. He was allowed to choose one sport for the upcoming year and opted for baseball as his only sport from now on. He is a talented ball player; the coaches all sing his praises.

I know a lot of athletes get back in 6 months, but he was out of sports for a year. PT was tough in the beginning but that went on for a full year also. He was actually discharged from PT one year almost to the day of the surgery. He saw a sports medicine specialist for surgery and then PT and they had a rigid schedule, it started out at 3X a week. By waiting a year he lessened his risk of reinjury to about the same as if he never hurt the knee. If you go back at 6 months you have about a 60% chance of doing it again if I remember that number correctly. It could be 70%. I know it was a long year for him and a lot of fear that he would never be able to play again.

He is playing baseball for his High School this year and I will say the 1st few games you could see how cautious he was. It's been a couple of months and he is back to his playing shape. The hardest adjustment was wearing a knee brace but now it's just another piece of equipment to him.

Best wishes for a complete recovery to your daughter. If I had one piece of advice it's don't rush it.

 

[sam_gordon]

I can think of three kids that I know who had ACL surgery.

DS teammate on club soccer tore his the first day of school soccer practice is sophomore year HS. He got surgery and was out of sports for a year. First scrimmage his junior year... tore it again. He's done with sports.

DD's teammate on HS soccer tore her's the middle of her Junior year. She returned for her senior year.

DS' GF tore hers playing softball her senior year of HS. She now plays rec softball and goofs around with DS.

 

[Hopscotch]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. Sounds like it's going to be a long road.

 

[John VN]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. Sounds like it's going to be a long road.

If nothing has been mentioned, I would suggest you check if Dr. would like some kind of cooling device to be used for recovery. I had a complete shoulder replaced on a Monday. Tuesday the sling was removed and restrictive movements allowed but needed to use a joint cooling device for healing. Was cleared to ride my bicycle on Wednesday. p.s. - I was 66 at the time. p.p.s. - My Ortho required a cooling device be used and I never needed pain meds.

https://www.nicerecovery.com/instructions

https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Therapy-Machine-Cryotherapy-Post-Surgery/dp/B07Z5466KZ

 

[Hopscotch]

If nothing has been mentioned, I would suggest you check if Dr. would like some kind of cooling device to be used for recovery. I had a complete shoulder replaced on a Monday. Tuesday the sling was removed and restrictive movements allowed but needed to use a joint cooling device for healing. Was cleared to ride my bicycle on Wednesday. p.s. - I was 66 at the time. p.p.s. - My Ortho required a cooling device be used and I never needed pain meds.

https://www.nicerecovery.com/instructions

https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Therapy-Machine-Cryotherapy-Post-Surgery/dp/B07Z5466KZ

Good to know. Will definitely ask about that. Her Dr is the team surgeon for our NHL team so hoping he is up to date on the best/easiest ways to heal. Trying to avoid opioid meds as much as possible for a teen.

 

[John VN]

Good to know. Will definitely ask about that. Her Dr is the team surgeon for our NHL team so hoping he is up to date on the best/easiest ways to heal. Trying to avoid opioid meds as much as possible for a teen.

My Ortho was 10+ years with Cincinnati Reds and had Johnny Bench. Martina Navratilova and many others as patients.

 

[monsterkitty]

I didn't have ACL surgery, but ankle surgery and was in non-weight bearing for a few months and in a boot for another few months.

As for trying to get some cardio, I went to the gym and used the row machine. I placed my left leg on the ground and just used my right leg and arms/upper body and core.

A friend's DD did have ACL and Meniscus and she was able to use her bike on a trainer. Her surgeon said this exercise made her quads and hamstrings stronger, making the surgery easier. A gym bike would also work if the doctor would allow for the bike.

 

[tazdev3225]

Just wanted to add that I asked my daughter what advice she would give and it is be prepared for an emotional roller coaster ride of emotions. She said that was the hardest part for her with my grandson. He got really depressed for a bit because he thought he would never heal. I should add that my daughter is an OR nurse and has scrubbed in on quite a few ACL surgeries so she did have experience from the medical standpoint. She learned that this is a grueling and long recovery. Her best advice was listen to the doctors and PT people as everyone's experiences are different and don't rush the healing process. The best time frame from her doctors was a minimum of 10 months of no sports and a full year of recovery. The longer you take to let it heal completely lessens the risk of reinjury.

 

[krissynina]

I destroyed my knee snowboarding about 7 or 8 years ago. Tore my lcl, partially tore the acl and they could not tell if the mcl was just bruised or torn.

I did 1 Disney trip about 7 months after I hurt my knee and 3 trips after the surgery.

On the one trip between I managed to tare my acl the rest of the way, but I was already on the wait list for the surgery so other then a couple months of extra pysio it didn't make a difference that I made it worse, but now I'm a bit paranoid that the repair won't hold.

I was never a very active person before so my goals were just to get my knee back to what I consider normal. And I pretty much did.

Recovery was not that bad. The most frustrating thing for me was not being able to get comfortable sleeping and waking up every time I would roll over. It was very painfull the first couple days and since it was my first surgery I thought it was normal. But it was not. My surgeon put my tape on too tight and it was ripping my skin under the tape every time I moved. But after that was adjusted I didn't need any of the strong pain medication I was given, just used over the counter stuff some times.

Recovery changed the way I do Disney, but only in small ways. I had to switch to a back pack, my crossbody bags make my knee hurt way too much, the plane rides suck, my leg cramps up if I keep it in one position for too long, I avoid going down any stairs I can so the ones I can't avoid don't bother me as much after a couple of days of lots of walking, I will wait for the next bus so I can sit at the end of a long park day, and I learned that planting you feet so you don't bounce around on rides is very very painful and most likely how I tore my acl the rest of the way.