What to expect with a torn ACL & MCL

PB Forum :: Fitness, Training and Health
What to expect with a torn ACL & MCL
Author Message
flag inverted180
Posted: Mar 19, 2016 at 7:44 Quote
riish wrote:
if it helps anyone....
tried switching all my back squat gym work to front squats after a bit of knee irritation and no progress in the size of my recovering side's quad.
seemed to help quite a lot, almost regained full size in 8 weeks after a few months of it going absolutely nowhere, and far less stress on the knee.
Front squats are my nemsis. Great for the upper back too. A mobile knee and strong leg goes along way to keeping the joint stable and healthy.
flag MilkweedSeed
Posted: Mar 19, 2016 at 16:23 Quote
inverted180 wrote:
MilkweedSeed wrote:
riish wrote:


you're definitely making the right call by waiting and evaluating it. if you can do everything you want then why bother going through the whole surgery process

I totally agree, it's best to wait it out, unless your in the NHL or another pro sport at the highest level. I only waited 6 weeks before having the surgery. Seems like sitting it out and letting it heal as long as you can is best.

Here in Canada unless you are some superstar athlete there is no way your going to get the surgery that fast. 6 weeks for an MRI is likely and several more months for the surgery if your lucky.. but I wont knock our public system too much.

Truth be told I would have had the surgery too if they offered it that fast.... my first instinct was I was going to have it repaired... now Ibthink I will wait till I have a real reason. Its a perplexing thought though that I'm permanently missing a ligament in my knee.

I was told by my surgeon that I'll have arthritis later on if I don't get it done. I was really f*cked up from the initial injury, it was very violent. Even with the PT pre op, I was still non ambulatory 6 weeks in.
A buddy of mine just had his ACL redone several years after the injury, with a cadaver graft and has healed quick than I have. But I have heard it said and may of posted it here before... "Hamstring grafts take a long time to heal, but are much stronger in the long run." thats according to my surgeon ant PT.
flag inverted180
Posted: Mar 19, 2016 at 17:27 Quote
I'm actually one of the lucky ones who have injured both ACL's. I had ACLr with my left using hamstring graph 18yrs ago (when I was 19). That took a long time to recover from and feels like a different injury to what has happened recently to my left (torn acl and mcl) in a lot of ways. Back then I didn't have the knowledge nor the smarts to do proper PT. I was an active punk who wouldn't let an injury stop me. Also with our health system I was waiting 8 months to have the surgery. So I would just jump back into sports and what ever activity I wanted before I was ready and re-injure the joint. By the time I went in for surgery I probably dislocated my knee (were I felt it pop out and back in) 4 times. I had a bucket handle tear of the meniscus they removed as well as the hamstring ACLr. I think the meniscus ie. joint trauma is the worst to heal from. This time I had no damage of the meniscus and the joint didn't feel that bad at all. My ski lifted up and twisted in a skiing accident. I think that helped in my recovery. My swelling this time was minimal, I walked with out crutches the whole time. In fact I went to the bar the night of the accident (where I blew out 2 of the 4 ligaments in my knee). In some ways having the first injury helped me this time. I was already old hat to the symptoms (knew what had happened almost right away) and the PT. I slowly built up strength, full mobility, and confidence before trying risky activities.

Sorry for the long post. I guess the point is every injury is different, and every person is different but what you do also effects the outcome.
flag inverted180
Posted: Mar 19, 2016 at 17:48 Quote
MilkweedSeed wrote:

I was told by my surgeon that I'll have arthritis later on if I don't get it done.
There is actually no way they can say that you WILL have arthritis. What they can say is that having injured your knee, your likely hood of having arthritis as you get older is higher. They can't even say that the likely hood of someone getting arthritis is higher from someone who goes with out an ACL vs. someone who gets ACLr. Just not enough research. Either way nothing can 100% predict that you will get arthritis.

Having said that I think I may be starting to get arthritis in my left knee. I'm not super worried about it though cause it doesnt bother me much at all and I know guys my age (Im 37) with out my knee history who complain of knee pain all the time. I think with the left knee and 5 injuries to it, every one increased the chance of arthritis. This time it hasn't been that traumatic to the knee so hopefully less chance for arthritis. Im confident though that even with my left starting to have arthritis I will have 30 or 40 years (from initial injury) to where pain from arthritis is a problem. Hey if all else fails knee replacements are getting better and better....haha

P.S. hamstring graph does a number on your hamstring.... well hamstrings in general are usuallly pretty neglected to begin with so it takes a lot of hamstring work (at least for me) to come back from that surgery. Also your condiiton going into the surgery I think also predicts how long your recovery time will be too. Also whether or not you had meniscus damage.
flag riish
FL
Posted: Mar 19, 2016 at 23:03 Quote
i opted to go for a patellar graft as it's apparently stronger initially, although I've noticed the patellar tendon they cut the graft from gets sore much more easily than the rest of the knee, and feels like it's taking ages to heal.
hamstring may have been better in some respects i think.
flag t3rry
Mod
Posted: Mar 22, 2016 at 16:52 Quote
For both of my sugeries - I wasn't actually waiting at all for the health system - the only reason I was waiting was doing physio before both enough to regain strength. It was about a month and some before i got into see the surgeon if i remember correctly but if I remember correctly I put it off as right after I injured my knee I was due for a different surgery that I took - and in that time i lost too much strength in the knee to operate. So I was put on a a few months of physio before they would operate, and it was pretty much straight physio and strength building exerciess between first and second surgery. I was never really given the option not to have the surgery done. However at that time I had also just left racing downhill at a national level and was hoping to get back into it in a year or two. Calgary has this neat clinic where it's about a week wait time to get in, it's completely free, and the surgeon I got out of them was top class for Canada. Former NHL/olympian surgeon, don't know if he still does it or just runs this clinic.

Anyhow back to the pain, yes there is still pain on occaision. My knee is still swollen. But it's due to the amount of damage I did to the cartilage, bone and meniscus. There is nothing short of a knee replacement that can be done to fix it. I've just grown to live with it.

Edit: I did the hamstring graft - do not notice a defecit on my level, though a pt possibly would upon examination. I did a shitload of physio. Months.. I was off for 3 and a half months after the second surgery, and I'm pretty sure I did physio at home or at an office every single one of those days
flag nathanh
O+
Posted: Oct 25, 2016 at 16:33 Quote
Just discovered this as I was going through the internet looking things about the surgery. Wondering how you guys are doing now? I just recently tore my ACL and MCL (MCL has healed now) ACL surgery in a few weeks.
flag inverted180
Posted: Oct 25, 2016 at 17:41 Quote
nathanh wrote:
Just discovered this as I was going through the internet looking things about the surgery. Wondering how you guys are doing now? I just recently tore my ACL and MCL (MCL has healed now) ACL surgery in a few weeks.
Your young....you'll be fine, just be smart. Take the physio (and self work) serious. Good luck.
flag riish
FL
Posted: Oct 25, 2016 at 18:34 Quote
nathanh wrote:
Just discovered this as I was going through the internet looking things about the surgery. Wondering how you guys are doing now? I just recently tore my ACL and MCL (MCL has healed now) ACL surgery in a few weeks.

what the other guy said. take the physio work seriously and you'll be back before you know it.
My knee is pretty much back to normal now, it clicks a little in the cold but that's the only noticeable difference. I even got a few days of skiing in this year!
flag t3rry
Mod
Posted: Oct 30, 2016 at 18:11 Quote
Depends on the severity of your injury! Do all the work and do everything they advise.

I got the shit end of the stick and while my acl healed fine, all the cartilage and meniscus is f*cked for life and i have chronic pain if im active. But the acl itself is great!
flag jerwin413
FL
Posted: Apr 17, 2017 at 9:18 Quote
Thought I'd bump this instead of starting a new one. I'm five months after having surgery and a graft on my ACL. Just starting enduring now and it feels good but I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with riding BMX after an ACL tear.

I'm getting the Donjoy brace as better safe than sorry but if anyone has any timeframes that they waited then I'd appreciate. Even mtb street or something that involves lots of jumping of the bike trying tricks and impacts to the knee
flag riish
FL
Posted: Apr 18, 2017 at 4:45 Quote
ride heaps of bmx now, can't remember when I started back after surgery but it was around the 8-10 month mark. I wear MTB kneepads under my jeans, but otherwise no brace.
it's now been 2 years since surgery, knee feels fine with almost anything.
flag MilkweedSeed
Posted: Jun 4, 2017 at 7:17 Quote
I think my doctor said it takes at least 1-1.5 years for it to fully fuse. I'd wear a brace for 2 years minimum.

 


Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv56 0.070585
Mobile Version of Website