This blog will be updated on a daily basis and I will be adding links at the bottom of the page so you can read, skip and discuss and follow along with my ACL surgery and recovery. I do want everyone to know that we all respond differently to trauma and what might work for one person it might not work for you. However, there are some things you can do to make your life easier after your ACL Surgery.
My hope is that we get a lot of people contributing to the comments below and that you will like and tweet these pages so everyone can learn from our successes and failures. Also, make sure and talk to as many people in your area as you can. They will give you great ideas on who is the better surgeon and make sure the people you talk to had anterior cruciate ligament injuries and had surgery to repair it.
Top 3 Sports Prone To Female ACL Injuries
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL Injury) is a major pain in the butt if you are an active person. Unfortunately female athletes injure their ACL more frequently than males. The big 3 sports that are harsh on female atheletes and their ACL are: soccer, basketball and volleyball. My doctor told me yesterday before my surgery that he will be doing 3 acl’s and I am the only male in the group. So, what I will be writting about is a daily recape of post operation strategies.
I will be adding pictures as my wife learns how to use our camera but here are the things I decided to do, before my surgery.
Pre Op Preparation for ACL Surgery
I hurt my knee when I was 13 years old (1973 to be exact). Today, January 21, 2012 I am 52 years old and finally getting it repaired. Back in those days they didn’t operate on children and instead stuck us in a straight leg cast and called it a day. You can probably imagine what my knee muscles looked like, right? The muscle I am talking about is the vastus lateralus. Sorry if I don’t spell the names correct, it’s been 30 years since I studied the human body. This would have never happened had I not slipped coming down a steep hill that I climb daily. However, after 3 months of climbing the hill my knee hurt so bad I had to go see a doctor. From there I was referred to a orthopedic surgeon and he operated on my meniscus (cartilage repair) on December 2nd. While he was in there cleaning it up, he noticed that my acl was a thread and told me he could tighten up my knee and hopefully keep arthritis out of there. So, we decided January would be a good time to do a ligament reconstruction. I can tell you that the Meniscus knee surgery was a very painless process and the only thing that hurt were my stitches. This ACL surgery……………..ha, ha
My research on the net concerning ACL surgery recovery, post op, pre op and anything else lead me to several sites that helped me formulate a nutritional plan, physical therapy routine and anything else I could find. The best help I received was from our school nurse who has a son that had his ACL repaired twice. From his second operation I learned something that everyone should do. I will explain it in a few minutes.
NUTRITION
I had always believed you can heal yourself from the inside out. That means eat the right nutrients, vitamins, macro and micro minerals and you are good to go. The list I have below is based on the fact that nutritional supplements are not cheap so I went to the source that I have used for many years. I don’t want to try and sell you on this stuff and I will not, ask me and I will tell you, but anyone can purchase these supplements anywhere online or offline.
- multi-vitamin, mineral combination (liquid vitamins is what we call it and it’s awesome)
- Flexio Plus (glucosamine, condroitin, MSM, Zinc, Vitamin C and K1
- Vital-C loaded with vitamin C, zinc, cassis, quercetin, proligna pinecone extract
- anti inflammatory can from the above list and my anti- nausua medicine
- fish oil
- Provailen for joint inflammation (new product on market)
Remember you can do more or you can do less. I do have a lady that gave me a great deal of literature and she also advocates Brewers Yeast. I forgot to get it and now, I and stuck with what I have here and it is working so, that’s that. Realize I am typing this 36 hours after surgery. Yesterday was a great day as far as pain is concerned but today, reality hit me.
Knee Joint Strength
Most or typical injuries to the ACL happen during practice or a game. That means your legs are pretty strong and recovery should go rather “by the book”. In my case, I am behind the 8 ball because it is so weak, that walking on stairs is a killer. I am very unusual because most people have their knee repaired as soon as the swelling goes down. For me, it was a 40 year wait and I did climb the hill several times before my surgery but my hip starting hurting so I had to use the treadmill to exercise. Basically the stronger your knee pre op the faster you can recover after knee surgery.
Most Important Pain Reduction Strategy for Knee Surgeries
The nurse at our school has a son who played basketball at a D1 school and during a practice he blew out his acl. He had surgery and lost 20 pounds because the pain med’s made him sick and he couldn’t keep anything down. He had a second surgery last year and they gave him a nerve block that lasted two days. The nerve block he received was through a cathiter that was left in his leg for 48 hours. I asked for one and the hospital I went to would only give me an injection that lasted 24 hours. ACL surgery pain is a given but boy with those nerve blocks it is way more manageable. Follow this link to learn more about a nerve block. They had me drugged up when they gave me the nerve block injection and they also used ultrasound to help them locate the nerve. I don’t remember anything else after that until I woke up from surgery.
Right now I am typing on 2 oxy’s and my knee is still aching. On the scale of 1 to 10 I have hit some solid 8′s today, but the oxy’s if taken 2 at a time will quickly reduce that down to a 3 or 4. My problem is that I can’t find a comfortable My nurse
My ACL Surgery January 20th 2012
ACL surgery is not a fun process but the tools they use today are way different than they were 30 years ago. Arthroscopy is the new way to repair your ACL and it is less trauma to your knee joint. The methods they used in the early 80′s (and I witnessed several of them through our college sports medicine department) started with two long cuts on the lateral and medial side of your knee. At least 6 inches long and then they used muscle rakes to move the muscles so they can drill holes in your femur and tibia. Arthroscopy only has 3 holes (two below your knee and one above). Usually people who have a torn acl will also have cartilage damage. Repairing cartilage is a simple and painless process. I never used one pain pill they gave me and I am a big time weinee when it comes to pain.
Right now (8pm Jan. 21) I am typing this webpage 36 hours after surgery. ACL surgeries are a pretty simple process these days and I was told the surgery lasted 90 minutes. That is enough time for the doctor to drill his holes, take a piece of my hamstring and create a new ACL. We discussed using a cadaver but he felt that for me it is best to use a live human tissue which was my hamstring. (trust me my stitches hurt just as much as the bone but if I don’t move then they don’t hurt so bad). My Doc was very confident using the hamstring because his results show that after 2 years the cells mend quickly and allograft themselves into the bones. If I was not so active he would have opted for the cadaver graft.
ICE ICE and more ICE
Ice is my life savor. I have a ice cuff hooked up and I have these two hug pads that my principal used last year for her knee replacement surgery. Both of them are on my knee 24×7. The ice cuff is worthless in my book because it is sitting on top of all the bandages and cannot produce enough “cool” to do any good. However, this hug ice pads (the liquid stuff) are rotated every hour because that is how long it takes to re-freeze. I am ready to start using ice bags again, because they will get the job done. Swelling has been my biggest issue and even with elevating my leg the blood pools around my knee instead of coming back up my leg.
Rehab Has Started
I was given a leg machine right before surgery and was told to be in it for 4 hours a day. Stupid me never used it while the nerve block was still working and now I am using it with the oxy’s instead. The biggest pain I have is the incision behind my knee. He took the graft from the middle of my hamstring about 2 inches above my knee joint. At least that is where he started his cut.
0 to 90 degrees
The machine is really a cool devise that will move as fast as you want it to move or slower for those who have stitches to worry about. When I first started I didn’t try to go a full 90 degrees, instead I started at 40 degrees and changed it 10 degrees every 7 or 8 minutes. I made it up to 80 degrees before the stitches started biting me. Plus I forgot to take off the ice pads which created a lot of pressure on my knee.
OK, I am going to end this right now and I will be back tomorrow. Since nobody will probaby read this for several months I will have time to upload pictures before you read this. Let’s hope a google search will find this and you can enjoy it. Don’t forget to like it, tweet it and google it. The more we get the more people will find this and we can have an active discussion board.
Talk to you soon and stay positive during your acl surgery and recovery.
Bob