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phreeloader

ACL Surgery tomorrow... How bad is this gonna suck?

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swisschris62

See if you can get your doc to write you something other than percs if they are bothering your stomach. Percs have alot of acetominophen which can be pretty hard on you. If you can get him to change it to an OxyContin you would be eliminating the acetominophen and might even be better for pain.
Strictly talking from experience here after numerous knee surgeries over the years and recently had a total done on the right leg. The reason for my knee problems was being crushed between a car and truck as a pedestrian. My legs took most of the injury.



Demerol is good , MmmmKaaaaayyyyy
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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Demerol is good , MmmmKaaaaayyyyy



Unless, like my brother, you are allergic to it. In which case, you will be vomiting into the freshly opened wound of your knee, causing gangrene and have to have your leg amputated.

When I had LASIK done, I got *both* valium and demerol. That was nice :)
Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

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phreeloader

The thread title says it all. I destroyed my ACL when I wrecked my motorcycle a month ago. I haven't been able to walk without crutches since, So tomorrow they're building me a new one.

I know a bunch of you guys have been thru this before, so on a scale of 1-10 how bad is this gonna suck?



Post some pictures mang B|

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Well, given that you have been on crutches since the injury, my guess is that it will be worse for you than it was for me. And it was pretty freaking bad for me. Keep in mind my husband broke his back the same day I blew out my knee (see Incidents forum for that one), so I had to take care of both of us. Slowing down was not an option for me.

I destoryed my ACL, MCL, meniscus, and patellar cartilage May 13 last year. Within a day I could bear weight with crutches and was walking without crutches within a week. A month out was the surgery. I had surgery on a Wed, was back at work five days later. My surgeon tends to be conservative, so I was non weight bearing for 2 months, busted my ass at PT and was done with that within 3 months or so of surgery. I had a second surgery to remove a cyclops lesion.

Pain was absolutely brutal... since you are using crutches, you may actually be worse off due to muscle atrophy in the past month... you'll have farther to catch up than I did. I did allograft surgery. Hamstring isn't all that great, I didn't want to be stuck with a 90 year old ACL and risk of rejection as that would be just my luck. Given that it involves breaking chips of bone for the allograft, that does add to the pain level, so hopefully that won't be as bad for you.

My best advice... whatever they tell you to do with PT, DO IT. As much as you can. I was doing PT immediately after surgery at home, leg raises, etc.. the more you keep muscle tone up early, the quicker rehab will go.

Mine over a year later is still not right, but good enough I guess. I ran a 5K Sunday, and I have never been a runner. It was my goal to prove the knee wouldn't beat me by doing it.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

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Not really sure why but Demerol isn't used as much as it once was.
The go to drug for severe pain seems to be dilaudid which is the strongest of the synthetic opiodes ( depending on the dosage ).
These drugs work great for severe pain but leave you feeling like crap for a few days when you stop taking them which is no fun at all.

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I had ACL surgery last May. I had torn my ACL & strained my MCL. I went with my pateller tendon to replace the ACL withr. The surgery itself went fine; I was doped up pretty good when I awoke, so the first 24 hours were a breeze. HINT dont put your toe on the floor because you have no control over it while you are still numbed up. I almost bit it but thankfully my better half caught me.

That first 24 hours every couple hours my better half refreshed my cryo cuff with new ice and I kept my leg elevated. It was a little tough to sleep since I normally dont sleep on my back, but doable. They gave me some pretty stiff pain killers and I am not one to take even aspirin very often so it made me feel very ill, so I stopped taking them and stuck to "Aleve" type products only. It was tough but manageable. The area itched a good deal as well.

Once i got feeling back it was really weird placing my foot on the ground, but again I'm a little stubborn and don't like to be down too long so I only used the crutches 2 days. My doc told me as soon as I could put weight on it do so, because atrophy sets in quick. Even though I was only on crutches 2 days I lost over 6 centimeters of muscle from my quad. He was not a proponent of knee braces either. As soon as I took the full brace off after the numbing meds wore off he did not want me in a brace at all. His theory is that actually makes it weaker and takes longer to heal. (NOTE: he is the chief Ortho Surgeon for the Tennessee Titans and head of Orthopedics for Vandervilt University and Hospital)

I started PT the day after surgery. it started off real light and I did it twice a week with a PT and I worked it out every day at home with at home exercises. You are your own PT to an extent; they were taking it gingerly on me and I told the doc I could do more so we ramped it up a little more each week. When I first started the PT sessions were like 30 minutes about 2 months into it they were running almost an 1.5 hours long and my butt was kicked!!!

I was back to light jogging in 4 months (he said typically 6 months was normal, but I am a runner prior to injury). I wasnt going fast by any means it was slow and steady. I was back to 5k status within the year. Now in regards to jumping I started that back after 7 months, but I got a Donjoy brace only for jumping purposes (against my docs advise). I only wore it for those jumps but it was a comfort level. I stopped wearing the brace for jumping at the 11 month mark. My leg was feeling really strong and the first jump i did was a 10 MPH wind day, so it was a confidence builder type hop n pop. It was scary, I wont lie, but no issues.

the toughest part for me was rebuilding the quad. I am now 14 months post surgery and my quad is still smaller than the other when prior to surgery it was the larger one. However, it is quite strong.

Another thing that is kind of wild is you knee cap kind of disappears. I just noticed that it came back only recently, i dont know when, it just did. The swelling around it made it disappear. The other thing that's weird is the numbness due to severing some of the nerves in your knee to open it up. At first it hurt to sit on knee on a plane, but now it just uncomfortable but manageable. it just plainly feels weird. Not sure if I will ever get used to that.

I know this is a long post but hopefully this gives you some incite as what to expect. In summary, recovery will only be as fast as the intensity that you are engaged in the process. It will not strengthen itself without hard work and sweat. Yes, it will hurt at times. If you use a brace, i believe as my doc believes, it will lengthen the healing process (unless of course you have meniscal damage, then a brace is absolutely essential). Yes it will swell after physical activity, but if you elevate and ice the swelling will go down and feel less tight. It used to swell a lot, but it is only after a really hard work out now that it does.

Now in regards to the scar, mines pretty noticeable and I tried Mederma and dont think it did much. I think timeline is around a year to get back to normalcy, but in my opinion I am a little over a year into this and I think it still needs more work, but its definately not affecting what I do. The one thing this does make you realize is how important each of your parts are and heightens your awareness of how it operates / feels. I'm doing a 5k mud run this weekend with 40 obstacles. Depending on how I feel I may skip a couple obstacles, but its much better than sitting on the couch watching life pass us by.

GOOD LUCK!! Hope things go well for you! I hope this post gives you a little insight of what you could expect, but we all know each of us are different. Again GOOD LUCK AND SPEEDY RECOVERY!!
THRIVING IN MY DASH!!

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