The hardest half is behind me

A couple days ago was the 3 month mark, and if I go along like an average person, that means I am halfway there. As far as the ACL goes nothing new since last time. I'm at that plateau stage where once I was able to start walking normally, progress is hard to see.

ROM is complete, and I can press down on my folded leg without pain. I guess the only noticeable thing is that after long walks it gets pretty sore and the muscle gives out once in a while but that's just weakness in the quad.

Recently I have started working out again and added some quad workout to my daily routines and its been pretty great. Knees feeling a lot stronger. I also started swimming which is awesome exercise because of the low impact on the knee. Jogging will come in a few weeks I believe, I see my orthopedic surgeon again in 12 days and am aiming for a clear to jog.

As a tip to those who are going through this, workout your quad insanely, then use a foam roller. Those things may hurt like hell when being used, but it truly relaxes all the muscle knots after just 10-15minutes.

Almost halfway?

In about a week or so it will be 3 month post op which means I'm halfway to the expected full recovery!

Nothing really new to report, been going to therapy about once every two weeks now (trying to conserve those insurance visits). I walk normal to the untrained eye, but the therapists can tell my hip is weak when I take a step. I am working on hip and hamstring strength mainly.

The graft is holding up pretty nicely except the last 2 times I lost my balance and was forced to bear a lot of weight on my right leg there was a sharp pain but I guess that is natural.

I can smell the finish line!

Little trip up..

Over two months out of surgery now and today was a bad day. I was just walking around a lot this weekend so my quad was very sore, but earlier I banged my knee really hard against something and my knee has felt stiff and slightly painful ever since.

I don't know if that is just the soreness or if I had loosened/re-tore my acl but this worries me a great deal as another tear would set me back at least another 8 or 9 months.

I will see my PT this Friday and ask about it but until then I'll just have to sit here and see if the soreness and stiffness go down.

Feeling good at 7 and a half weeks

By this point I am walking pretty much normally. There is still a limp if I'm walking downhill thought simply because that puts a lot of pressure on my quad muscles to push myself back from falling forward. The biggest problem now is how all the muscle on my right leg has atrophied away. Gotta hit that gym hard in the summer to get it back to normal before the next school year.

PT is getting a little better now that I am no longer just stretching and have started strength exercises. Currently I am doing the exercise bike, one legged calf-raises, leg press, and that's about it. I want to start squatting on my own but I may need PT approval for that.

I saw my orthopedic surgeon 4 days ago and he says I am healing quite well and if I don't do anything stupid I should be jogging in about a month. Lets hope it works out, I haven't jogged in almost 3 months now..

Week 5 quick update

So this is week 5 post op for me. Or..5 and a half weeks. But nothing much in the last week or so, I haven't been to PT in like 2 weeks so I have no idea where I should be.

I am completely off the crutches, and can walk close to a normal speed now. Downstairs are still hard without a handrail but upstairs is fine. I haven't been doing any exercise but walking..no stretching either. But I feel my ROM has gone up..can bend it pretty far now.

Overall, it's beginning to get hardly noticeable, this is great!

Close to 4 weeks out - things almost normal

It has been a while since my last update but school has really been a pain especially with mobility issues.

But as of today I am 2 days short of 4 weeks since my surgery. One week ago I went to see my doctor for a check up and asked him a bunch of questions. Initially he stated that I should be on crutches for 6 weeks but when I asked him if I could get on a more aggressive rehab plan he said it was just a suggestion and in the end it is up to me. So 2 days ago I finally ditched the crutches. I am walking quite a bit slower than with the crutch, but it feels good to be able to use both hands in carrying things when I walk around.

What I find tough is walking down the stairs. Up is still fine, but if I walk down the stairs leading with my good leg, it becomes impossible. Too much pressure on my new ACL I guess.

I stopped going to PT twice a week because I am on a limited number of visits from my insurance. I now go in once a week and the last one was really good. It was a PT that I haven't seen before and he did a really good job in helping me get my ROM and giving me exercises. With the doctor's 6 week partial weight bearing orders off, I was finally started on the bike. It was a really good warm up to get my flexion up. Last friday I was up to 130 degrees flexion! My other leg gets around 140 so it's pretty close now. One thing I worry about is the stiffness, it takes a lot of warm up and stretching to get to 130, and I hope that it will come more easily and naturally soon.

I still get a sharp pain near my kneecap when I do quad sets (flexing my right quad and holding it). Doctor and PT simply wave it off and say I just had surgery it's normal.

Goals for this week..getting my knee to stop buckling while walking normally, work on stiffness in the knee, get the knots out of my calf, work on quad strength.

Don't have that much more expectation for my ROM because the last 10 degrees will probably come over the span of a few weeks so there's nothing much to measure there anymore.

Overall, starting to live the normal life again, hopefully I will walk unnoticably different from anyone else within the next 2 weeks.

2 weeks out!

So its officially 2 weeks out since I had my operation and unless I am moving around, I don't even notice my bad knee at this point. I can freely bend and extend it with my quad and hamstring when I sit on the bed (obviously not all the way though).

I had PT yesterday and nothing much new to report..extension and flexion are about the same as last week. I haven't been icing as much anymore so the swelling is still around. The PT did some ultra sound to relieve some swelling and massaged my IT band as well. She said that my IT band was really tight and was keeping my from flexing my quad all the way to do 0 degree locked out leg extensions. It felt a lot better after the PT session and now I can even walk up stairs and on flat ground without my crutch although I keep it around since the doctor says I should.

Feeling pretty good now even though the recovery rate has kind of plateaued.