Saturday, December 6, 2008

Week 28 - ACL Surgery Recovery

If you're a new reader to this blog and are about to have reconstructive ACL surgery on your knee, be sure to check out the "Blog Archive" for previous posts which will give you a good idea of what the first few weeks are like to go through.

At this point, I'm 28 weeks in and the my recovery process is now all about being able to return to sports. For the most part, my knee feels good and if I did not intend on playing sports, I could get by without the physio now. But my goal is to get back to where I left off so, I keep plugging away.

There is still some swelling after intense drills and exercises and I probably do not ice my knee as much as I should. Also, after an intense workout with running and plyometric drills, I can feel the Jumper's knee slightly act up a bit. When this happens I usually have to tone it down for a couple of days.

Today, I'll show you a new running drill from physiotherapy which is to help you get use to the quick start and stop movements needed to play in a lot of competitive sports. Again, I've constructed a very crude diagram but hopefully you'll get the idea of how it should be performed. Line up 6 or 7 pylons only a few feet apart in a straight line. The pylons I use for this drill have thin 6 feet polls sticking out of the tops. You want to run in and out, around pylons (following the arrows) and make sure you don't touch the polls.

Looks easy? Well, what makes this drill difficult is while I'm running through the pylons, the therapist will randomly yell the word "switch" which means I am suppose to turn around and run backwards in the same pattern. Its actually pretty crazy. By the time you run through it back and forth 5 times without stopping, you're very beat.

That's it for this week. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

If you have a similar blog or site which you'd like to promote here, then please don't spam my blog posts full of your links. It would be better to contact me and ask me about maybe posting a link to your site on the side bar menu.

7 comments:

  1. Hey I'm having acl surgery at the end of this month in mississauga. Just wondering who your surgeon was and what kind of post-op immobilizer you had to get?

    thanks,
    terri

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Steve, Thanks for sharing. I tore my ACL 2 months ago while coaching Under15 soccer (I kept putting off going to the Dr's).
    The knee is somewhat stable but feels like a knuckle that needs to be cracked. I'm forty and am on the fence about getting the surgery.
    Any thoughts? Do you currently have any pain or issues during your normal day (not after sports)? Would you go back and not have the surgery?
    Thanks,
    Tom

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey T-Bird, my doctor was Dr. Sekti Outo (spelling?) and i actually did the surgery out of Georgetown Hospital.

    To Anonymous, I havent had any second thoughts about having the surgery. Especially if you have an active lifestyle you don't want to give up. Im still struggling a bit with jumpers knee but its getting better. You will never get that complete stable feeling again unless you have the surgery.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I got a patella tendon graft on August 1 (hurt myself playing ultimate...which apparently puts more stress on your knee than most sports because of the cutting and jumping) and am just now getting back to running over the past month...the drills above will be helpful. I also am getting a bit of the jumper's knee. I went to the dr. today who mentioned some people get an athletic ACL brace when they return to activity for the first year and gave me a prescription...from as far as I can tell though, its expensive, insurance doesn't cover it, and it provides more mental than physical support. Do you use one? Or anticipate using one? Just wondering.

    -D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey man

    Great Blog! Im 4.5 weeks post op - definitely getting a lot tougher, with the knee doing little annoying tweeks and noises. Physio is happy with the range of motion im getting, hitting the pool and stationary bike hard! YOur blog is an inspiration!

    Regards

    Gio

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's been 30 weeks since my acl/meniscus surgery and my doctor said I can return to play basketball in six months. Is it normal that the knee feels funny at this stage? And when did you lose your fear when doing activities?

    ReplyDelete
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