andrewp, my suggestion is be read through this whole site and take what you can from the sharing that has gone on and then share what you are going through specifically with us so that we can encourage you. Your physical therapist (PT) and orthopaedic surgeon (OS) are going to be your best resources for your specific situation. However, you have great goals in mind, and, in my opinion, reachable. Be sure to do all...all...all the exercises that are recommended to do beginning with day 1 and do not do more than they tell you. Especially in early post op, more is not better. Check with your PT about all that you feel capable of doing. Take one day at a time, too. ACL rehab is not for the faint of heart, and may very well test you. You will get better, but it is a process. Sounds like you are competitive and love sports. If you rehab well, then you will come back stronger; however, the competitive spirit that we have can push us too fast or make us feel discouraged. I am 3 months post op with hamstring graft and a medial meniscus repair. I was non-weight bearing for 30 days which set me back in PT (and optimistically) especially when I compared myself with others (remember that comparing is not a good thing). However, here I am about to go to my OS next week for my 3rd month check, and I finally have full ROMand can now concentrate on greater resistance, strength, and endurance(on the bike). I am thrilled! Running for me will not be in a few months, but many start before I will be able to, and it sounds like you will be earlier, too.

andrewp, you will gain your strength back although it may not happen as quickly as you would like it to. Take some time to sit back and consider your long term goals and make a plan, your PT and OS will be able to help you with this.

Six months after my surgery I was cleared for all activities, I did not take up running until about two years after my surgery. I was very anxious to get back into skiing the first season although I did not feel fully recovered until the following season a year and a half later.

While working out I would usually do about and hour of cardio work on a machine followed by weight training. One day I was strolling through my athletic club and on a whim decided to enter a marathon. The running club had a table set up and just my luck , 300 new spots had opend up for Grandma's marathon in Duluth, MN.

Recently, I finished my fourth marathon on Sunday Oct.1st and went out and ran my fifth on Saturday Oct 14th less than two weeks later. I'm feeling good now and looking forward to my next race.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by AuntFeffie:
3 months post op. Found my knee and shin had edema with my skin becoming very tender and flaky increasingly as the day went on yesterday. Iced my knee for awhile last night and it seems much better this am, but it feels very sore and stiff as I try to fully extend and fully bend. Wonder if adding leg extension/curl on a weight bench did something. Realizing that ice is still so very important. Should I still be icing every day? How long have you all used ice for just regular activities? I see my OS tomorrow and had been looking forward to it before yesterday, now I am nervous.<HR>

Hey AuntFeffie...dont b discouraged....the more active u get with ur knee the stiffness and the soreness will come n go..just keep on icing it...i am 4 months post op..just got back last week from a long trip ..went to india to c my parents..went exactly when i was 3 months post op...did a lot of walking there on uneven terrain ...with my brace on...was there for three weeks..came back in one pc..loll..saw my pt on mon..he re evaluated me...90 % of my strength is back on the operated leg....he has put me in the advance therapy progg..we have started wid my sports related exercises and plyometric exercises etc..i still get stiff at times and also when the weather changes...so dont b discouraged..take one day at a time..U R DOING REALLY GREAT....keep it up...

Found this website the other day - it's great to hear everybody else's stories, and see the progress they're making. I thought I'd add my story to the collection.
I'm 30 years old, and I tore the ACL and the lateral meniscus in my Right knee playing basketball in late June 2006. The ACL wasn't completely torn, but it was torn enough that my knee was loose and the ACL needed surgery. As an almost humorous side note, the emergency room dr. that I saw the day of the injury told me that I just had a bruise! I was on crutches for 9 days, and started hobbling around after that. I did 7 PT visits to get over the injury, but put off surgery for a couple months because I didn't want to ruin summer vacation plans. PT was pretty easy, because I was in good shape at the time of the injury.

I've heard of ACL patients who have no pain a couple weeks after the injury, but my knee never stopped hurting - probably because of the meniscus tear. By the time I had surgery (3 months after the injury), I was completely out of shape, because I'd been trying to stay off my bad knee to minimize the pain. In retrospect, putting off the surgery was probably a mistake.

I had surgery 4 weeks ago - they repaired the meniscus, and reconstructed the ACL using a graft from my patellar tendon. Post-surgery was a little worse than I thought it would be. The first couple days I was just in a bit of a daze (maybe the anesthesia aftereffects?). The pain was pretty controllable with the oxycontin and percocet I was on, but those narcotics left me feeling pretty dopey, and had some other unpleasant side effects. I ended up being out of work for 3 weeks - I'd originally thought it would be 1 or 2 weeks since I have a desk job, but it ended up being 3 weeks before I felt good enough to go back to work. I did CPM 6 hours a day for those 3 weeks, but wasn't allowed to go past 90 degrees because of the meniscus repair.

Progress at PT has been slow. The post-injury PT was easy, but the post-surgery PT has been tough. I think one of the biggest reasons for the difference is that I was in good shape when I got injured, but I was completely out of shape by the time I had surgery. I couldn't even do straight leg lifts without help from the PT! I just did my first straight leg lifts with no help yesterday, 4 weeks after surgery. The PT says that part of that is that I had a more difficult surgery than some ACL patients, because I didn't use a cadaver graft. I did lots of quad sets, and did the "Russian stim" with quad sets to try to build the quad back up to the point that I could do the straight leg lefts.

I'll admit I've been a little worried about the meniscus repair. I'm glad it looked repairable, because it would be nice to have the whole meniscus... but if the repair doesn't work, I'm not looking forward to another surgery. It sounds like different OS's have different protocols for recovery from meniscus repair. My protocol is:
-Full weight bearing right away as tolerated
-leg brace locked in straight extension for 1.5 weeks when walking
-After 1.5 weeks, leg brace not locked when walking
-Not allowed to bend knee more than 90 degrees for first 4 weeks
-From 4-6 weeks, I can do active flexion greater than 90, but not passive (which means the PT can't try to force it to bend more than 90, I can only bend more than 90 if I can do it with my own muscles).
-No running for 3 to 4 months

2-3 weeks after surgery, I was still sometimes having the pain that I'd come to associate with the torn meniscus. Within the last week or so, I'm not having that kind of pain very often - so I'm hoping that's a good sign that the meniscus is healing. Does anyone else have anecdotes about their meniscus repair? When did you get to pain free? When do you figure out whether it's healed, or whether the repair failed and it's torn again?

Thanks for reading, and thanks for sharing all your stories!

Hi all, I thought I?d share my story w/ you. I'm 8 weeks post op - right knee ACL reconstruction w/ hamstring graft, a meniscus repair, and a partial meniscus removal. I'm a 29 yr old female who was in great shape. I still feel like I'm in above avg shape compared to most people but nothing like I am normally. I was running 25-30 miles a week and hitting the gym for weights and/or cardio avg 5-6 times a week. The last few years I was in school part-time getting my Master?s so my activities were limited to running and the gym. I graduated from my program and decided to start playing in a rec soccer league again now that I have more free time.

My OS didn't know about the 2 meniscus tears until the surgery, they didn't show up on my MRI. One of the tears was old per my OS. I'm convinced I tore my meniscus or did something a few years ago when I took a nasty fall skiing. I also have tendonitis in both my knees from running too much. A few years ago I actually had a bad flare up from running and had to do a stint of PT (nothing showed up on my MRI then and this was after my nasty skiing accident) which is when they diagnosed the tendonitis. At that time I cut my milage in half ? down to the 25-30 miles a week, I learned stretches from PT, the importance of stretching as well as listening to my body. I hadn?t had a bad flare up since. My knee hasn't been the same since the ski accident but I just thought I was getting older...

So as I said, since I had more free time I thought I?d pick up soccer again. I was worried about my knee but decided if it didn?t go well I wouldn?t continue to play. Well, the soccer really brought out the instability b/c during my 1st week/game my knee almost gave out and swelled right up. I was able to finish the game but I was playing very cautiously. I went and saw an orthopedic Dr. (in the same practice as my OS, I changed to my OS b/c he specializes in sports med) and he couldn't tell me much other than to take it easy but to start going back to my normal activities when I thought I could. If I continued to have a problem after 2 weeks come back and we?d do an MRI, an X-ray did not show anything. I had tons of swelling and pain which prevented me from running and doing some other normal activities but in two weeks I was back to normal and running like nothing happened so I gave soccer another try - I tore my ACL... The funny thing was I was just starting to feel like my knee was going to be ok when I was sprinting for a ball - I heard a pop and hit the ground b/c my knee gave out. I did 5 PT sessions before my surgery to help w/ the inflammation of my knee since my OS didn?t want me going in to surgery like that.

I had a lot of pain after the surgery but only for a few days but mostly due to all the swelling. I went off the pain meds after I think 3 or 4 days because I was sick of the headaches and being nauseous and it didn?t really help all too much. I still had a lot of pain but I managed it somewhat w/ Advil and I just dealt w/ it rather than the nausea. I had my surgery the Friday going into Labor Day weekend. I was driving (w/ my straight leg brace) the following Thursday, and back to work that following Friday b/c I was going stir crazy - keeping my leg elevated of course.

Dc76 - Our protocol was pretty much the same, I was in the knee immobolizer for the 1st 2 weeks. (I starteded going to the gym in week 2 to lift my upper body.) I was off crutches maybe a week and a half after the surgery while I was still in the immobilizer and haven't touched the crutches since. I was in the Bledsoe brace for just under 4 weeks w/ restriction to 90 degrees. At PT he had me at 90 degrees w/ his assistance (not fun) by week 3 ½ I think. We?ve been pushing for more than 90 since after week 4. I'm very slowly making progress in being able to bend my knee farther and farther but I'm having a lot of scar tissue, etc that I'm having to work out on the bike and in PT. My PT actually said to me yesterday, at this time I could normally start light jogging but b/c of my circumstances I am not close to that.

I don?t know what to tell you about the pain. I?ve had very little pain since the surgery. And the pain I did have after surgery I felt was from swelling and not to do w/ my meniscus. I think some of the pain I had initially when I was trying to bend my knee might have been due to the meniscus work but that pain I haven?t experienced in a couple weeks. All I can say is keep it up. As my PT keeps saying be as aggressive as I can w/in the limits the he and the Dr. give me but that my knee isn?t going to fall off.

My OS and PT seem to be very progressive, they are both on the younger side so I think that makes a difference. Just be thankful, many people I?ve talked to w/ torn meniscus couldn?t weight bear or bend their knee for 6+ weeks ? can you imagine? I did ask my Dr. about his approach to my recovery w/ the meniscus vs. what I?ve heard from others and my OS doesn?t treat meniscus repairs any different than an ACL. He actually didn?t even put the meniscus repair and removal on my PT script, he said there is some controversy to his approach.

I?ve been doing the bike a lot to work out the scar tissue, I walk on the treadmill (at speed 2.5 to 3), I do the elliptical which is a lot like the bike for me in trying to work out the scar tissue and today for the 1st time since the surgery I did the stair climber. I?m allowed to use resistance/levels w/in reason on the cardio machines. I?m also doing some light leg lifting ? the leg press, leg extension, the seated hamstring curl and calves. Right now we are just working on gaining back my strength, my balance, the mobility in my knee w/ trying to work out the kunk in my knee which affects my gait and me being able to bend my knee farther back.

Sometimes I get frustrated, tired, and I feel down but I?m still going at it and willing to put myself through whatever is necessary to get my knee back to normal. I?m still shocked at the muscle atrophy. Good luck to everyone and just keep plugging along!

What do you guys think about taking a dietary supplement for your joints? My mom asked me about it, its called joint soother and has glucosamine, chondroitin, and msm in it. It is supposed to promote healthy joint and cartliage manintance. I have had some pain in my "good" leg the one i didnt tear, but idk. After having ACL reconstruction would this be worth it, or a waste of money. Also do you think it would be safe, being only 17?