Congratulations, skypenny!  14 miles sounds so good to me!  I really miss running. 

I have another question for anybody to answer.  I injured my knee on 7/19/06.  My surgery is Monday.  It's really strange to me that I'm not in a lot of pain.  I know people that have torn their ACL and could barely walk afterward.  I honestly don't have pain in my knee with the exception of bending my legs and sitting directly on them.  Then I hurt behind the knee.  Sometimes when I'm walking it feels like my knee is hyper-extending, but it's not really painful.  I haven't tried running since my injury for fear of tearing something else (or done any type of cardio), but I am wondering if anybody else was about 95% pain-free prior to surgery.  Maybe it's just because the only thing I've done since the tear is lift weights, so my knee shouldn't hurt.

Hi skypenny.  I don't think there was a meniscus tear.  He said a possibility, but I really have hardly any pain, so I probably didn't tear it.  Well, I hope that helps for a speedy recovery.  I was never told anything about a CPM machine, so probably not.  Is that the thing that starts bending your knee right away?  I recall my brother getting one of those after his surgery.

Thats great skypenny. srunnergirl, I  was the same had basically no pain in my knee even thugh I had a small meniscus tear as well. Hope your surgery goes well.

Hey Deluxehorsehitter......how many weeks r u post surgery and wot all is ur PT making u do ???i am 7 weeks post surgery ..was just wondering if my PT is taking things slowly..

deluxehorsehitter....well i think u r doing pretty good....my reconstruction was with the hamstring so my pt is a little different from urs....i think urs is pretty aggressive...at this point....i am doing the following....

warmup on elliptical for 10:00min.
leg raises ...15x3 with 4 lbs ankle wt...therer like 5 different kind of leg raises tht i do every time i go to pt 3 sets of 15 each...
calf stretches
calf raises
squats on a see saw thingie..( dont know wot it is called..but its like a platform of wood tht has a beam at the bottom..u have to balance it n do squats on it....i do 40 at one stretch )
one legged stands on a pc of rubber( its like two inches thick 0 then throw the ball to the tampoline and u have to catch it back...4 lbs ball..30 of them in three different directions......30x3
standing on one leg again on the same pc of rubber pulling the band wid the other leg...20x3

then he makes me do a few different exercises to strengthen my hammies.....

the days i dont go for therapy i work out in the gym....i do the elliptical for 15 min...then leg presses with tht leg 15x3 with 35lbs
hip adduction exercises on the machine ..there r two types ..each one of i do 15x3 with 70lbs ..then leg curls ..the operated leg with 20 lbs...
reccumbant bike for 30 min....

this is my routine ....i know its pretty boring coz i also think i can do much more than wot i am doing rite now but then i am also strictly following wot my pt tells me to do.i am not a runner like u guys r but did run 5 miles everyday 5 days a week on the treadmill to stay fit ..besides tht i was lifting wts in the gym and doing taekwondo also ....there is where i hurt my self...lol

good luck to u and do keep us posted with ur progress....

Deluxehorsehitter,

I was pretty fit too when i went in for surgery ...was not doing pt like u but was working out in the gym.....i sometimes still feel tht the injured leg of mine is stronger than the other leg..anyways...no my taekwondo days are not finished..it will take me atleast 9 months to get back to it..like in any other sport and i dont want to rush it.....want to go back stronger and healthier....

I did check the website out.....its so awesome.....u know we do some very tough workouts in taekwondo which is total body conditioning..i will tell my master to check this website too..no harm in it....if he could incorporate some of the workouts from there into ours ..

I want ot start running too so badly but my pt is i think waiting for my docs instructions..i think since i have the autograft..recovery is a little slow..but then i am happy atleast i can workout on the elliptical and the bike..loll..

I think u r doing very good as far as ur pt is concerned ..i know it gets kind of boring after a while but PATIENCE is the key as we alll know it...so u and me and all of us over there who have had acl reconstructive surgery need to have lots of patience....patience and patience

Good luck to u with ur recovery and do keep us informed ..

i had a complete tear of my acl with no other injuries.  when the injury happened, it killed!!!! but after 5 min of lying on the court, i got up and walked to the bench.  i had very little pain afterward, but sometimes it felt like my knee was going to bend backwards.  i didn't use crutches at all.  i thought i just twisted it or something.  i waited a few weeks before having surgery (they recommend it so that the swelling can go down a bit), and the days before surgery my knee felt fine!  i could jog and everything, but any twisting or jumping and i could feel that there was nothing stablizing my knee.  I got the CPM machine after surgery.  I loved it.  it was the only time that i didn't have to keep my knee in that damn immoblizing brace!!  !http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/smile.gif|src=http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/smile.gif|border=0!  anyway, good luck to you both, srunner and volleyballbabe...tearing acls does suck...a lot.  but it gets better with time (and patience!)