My ACL Tear and Recovery
Slow Snow News Day
Damn. I’ve been poking around blogs, sites and news and haven’t really come across much in the way of compelling ski, snowboard or resort stories today. I’m open to ‘em if you got ‘em.
In the meantime: hitting a driving range today. This will be the first meaningful bit of action for my knee since the ACL reconstruction surgery about three weeks ago. I hope there are no problems, but I really don’t forsee any, especially since I started physiotherapy this week. I’ve only been twice, but I will say this: physiotherapy is magic. I’m almost 100% limp-free, and I’ve started hitting the exercise machines. Time to lose a few pounds!
My two trips to the physiotherapist have actually been the most informative post-op sessions I’ve had with anyone. Among things I learned:
- I’m now missing a hamstring. A hamstring was taken out of my left leg to function as my new left ACL.
- The ACL actually sits crammed in your knee as a ‘dead’ ligament for several weeks. It’s not until week 7 or 8 that the ligament starts to get blood flowing through it again and it comes back to life (in simple terms).
- Full, hardcore ‘cutting’ (i.e. football, basketball, ultimate frisbee) won’t be possible for 8 to 12 months, depending on the surgeon.
- Nothing else in my knee was damaged when I tore the ligament, which is apparently rare and great news.
I can already feel the difference, and I know returning to snowboarding will be the easy part. Returning to hardcore ‘cutting’ sports will be the more difficult one.
Discussion
One comment for “Slow Snow News Day”
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Glad to hear it’s going well.
Interesting info; thanks for posting.
JB.