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Injury & Recovery Injuries, Health Issues, Vision & Body Repair


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Old 09-30-2012, 05:02 AM
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Default ACL/Meniscus tear questions

Hello folks, kind of bummed out right now. Planted my right foot like I do 50 times a ride and pop! Torn ACL and Meniscus.

Part of my bummed out issue is that my 4 month old 2011 Nambo is sitting in the garage beside my 1 month old 2012 300 Raga with one tank of gas through it. I was so excited to get these bikes and now????????

My question is it has been over 3 weeks since my injury and I still can barely walk with a cane. Is this normal?

I live in Canada so I am on a long wait list to see a surgeon and to get a MRI to confirm the extent of my injury. I have only dealt with the emergency Dr. and my family G.P. to date.

I purchased two Custom Donjoy Defiance braces, one for the bad knee and one for the good knee.

I am currently working out of the country trying to hobble arround until I return to Canada at the end of October.

When do you guy's with experience with this expect I will be able to walk normally again and have any of you guys (or gals) continued riding without a ACL repair.

Sorry for the Rant but I am just trying to figure out what is in my future.
Martin


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Old 09-30-2012, 06:42 AM
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GasGas GasGas is offline
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You need to get yourself into physio therapy as soon as possible. They will get you walking again and maybe even riding again if you do what they ask you to. I know a few guys that ride without acl's and have done so for many years. They just keep the muscles strong and wear good knee braces. Both of my daughters have had acl replacements and know all about the wait to get it fixed. But with physio and the gym you should only need the braces for sports and riding. Good luck.
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Old 09-30-2012, 05:50 PM
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Sorry to hear about your injury. I have also suffered an ACL/miniscus tear while riding. It seems like everyone's experience is a little different, but I was able to hobble on my knee a few days later and could walk on it fairly normally within a month (prior to surgery - then the process started over).

Here's my advice...get on the list to get it fixed. I elected at the time to just get my knee "cleaned" up and not have the ACL replaced. Big mistake. My knee has never been the same since (obviously). Though they say you can strengthen the rest of your leg to compensate, I think that is only moderately true. Forget jumping down off anything ever again, and walking/jogging on uneven ground is an annoying experience. Your knee will easily slip out of place, sending you stumbling or worse. If you don't get it replaced, you will eventually learn to deal with it and make the proper motions to land on it without tweaking it. I can still jog on even ground, run up stairs, wakeboarded (with braces) and I certainly haven't given up bikes (though I am now far less likely to stick that leg out).

I also had the miniscus tear, and that is nothing to take lightly. The miniscus basically keeps your bones from rubbing together, so you want that healed (and its hard to heal because it doesn't get much blood flow). My tear was stitched up and required a month on crutches. With a simple ACL replacement, they usually have you up and walking in just a few days.

I just recently decided to go back and get my ACL replaced. I've come to the conclusion that if I don't get it fixed, I'm just doing slow damage to my knee due to all the extra lateral movement. I don't mean to be a debbie downer, but you will be much happier in the long run if you just get it fixed now. Do it now before you change your lifestyle. As funny as it may seem, I wonder whether I will ever regain the confidence to do the things I used to do without a second thought (jumping off a tailgate, etc.) even after I get the ACL replaced.
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Old 09-30-2012, 06:34 PM
jostby jostby is offline
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+1 on the therapy. I detached my ACL riding about 7yrs ago, also damaged/tore the meniscus. After I could get around OK (about 1 month, the first 2wks on crutches) on advice from my surgeon I spent the following 2 months in Phys therapy building my quads up before having the reconstruction. Used a donor ligament from my own hamstring for the rebuild and they cleaned up the meniscus at that time also. Recovery was about 10wks before I was 100% to be back to work but was about 6 months before I was riding again. I used the DonJoy brace for the first year but finally got tired of it and ride without now. If I still raced I think I would invest in a good set of knee braces made specifically for riding but there's pro's and con's to using them. Many think they can transmit force and possibly break your femur in a bad accident.

My surgeon also said the ACL replacement wasn't necessary but if you lead any kind of active life it will suck (like Phoenix said). And the low blood flow/supply to the ligaments and meniscus in the knee make healing slow. Over age 40 doesn't help either. If you smoke, stop smoking now to improve blood/oxygen flow for improved chance of 100% recovery.

Google "bobs acl board" a forum with tons of info (if it's still around).

Good luck with the rehab.
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Old 10-02-2012, 12:14 AM
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Thanks for the info, unfortunatly PT is not available to me for about a month. I have been working on range of movement exercises. I will get things rolling on the PT as soon as I get home.

Thanks again,
Martin
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Old 10-02-2012, 12:46 AM
jgas jgas is offline
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I've torn my MCL and Meniscus 3 times in the right knee, but it never tore 100
% so I've gotten by with just Arthro surgery. ACL has to be fixed surgically though. No way around it. And don't rush the rehab, or it can tear again. They have excellent results these days with ACL reattachments though. Don'tdo too much rehab on your own either! Your knee is very uustable, and you can cause more harm than good with self rehab.

Unfortunately, ACL rehab takes a long time after surgery, but you just have to put up with it and be patient. I recently had a 4 hr surgery on my shoulder, doc said there was 6 different things he had to fix once he looked inside. Rehab was 6 months, and even after that it was 9 months before I could ride hard but it was well worth the wait. I can ride all day without pain now. In my shoulder that is. Everything else hurts, but my shoulder's great!
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Old 10-02-2012, 05:27 AM
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An ACL repair is strongest right after surgery, but then weakens over time. At the 6 month mark is when it is back to almost full strength. It has to attach to blood supply on its own over time. That's why you have to be super careful and diligent with your rehab after surgery. My daughter had her knee super strong before surgery and was able to ride with a knee brace with no problems before surgery. But she just did her time after the surgery as we did not want her to mess it up.
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Old 10-04-2012, 07:38 AM
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I also will join to the "6-month" mob. This seems to be the period it takes for recovery after the surgery.

I didn't recover or PT after the tear and before the surgery. My surgeon made me stay immobilized with a brace for about 10 days so that the swallowing could go down a bit and then did the ACL repair. Then the PT was hard and (very) painful. Don't know if the other way it would have been easier. From what I heard from my therapist it wouldn't.

One more controversial statement from the therapist: "Skinny people recover faster and easier than those with developed thigh muscles." Can't verify that either as I've always been far from skinny

P.S.
There must be a 3 year old (I think) thread in this forum from me when I had my injury and surgery.
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Old 10-05-2012, 02:50 AM
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I have just recovered from the ACL reconstruction/meniscus surgery. Dec,16,2011 was my surgery. I tore it on Sept, 18, 2011. PreOp rehab is the KEY to faster less painful recovery.

Sorry Krasi, but you went through the "old way" of doing it.

Mud-Ectomy, did the ER Doc drain the fluid from the knee, that will make a big difference in being able to walk with minimal pain.
I can't stress this enough, since you have not had an MRI yet, there is a chance that you have more issues than the ACL/Meniscus alone. If you can't begin Rehab, get a hold of a stationary bike, put on your knee brace [I went with the CTi custom] and pedal for 3/5 minutes twice a day for the first week. Be sure to Ice [not directly/use a thin towel as barrier for skin] the whole knee down afterwards for 10 minutes or so.
Icing the knee is critical to healing. It "kickstarts" your body's natural healing process.
Week two try to step up the cycling to 8-10 minutes twice a day.

Whenever you have the chance, ICE the knee for 10minutes!

After a few weeks try to cycle for 20 or 30 minutes if you can.
If you have stairs, walk them up and down as many times as you can before hitting the "wobbly" stage.

My surgeon said that typically, they have patients do 4-6weeks of preop rehab before scheduling the surgery. The reason is that the surgery causes immediate atrophy to the first [closest to the knee] 20-30% of the Quad. The last 10-15yrs has shown that the preop [instead of postop only like the old days] physical therapy drastically decreases this effect and shortens recovery time from 1yr [avg] down to 6-9 months [avg]. He also said that they have not figured out the exact reason or cause of the atrophy from the surgery, but it happens. I did my PT and and was ready for surgery after 1month. About 20% of my quad looked like it had died a couple of days after the reconstruction surgery [I opted for the cadaver graft] eventhough I was waking on it [with a brace] around the house without crutches. I did use the crutches most of the time after a scary slip on the stairs for the next 8-10 days.

Rehab began three days after surgery 3-4 days/week. I was doing some light riding [pit bike] following my daughter around after 3 months. PT ended after 2 months and I began walking and bicycle [road and stationary] daily after that. I was cleared for easy riding on my Gasser at the end of the 4th month. I joined a few friends for a charity trail ride and after about 10-12 miles I was done for the day and my knee was very tender. Ice took care of that and I decided to stay away from the bike for another month.

All this time included wearing the brace whenever I was walking and for any straining type of exercise. After 2 months, I would leave it off if I was not leaving the house. the surgeon said that I could stop wearing the brace all the time after 7months but would still have to wear it for any type of strenuous activity [pretty much anything more than walking] for the next 1-2 years. I pretty much only wear it when riding now, or something that requires "cutting" motion like soccer, football, tennis etc..

I am currently able to ride without any pain and can do some light jogging. Complete "squatting" motion is not 100% yet and is the only movement that causes pain now.

I hope this is helpful,
Remember to ice it often, even if you do not do any PT. The Ice is the key to rapid recovery. Heat is not your friend in this situation, just ICE.

Good Luck,
Vince
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Old 10-07-2012, 10:50 PM
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Firstly, thank you all for all your advice and tips. The medical system is a slow moving machine and I will everything I can do to expidite my recovery.

Wrench, they did not drain my knee in fact this is the first I have heard of that.

I found a Clinic in the city I work at that will conduct a MRI for me on Wednesday. I will send the results to my doctor back in Canada. My hope is that with the MRI results in hand I will be able to meet with the Surgeon soon.

I went looking at stationary bikes for my apartment and should have one by the end of the week.

Bought some more frozend peas and Ice Ice Baby are words I am living by.

Thank you all once again,
Martin
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