The ACL Repair Blog Firsthand accounts of ACL surgery and recovery

This is mostly from a review on ACL reconstruction: Spindler, KP and Wright, RW. 2008. Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear. New England J of Medicine.
1. Weight bearing right after surgery does not cause harm.
2. Using passive motion machines is not any better than not using them.
3. Use of a brace is no better than not using a [...]

This has come up a lot in this blog in the posts and comments.
What is better autograft (hamstring or patella) or allograft (from a cadaver)?
As a biology graduate student I have access to scientific publications and some experience in assessing the published information. There are no official published guidelines for doctors, just scientific articles. Here [...]

As my physical therapist sees me getting stronger and stronger, my exercises seem to be getting more and more ridiculous, mostly in the name of ‘balance’. I have thrown a ball repeatedly against a bouncing backstop while standing on one leg an a tippy board. I have done squats on the Total Gym standing on [...]

Maybe I complain to much, but PT is in some ways torture. Unlike Henry, I am still going to PT twice a week, often for an hour and a half of hard work. Because I was using one crutch for 6 weeks, my left leg is noticeably thinner than my right and definitely weaker. It [...]

Guess I’m feeling better. It looks like Henry and I haven’t written in awhile. Today, I stopped using my crutch. The Doc said I could have stopped last Tuesday, but I waited until today (Sunday) because most internet info recommends 6-8 weeks of 50% weight for microfracture surgery and tomorrow is 6 weeks. (Other doctors [...]

Maybe its just a holiday funk, but it seems that my ACL recovery is depressing me a little. Its not that I haven’t made great progress. I ride the stationary bike for a half hour each day (getting a free bike the day before surgery was the best thing I could have done), do leg [...]

I mentioned that 1 week after surgery I was allowed to shower and go down to one crutch.
What could I do this week (day 14) that I could not do on day 7? (some things were probably more avoided for pain reasons than actually precluded)
actually use 1 crutch to get around 
ride a stationary bike (although [...]

SO I am convinced that the severe pain in my shin that runs down to my toes is nerve damage from the peroneal nerve during surgery. Like most cases I can find about it online, my dr seems to be in denial (but at least he didn’t claim it was just from the brace being [...]

Yesterday was day 11 for me. I finally dropped down to one crutch (as per day 9’s doctor orders) during my PT. Being able to carry things in one hand is better than a few fingers clutching a crutch. PT was grueling and my leg hurt all day afterwards. I finally broke down and took some Tylenol [...]

First, thank you for Henry in letting me share his blog, which is probably all I can manage being a 35-year-old graduate student, a dad and a dad-to-be while recovering from ACL surgery (feel sorry for my pregnant wife yet?). I found Henry’s blog and was initially interested because my surgery was on 11/24, two [...]