Hi all! I thought I would post on here to find out how people returning to work after their ACLr has affected their recovery. I guess I should start this with how I injured my knee. I was in a BJJ (brazilian jiu jitsu) tournament when I completely tore my ACL and had surgery right before christmas. PT was going great! literally up until I went back to work. I am an RN and I work in the ICU, soo I am pretty much on my feet 12 hrs at a time, never too much time for sitting and icing the knee at work. I am now getting close to 7months and I'm unable to run and still having a slight limp at times when I walk, its definitely horrible after working a 12hr shift. I was hoping to be running by now but I guess according to PT work kinda caused me a huge setback :(.
What does everyone else do for a living?
How long was it before you were allowed to return to work and after you returned how long did it take to adjust if work caused you any setbacks?
For the martial artists out there how long before you returned to the sport?
(I guess need to find less risky extra curricular activities)
The ACL Repair Forum Firsthand accounts of ACL surgery and recovery
About this topic
- Posted by bjjgirl 2 months ago. There are 3 posts. The latest reply is from bjjgirl.
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Working does make it hard to consistently go to PT.
I work at a nuclear power plant and I am also constantly on my feet.
However, once you get the basics and you know what exercises to do, you should be able to progress mostly on your own. The big thing for me, during the 2-4 month post op period, was mountain biking. This really helped me build up the muscles around the knee and it helped me break through scar tissue. Then at four months I slowly started to return to my sport (tennis). I took it really slow and gradually worked my way up to running (mostly just short sprints in tennis). Now, with a custom fitted ACL sports brace, I am able to run full out. My tennis game is almost back to its previous level.
I am 5.5 months post op on a B-PT-B graft.
If I was you, I would get fitted for an ACL brace. Then, I would push myself and slowly return to BJJ with your doctors permission.
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I've actually started at a new Physical therapy office that has gotten my gait almost to normal-I'm requiring a little more aggressive neurological re-education, the old office kinda missed the mark with me. I did get fitted for a new brace which will also be the sport brace I'll be using once the Doc feels its safe for me to return to sports. As far as cycling goes I actually started cycling 3weeks post op with my road bike on a trainer and got a new bike for cycling outdoors once the Doc said it was ok, and having been doing that and eliptical ever since. I guess with work and all the lateral movement and lifting along with standing on my feet for 12 hrs, the feeling is that I'm having to fight with my quad trying to shut down :( so I kinda hit a plateau , soo the doc told me to expect that recovery will take alittle longer since work isn't optional. He told me to everything looks good this far out tho and to plan on one year before going back to bjj.
Thanks for the response! :)
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