I will sort of give you the run down on what I went through as a fellow pain whimp :) Keep in mind I did also have some of my meniscus cut out along with the ACL surgery. My doc regimen for post op was the same for ACL as it was for ACL/meniscus. The only difference was that getting off the crutches could be a bit longer with meniscus work done. I've learned from talking to fellow ACL patients at PT that everything varies from person to person. I play soccer with a girl who tore her ACL 2 months before me and she's already back playing soccer. I am at 14 or 15 weeks and not even running yet. I have also not done my PT exercises for the past 4 weeks so my knee is sort of on hold right now.
I was on crutches for 5 weeks. I think because of the pain that I didn't really ease myself into walking around. I just used the crutches all the time until I finally decided, ok, I think it's been long enough and then I was walking almost all the time from then on out. I kept the crutches with me when I went out just in case I got tired out but I never really used them after 5 weeks.
Week 1- Brace locked out straight in full extension. No bending knee. Just medicate, sleep, and ice 24 hours a day all day! I seriously iced all day long. Some people are told by their docs to start bending your knee right after surgery but my doctor said it's much harder to get your full extension back then it is to get your 130 degree bend. So this is why he locks his patients braces straight out. Some people get cold machine things too. They are supposed to circulate cold water or something like that around your knee. I didn't have this. I had about 14 bags of frozen peas in my freezer and I used 2 bags at a time at all times throughout the day. I feel asleep and woke up with mooshy peas numerous times. My brace never came off for any of this. I gave myself sponge baths when I could.
Week 2- Brace still locked out in full extension. Same as above, tons of icing and I believe I was still taking the pain medicine but I had switched to Vicodan cuz the other stuff had made me itchy.
Week 3- Was supposed to start physical therapy after 2 weeks but I couldn't get an appointment where I wanted so the doc said I could wait another week as long as I practiced quad firing exercises at home along with slowly trying to get my knee to bend so it didn't stiffen up too much. The doctor also unlocked my brace to 60 degrees at this point too so my knee could now bend a bit in my brace if I wanted it too. (I think) It's hard to remember now. I should have kept a journal or something. Still icing a lot but took my brace off while I did it quite a bit. During the first 3 weeks I always had my heel resting on top of 3 or 4 pillows. It helps to have your knee a bit suspended in mid air cuz it helps force the knee to really straighten out. It helps with getting your extension back.
Week 4- Started PT two day's a week along with home exercise program which I did every day except PT day's, twice a day. I believe I was randomly taking pain pills at night time because sometimes it was hard to sleep if my knee hurt. I have trouble sleeping in general too so that was probably just me being weird :)
Week 5- No more pills, and off crutches. Back to work but mostly only sitting jobs.
Week 6- ? Can't remember anything interesting.
Week 7-?
Week 8- I believe sometime in the week 6-8 My brace was unlocked so I could fully bend it at will. I didn't have my full range of motion back yet though so I never bent it that much. I think I could bend my knee to about 115-120 degrees forced at this point. They want you to get back to about 130 not forced. I think I also started taking off my brace at this point. I know I didn't sleep with it on anymore but I still usually only slept on my back because it felt weird to have my knee bent sideways. I started doing more standing type jobs at work so I would wear my brace most day's.
Week 9- Taking off the brace more often at work
Week 10- All of a sudden a lot of the pain subsided. Could bend to 127 degrees not forced. Got to start working on lateral movement exercise in PT.
So there's my novel for you. I know that everything I did was on a slower progress scale then most people. I started PT late and had a lot of pain that made it hard to force myself to bend my knee. My therapist said that I was her most difficult patient (pain wise) but that I was also the only hamstring graft she has ever had. I met about 6 or 7 other ACL's at PT and every one of them had had Patellar tendon grafts. I would guess that no matter what you choose it's going to hurt, and it's going to be hard. Like I mentioned before, have someone there for you who can really help you out when you need it. My knee feels pretty good right now. Not good enough to run on by any means, but that's because I haven't been doing my exercises and it's weak. I'm defo glad I had surgery because it feels so much more solid then after I hurt it. Back before surgery it always felt like it was going to give out on me. Sorry to write so much, I just remember how much research I was doing online pre surgery and there's so much info out there that it's scary to take it all in. this is just my own personal experience with it. Let me know if you have anymore questions.
I agree with squid kid's comment about finding a PT that you like. They are the ones who you spend the most amount of time working with and answering a lot of your questions.
