The ACL Repair Blog Firsthand accounts of ACL surgery and recovery

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 days before Henry’s so we can share in the triumphs and pain along the way.

My acl: I tore it in a freak accident involving furniture and some stairs and thankfully a railing (it was a very heavy dresser). Like Henry, I had a previous ACL replacement, but it was in my other knee. That was an allograft, from a cadaver. This one is from my hamstring.

Day 8: First post-op Dr visit: Interestingly, I am getting different Dr feedback than Henry. My post-op appt was this morning (day 8). My doc is happy I can do 90 degrees, I took my own bandages off days ago and I no longer ‘need’ a dressing (nor did I ever have a brace). I have a LOT of pain from where they took the hamstring pieces out (goes by a nerve) from my shin down to my toes. Which, as I told the doc, keeps me from doing much walking. He thought that was ok and they often have to keep patients from doing too much.

I did find out that I was wrong about what I thought they did to my cartilage (damn drug-induced hallucination!). My meniscus cartilage had a big gash, but not a complete rip so was only shaved (i.e. its thinner than it was but that’s all). I had a hole in my articular cartilage under my tibia which is where I had a microfracture done (they drill into the bone, let stem cells out and they form a slightly different type of cartilage). Makes me wish I had one of those leg machines cause I have to do hundreds of leg slides a day to get good new cartilage there. And I can am allowed use 1 crutch instead of 2, but cause of the microfracture, I need to use the crutch for another month. I haven’t started using 1 crutch yet but will at my next Physical Therapy appt on Thurs. That’s another difference, I’ve be at PT since day 2 post-op twice a week - guess each doctor is different. I remember my last knee doc swore by the allograft and this guy hates them.