My Third ACL Reconstruction Surgery
At the moment I’m sitting comfortably on the couch with a fresh allograft and a positive outlook on life.
My surgery was this morning and it went quite smoothly. My anesthesia was a bit different this time from what i’ve had previously and it’s made for a markedly improved day of surgery experience.
I’ll do a timeline post later on to help those who are doing this for the first time know what to expect, but the purpose of this post is to simply note that I had the operation, it went well and i’m feeling good.
A quick note on the anesthesia: This go around I got a nerve block in my left leg in addition to the more traditional general and localized anesthetics. In surgery it doesn’t really matter as I was out cold like i always have been. However, come back in the recovery room was a much better experience due to the reduced use of a general anesthetic. By the time I was ready to be discharged my head was quite clear and i felt generally great.
Additionally a large portion of the left leg is still numbed, meaning i’m not experiencing even the slightest ache 6 hours post-op.
Now the hardest part begins. However, my last experience re-habing from an ACL repair ended up having a broader positive impact on my life. I’m hoping this go around will continue that trend and further enable me to engage my body.
And now, back to Mad Men Season3 
I’m two days behind you…have my surgery set up for the 19th. Glad to hear that your surgery went smoothly! Thanks for taking the time to post your experience….nice to read about someone else going through this joy. Enjoy your CPM’ing and your Mad Men!
I am glad you liked having the nerve block, it didn;t seem to make any difference to me, although the front of my leg was numb, I had significant pain coming out of the anesthesia. I don’t think they got quite the right never with the block. Enjoy your recovery as much as you are able.
Thanks for keeping up with such a useful site – even though it’s SUCH a bummer that you’ve had to go through this multiple times. I’m about two weeks ahead of you (surgery on Jan 5), and I really found your past posts helpful as I was gearing up for all of this. On the nerve block – I had one, but not till AFTER surgery, and they actually let me use the ultrasound to find the nerve (I’m completely fascinated by stuff like that haha). It was weird, but I’m glad I did it – I didn’t have any serious pain until two or three days post-op. Hope you heal well!
They get easier every time don’t they?! I am 8-weeks post-op from my second ACL and getting ready for a cartilage transplant this summer -which will be operation number 4. Each surgery keeps getting easier, maybe its because we know what to expect? Now it’s like getting a haircut.
Thank you for your blog. It is great to be able to read about others with the same surgery are going through. I had mine on january 5th (same day as you jennifer, we should compare notes!
) so I’m not three weeks post op. I had a nerve block as well and it was wonderful. The only problem was that I had no pain until it came all at once at around 11:30pm, even though I was taking the meds they game me. No fun. But after that I only had pain for another day and by day three didn’t need any meds anymore and was walking without crutches as they said I could put full weight on my leg as long as I kept the leg brace on.
I’m curious to know how things are going now, and how things are going for other people that are around 3 weeks post surgery.
Happy healing everyone!
Oooops, it was Lindsay that had surgery on the same day as me, not Jennifer… sorry…
Hi….just had ACL reconstrunction on 2/2….spinal block; recovery was wonderful and minimal swelling; able to straighten almost 100% and bend approximately 80% “2 days” after surgery. My PT was amazed and so am I. Will take the rehab slowly and one week later they have me on the bike. Thanks to the Hospital for Special Surgey and Dr. David Altchek….what a wonderful surgeon and wonderful hospital. If you need ACL surgery….go for it and get your life back!
Hi! I hope your recovery is well on its way! I am in the process of deciding how to approach my third reconstruction. The first surgery failed after 1.5 months–it was a double bundle with tissue harvested from my hamstring…the second surgery failed two years later–it was a allograft. Now I have three different doctors with three different approaches to fixing what I hope is the final surgery…the thought of recovering again seems…overwhelming..Henry your comments about improving my overall wellbeing provides some hope…
What are thoughts on the bone graft situation? That seems to be the big debate in my situation…how bad is that recovery? On your third go did you have to have one? Any thoughts on the double bundle?
I do realize this was posted in January, however I’m having a “woe-is-me” moment and stumbled across your blog. I am about to have my 3rd acl reconstruction and 5th surgery on the same knee, and hearing that you also went through a 3rd reconstruction made me feel less alone. Thanks for sharing your blog and I hope your recovery is still going great.
Sorry to hear that you guys have had to go through with this again.
What was the cause of your failures..bad reinjury/accident?
Jessica..how did yours fail at 1.5 months?
Hows the state of the knee now?
I’m on day 3 of post op and started my own blog just outlining my recovery, still in an immense amount of pain though!
[...] Rose http://www.acl-repair.com/my-third-acl-reconstruction-surgery has gone through three ACL reconstructions and blogged about them [...]
Don’t forget to take your meds. don’t let the pain set in because you will regret it.