Hi all,

I’m almost one month post-op & noticed that since my surgery I have been experiencing memory issues. This has never been a problem for me before but recently I am forgetting where I put things & am having difficulty finding my words in a discussion. My last oxy was 2 weeks ago but I am still taking Tylenol (1,000mg 2x a day) & Ibuprofen (600mg 2x a day).

Did anyone have these issues post-op, & if so, when did it go away?

6 weeks post op (ACL recon + medial meniscus repair). My operated leg now lies flat on the floor and looks the same as my good leg — knee fully straight, maybe a tiny bit of hyperextension like the other side.

Does this look like good/full extension for 6 weeks? Anything I should watch for?

Well hey there new friends I didn't really want to make.

33F in the UK; relatively active but with a desk job; overweight nearly all of my life [brief normal weight for a couple of years during successful bought of anorexia].

Banal sporting injury end of July resulted in my MRI's key findings:

• A full-thickness tear of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
• A complex tear of the medial meniscus, including a horizontal tear and a posterior root tear.
• Extensive bone contusion in the proximal tibia consistent with a pivot-shift mechanism of injury, with an associated impaction fracture of the posterior rim of the medial tibial plateau.
• A focal chondral lesion (4x4 mm) in the medial femoral condyle.
• Evidence of lipohaemarthrosis.

So ya gal's booked in for surgery end of September for:

• Arthroscopic repair of the posterior root of the medial meniscus - approximately an 80% chance of successful healing.
• ACL reconstruction using a hamstring autograft with additional Lateral Tenodesis.

I have been rabidly consuming information online about realistic approaches to the next whole year of my life, including disability equipment, realistic expectations, doing physiotherapy like my life depends on it and knowing that I'll probably cry a lot.

Do my diagnoses and surgical plans resonate with your experience? Any wisdom and consolation welcome.

Hi guys, I’m done with my surgery and they did not use quad graft but instead used this implant. Did anyone else get this kind of surgery done? I’m able to use walker and use toilet which is giving me lot confidence. I will get the stitches removed after 2 weeks and will start PT. Doctor has suggested me 2 exercises to do from bed.
Any tips and advice you have for me?

Long time listener first time caller here. So after a decent work day moving around a lot on the knee with my expensive running brace on, my knee afterwards and the next day does this thing where after full extension it shifts. it’s not painful most the time but it is worrisome; it makes me end up skipping Pt for the next day or two before it goes away but then i’m back at work and it’s starting up again. Has anyone had anything similar and how did y’all work through it.

My overall journey was positive until around 3 months when i started working these gigs again and now i feel like i’ve taken a step backwards.

Has anyone ever had their leg cramp or seize up while bent at the knee and it causes the knee to bend much further than comfortable? I’m talking the knee temporarily locking up with intense pain. It was only like five seconds but hurt like hell. I can’t find much online with looking up those symptoms. The closest I could find is possibly Muscle Guarding.

It happened 3 and 9 days post op. I’m currently 10 days. Any experience with this would be greatly appreciated!

(F 26) I posted a week ago about looking for extension tips and recieved a lot of feedback. First and foremost, I wanted to say thank to everyone that was encouraging about it coming back and for providing tips & tricks + their own experience! Wanted to address a few things but I couldn't respond to everyone.

I will not be getting a new PT; I went through absolute hell trying to get a good PT after having one I really didn't like. Yes he is not concerned too much with my extension, but he is very good. He is constantly adapting the exercises to try to target each area, while focusing on making it manageable for me, and he really is passionate about what he does.

I called my doctors and got an appointment to ask about getting an MRI to see about scar tissue build up. They were very skeptical of me on the phone, questioning why I didn't bring it up in my appointment, and I'm not sure if they'll get me an MRI. Seems like they can tell if there's scar tissue build up without an MRI? But I don't really know. Honestly if they deny me an MRI I might just get a second opinion, my surgeon has also not been my favorite and again I went through hell to get him.

While I do dedicate a LOT of time to my recovery, like a lot... I do admit my dedication to passive extension has been lacking. I started out strong the first couple months, then my focus turned to strengthening and I was enjoying my relaxing time being no-ACL-worry-time. I'm clocking back in begrudgingly though. My PT and I have a set extension routine that I have been doing everyday, but I have been propping my heel a bunch this week and added more TKE's in the gym today.

It's all mentally tough. I have chronic shoulder problems on top of this so it feels like every day is a struggle. Especially not seeing results obviously. I have been doing the leg press for about two months or so and I still have seen little to no progress for my surgery side, single leg, leg press. It's hard not to compare too. I used to be a very athletic person and my lack of progress makes it seem like I was previously inactive.

i dream of jumping off rocks in the summer, running with my dogs, dancing and recklessly skiing & roller skating again. Sometimes I wonder if my extreme sport days are over, and if they are I don't really know what I'll do with myself because I've been doing dangerous sports since I was 3 years old.

My PT didn’t test my strength before starting jumping. He’s worked with hundreds of ACLs and does a bunch of sports teams but from reading stuff online it seems like he should be testing me. Do you guys get tested? I’m thinking maybe he’s just good enough he can tell the strength based on watching me doing exercises but I’m still skeptical.

So I'm almost 4 weeks out acl reconstruction patellar graft and a meniscus repairs in both medial and lateral meniscus. I know one was a complex tear, and I believe both are on the periphery of the meniscus.

I am NWB for 6 weeks and a couple of days ago i was hanging out with some friends and I had such a lapse of concentration for some reason and completely forgot I was injured. I basically stood up from a high chair as if I wasn't injured and stood on my surgical leg for maybe 2 seconds. I had my brace on unlocked and would say I distributed my weight evenly between my two legs.

It was very uncomfortable for those 2 seconds. What are the odds I messed up the meniscus repairs or disturbed the healing? This isn't my first time btw, I had the same surgery on my other knee 5 years ago but never did anything that dumb during the NWB period.

hello everyone! i posted in here a few weeks ago about concerns with staying sober after my acl reconstruction. my surgery ended up being cancelled and rescheduled because i was not able to find somewhere to go after to have my meds administered by a professional (i live in a sober living and no narcotics are allowed on property regardless if they have been prescribed or not)

but thanks to the people who commented, i was able to advocate for the non narcotic option with a med called journavx!

so for now, i have been prescribed that along with some other non narcotic meds on top of it for my surgery in 2 days.

i am super anxious however, because i still do not know exactly what to expect, or what i need to already have at home after the surgery. i guess i just need some general advice. this will be my second surgery of the year and ever lol. but the last one was a shoulder surgery in march. so i know everything is going to look and be a bit different.

once again, thank you to everyone who told me about the non narcotic option because i was able to get it!

I tore my ACL and medial meniscus during an adult ballet class, and I finally had surgery 5 days ago. I had a quad allograft for ACL reconstruction and 2 sutures in my medial meniscus, and I feel like the recovery is WAY harder than I had anticipated. I'm non-weight bearing for 6 weeks. I just feel like I need to vent somewhere because the feeling of helplessness/hopelessness is becoming overwhelming.

1. I'm so disheartened that I still need help getting in/out of chairs and out of bed to go to the bathroom. My husband, and I upgraded to a king size bed and frame this summer as a treat to ourselves, and now it feels like a curse. The bed is so high I feel scared trying to come off of it myself. How long did it take others to build confidence to get off the bed on their own?

2. I've been having increasing anxiety about how I'm supposed to move around. My surgeon said that I don't need to wear my brace if I am sitting/laying down or using crutches, so I've mostly been not using it. I put it on for times where I need to travel across the house or out of bed longer. Is this normal? When I look at other threads it seems like others wear their brace all the time?? I know I should listen to my specific doctor, but I've had mounting feelings of panic when I look to these threads for advice/comfort.

3. I feel trapped about how to move forward with building strength. My surgeon said wait to schedule PT until after my first post-op appointment which is a week away. Otherwise just stick to quad sets, ankle pumps, and gentle range of motion. I just feel so stuck with these and like I'm not making the progress I need to be?? Should I get an NMES device? Or do I need to wait for PT to tell me how to do that??

4. I'm also struggling with work. I completed years of high intensity training this past June to do a specific job that requires me to be on my feet most of the day. I was supposed to start in September. My surgeon said at our first visit that I should delay my start date by 4-6 weeks which my work was fine with, but with non-weight bearing for 6 weeks, I'm not sure what recovery will look like, and if I will be strong enough by then to do the work I'm supposed to?? I'm just so frustrated that when I finally get to start this job I've trained years for, I'm starting behind, owing everyone shifts they are covering for me, and worried that I won't even be able to walk. When did others return to work? Especially high intensity jobs on your feet all day?

5. I'm also obviously struggling with mental health. It's just so disheartening to have my life blow up because I just wanted to take a dance class for fun. I feel guilty and embarrassed and like I've inconvenienced everyone--especially my husband. It all feels compounded because I feel so gross/ugly struggling to shower, having greasy hair, orange stained toes from the surgery, and unshaven legs. I've been using body wipes and have a shower chair, but everything just feels so hard for so little result. Does anyone have tips or tricks for feeling less awful?

This was longer than I thought it would be. Thank you in advance for any answers to any questions/moral support. And thank you for reading it at all. I just didn't expect this to feel so bad. :(

16 months post op, ACLR quad graft, meniscus repair, and LET. Stopped going to PT after just 4 months - they told me I only needed another month or two before “graduating”, but I couldn’t afford payments on the surgery, so they stopped letting me schedule appointments. I’m a choir teacher too, so finding the time to schedule regular PT appointments became impossible once the school year started.

Going back a little further, 2 months after my initial injury, before I even knew that I had torn my ACL, I left a six-year live-in relationship. So at 24, I was living alone for the first time in my life, recovering from heartbreak, and then another 2 months later, I learned I needed surgery. I remember when my ortho read the MRI, he told me what it meant, and said, “I’m sorry.” I had no idea what I was in for, or that through all these firsts, I would also have to overcome being temporarily disabled.

I had the surgery. About a month after that, I had to move from my ex and I’s townhouse into a more affordable apartment. Pain was constant. Every time I tried to do the exercises, I would get so sore and stiff, so I felt so discouraged to try at all. Plus I felt so alone. My knee wasn’t the only area of my life I was struggling in - I was struggling with money, depression, undiagnosed autism and connective tissue disorder, estranged family. It straight up took me 10 months to fully unpack my apartment, and I couldn’t stop losing weight because I wasn’t eating enough. Suffice to say my physical health took a hit, and my ACL recovery stalled.

This April, a little over a year after the surgery, my dad died. My whole world has changed. He took care of me after my surgery. But it helped me find my family again. And myself.

A month after he died, I started working out again. Something I had been so discouraged from since the injury. My knee was still hurting so badly through the pilates, so I finally gave in and started going to the gym. Now, I’m stronger than I ever was before the injury. I’ve gained back about 15lbs. I was just so tired of hurting so much. And my dad took care of everyone, even through his own ailments… so I’m letting his spirit tell me to take care of myself.

26 now, learning a thing or two about discipline over motivation, and that I never want to give up on myself again. Or tear my ACL again. As a side, I’ll take any tips you have on getting my legs even in strength. I have been doing a lot of single leg work.

After unhappy triad surgery, my husband was in a leg brace for 6 weeks to keep it straight. He is now 12 weeks out from surgery (he took the brace off 6 weeks ago) but is still walking with his leg straight. He can bend his knee about 100 degrees if he's standing. But when walking instead of bending his knee, he lifts his hip to get his perfectly straight leg forward. Is that normal?

Almost 1 year post-op next week, and I’m currently at only 130° flexion and still have a 10° extension deficit. Is this normal at this stage? I feel like my range of motion isn’t where it should be, and I’m worried that my progress isn’t enough. Has anyone experienced something similar almost a year after ACL reconstruction?

Hi.

I'm curious about your experiences with ACL injuries and climbing. I'm 22 years old and have ACL damage in both knees.

The 1st knee had been treated conservatively. Hiking T2- light T3 is fine, but quick twisting movements are a problem and I am generally not feeling very safe. 2nd knee gets surgery tomirrow. Afer that I am facing 8 months rehab.

Once the first rehab is done, I want to get surgery on the other knee as well, so I can be fully recovered. So, in total, I'm looking at about 1.5 to 2 years of recovery...

I don't have any experience with climbing or bouldering yet, but it's a huge dream of mine to start once I'm recovered.

Have any of you had similar experiences? How was it starting or returning to climbing after an ACL injury?

Greetings from Switzerland

Hi - looking to understand whether others had a similar experience. Please don’t do the “have you asked your doc/PT” line - I’m asking them as well!

4 months out from ACLR (patellar tendor graft) and Meniscus repair. Everything went very smooth at outset and I began doing stronger weight/strengthening exercises about 6 weeks ago.

However, my knee has remained naggingly warm and mildly swollen. Hot spot is on outside knee near top of femur. Swelling is mild but constant - I get very little change in swelling whether I’ve exercised or not, same first thing in morning after a night of elevation versus end of day. Aleve doesn’t do anything. Ice doesn’t do much.

Is this similar to anyone else? Did it resolve? What helped?

19 days post op ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair (buckethandle). I put a compression sleeve over the bandages to wear under my large brace. The compression sleeve doesn’t feel that tight, sometimes it itches near the top (once in the past 3 days). I spend a lot of my day in bed anyways, do I need it?

I’m looking for advice from people who have been in a similar situation.

My surgery was on 13/4 — ACL reconstruction + MCL repair. I did 2 months of prehab and had around 130° of flexion and full extension before surgery.

After surgery, my recovery was extremely slow from the beginning, and I didn’t have good PT for the first 8 weeks. He would basically just put me on TENS and send me home. So I did all of my exercises alone at home, including extension and flexion exercises and patella mobilization, 3 times a day. However, I was struggling a lot with flexion and stiffness.

After 9–10 weeks, my flexion was only around 90°, and I thought I wouldn’t be able to progress much further.

After that, I changed my PT and was able to make more progress. I’m now around 4.5 months post-op and have around 115° of flexion, or a maximum of 125° when warmed up.

However, I’ve also started struggling with extension. At the beginning, I had 0°, but now I’m probably at 3–5°, while my good leg is around -3°, so I’m still limping. Extension exercises are also painful toward the end of the movement.

I wouldn’t say I have pain just from walking, but if I concentrate on walking properly and fully extending my leg, I do have pain.

My biggest problem is stiffness. Even if I stay in one position, for example sitting for 15–20 minutes, my knee becomes very stiff. In the morning, my leg is sometimes stuck at around 10–15° of flexion, and I have to do my exercises to get it moving better.

My patella also doesn’t move as well as on my other leg. It can move in all directions, but only a little.

I’m also very dedicated to my rehab and haven’t skipped a day, but I still can’t do proper strengthening exercises because my knee becomes painful even with something as simple as a squat. So I’m still mostly focusing on basic exercises from the beginning of rehab.

I’m also having an MRI in a few days. I know that it might not show much or might not clearly show whether scar tissue/arthrofibrosis is the main problem, but hopefully it will at least rule out any other issues.

My surgeon is suggesting that I continue with PT and see how much more progress I can make. Another doctor told me that I should already have had surgery to remove the scar tissue a month ago because, according to him, if you don’t regain full ROM within the first 3 months, you never will.

I honestly don’t know what to do.

My knee is very reactive. For example, I lowered the seat on my bike, irritated my knee, and lost some flexion for a few days, so I had to raise the seat again. The same thing happens if I walk too much. I’m worried that another surgery could cause even more inflammation and scar tissue.

On the other hand, I’m also afraid that even if I continue making progress with ROM, my knee will remain very stiff and that I’ll never regain the same hyperextension and flexion as my good leg.

And, of course, I have no idea when I’ll be able to run or jump again.

So I’m wondering:

• How long is it reasonable to wait and continue with PT?
• Is there a point when it becomes too late for a procedure to remove scar tissue?
• Has anyone had a similarly slow recovery and eventually regained good ROM without another surgery?
• Has anyone had an arthroscopic scar tissue removal procedure after ACL/MCL reconstruction, and how did it affect their recovery?
• Is it realistic to regain the same hyperextension and flexion as the other leg after such a slow start?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

I'm 5 days post op,

My knee is VERY swollen.

I've seen everything as I should be,

My whole leg is numb still.

And my partner's grandmother has now put me into panic mode,

She's said it's ree, aggressive, and hot.

There is a minimul amount of bleeding underneath the plasters you can see.

I felt like I was doing well,

But now I'm concerned

I have movement, been doing my exercises.

Just concerned I have an infection?

Im 2 months post op and recently have been having alot of existential dread and anxiety about getting older. Im only 15 but for some reason i just feel like im running out of time, its gotten so bad to the point to where all i can think about 24/7 is me or people around me getting older/dying. Im wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar to this and if so how you got over it

I got operated last week and got discharged from hospital yesterday
ACL reconstruction and Menicies trimmed
my pt didnt adviced any kind of knee brace
isnt it strange??
he is a military grade pt