Knee Surgery ?

[beetea]

Has anyone here gone for knee surgery?

I'm looking at repairing my ACL and my medial meniscus in my left knee, was wondering if anyone has gone through a knee surgery and how long their recovery was.

Thank you in advance!

[dbaz]

i had knee surgery about a year and a half ago. my suggestion is to not put it off if you really need it as i put it off for years and it only made the result worse(harder healing process, more ruined cartilage and greater possibility of arthritis) . according to my surgeon my acl/mcl (i cant even remember which one it was atm) was one of the worst hes seen in a number of years and im going to be playing roller hockey within a month. also if you dont do physio therapy or get to physio therapy soon enough it will limit the mobility of your leg in the future. i can run and walk now but i do have a bit of a limp still also the surgery will more than likely result in some nerves being nicked meaning expect a tingly feeling the leg in certain areas there is apparently no real way of avoiding the nerve.

[Wongtouski]

I had a friend tear his acl from bball, waited a full year (1/2 to see a specialist, then 1/2 to wait for surgery), he's doing fine now after rehabbing.

Bottom line is you gotta do it. My right knee is actually wonky as well from a basketball fall, doc said I didn't tear anything but till this day its a lil weird.

[Anurag]

I had my medial meniscus repaired. It depends on how old you are as well. I was 20 at the time, so recovery and rehab was tough (was in bed for 2-3 weeks, crutches for a long time and couldn't run hard for 4 months) but now I'm fully healed, back to normal i can say. Just not squatting/leg pressing as much as before. If your older than 20 basically, the doc will probably remove the meniscus and your recovery time will be much much quicker, you should be walking within days, but your knee will be sore and prone to arthritis in the long run.

[604CEFIRO]

I had my ACL in my left knee done in June of 2011. Injured it doing brazilian jiu jitsu.

Recovery time? Depends on what your definition of recovered is, and depends on what sport you're trying to get back into.

My surgeon, and the physio guy i saw once every 6 weeks were aggressive with rehab. Recovery time depends on the person, if you are athletic, or just an average joe..etc

I didn't see a physio guy very much, just to check up to see how the tension in my knee was, and to check that my muscles were coming back etc.

My advice for you:
1.) Immediately after surgery start doing heel slides, quad sets, etc

2.) Get on a stationary bike ASAP

3.) Buy a CryoCuff. This should actually be #1... but Buy a CryoCuff or borrow one. This will help with decreasing swelling and get back on your feet. I iced my knee 20-30 mins on, 1 hr rest. All freaking day. Every day. Until there was no visible signs of swelling...
I would also ice after each workout session.

4.) Get FULL FLEXON asap... You need to keep moving your knee joint and muscles to prevent atrophy, and getting full flexon and HUGELY important to being able to walk properly. Getting full flexon is more important than getting your heel to your butt

This was how my recovery went:
Day 1-3 Immediately started heel slides, quad sets, leg lifts etc
Day 4 and for the next 4 weeks I was on a stationary bike generally twice a day for 20 mins each time
Day 7 i was off crutches
Week 3 Full Flexon
Week 4-8 elliptical machine + stationary bike
Week 8-12 Bosu ball exercises, squats with weights, rubber band exercises

Everything after that was rinse and repeat.

I think by month 3 or 4 i was jogging already.

By 6 months you will feel almost normal... but your knee is definitely NOT ready for anything intense. ONLY straight line activities.

I am now 10 months post surgery. I've started doing grappling again, but mentally i am not comfortable with going full bore when sparring. My knee is good, and can take aggressive movements, but really its just in my head.


Don't expect to be back to sport by 6 months. Realistically, you'll be back to sport at 10 months or 1 year...

[604CEFIRO]

Forgot to mention or stress...

Don't lay around, trying to stay off your knee b/c it hurts etc.

You MUST start engaging those quads in your legs. And you MUST get range of motion back.

The first thing that happens is that your muscles go into atrophy, and you will lose the muscles in your legs SO FAST.

Thats why, weak people, lazy people, people that don't do much exercises, end up being on crutches for 4-8 weeks because they think the best way to heal is to stay off your leg. That shits completely false

If you stay off your leg, your muscles will shrink. If they shrink, your knee wont be as supported by your muscles and could be prone to injury. Your ability to re-learn how to walk will be hindered.

Yes, you will need to relearn how to walk properly..


I spent 1 month doing exercises to increase my quads prior to getting surgery b/c i knew that the muscles would shrink down. It'll help with your recovery.

[UFO]

I tore my right ACL, partial on MCL, and also tore medial meniscus in 2004. Lucked out and saw a surgeon within 2 months, got scheduled for surgery 8 months after that but got in only 5 months after my initial injury due to cancellation. I'm glad I got the surgery over with quickly, but it also shafted me in the big picture that I was not aware of at the time.

I was on crutches for about 3 weeks after injury due to immense swelling and poor advice/management. I started physio about 4 weeks post injury to try and get my range of motion back. The downside to getting surgery so quickly is that you don't have enough time to rehab your muscles especially your quads. So I suffered muscle atrophy from my initial injury, got into doing a bit of rehab, then went to surgery to repair the ACL and clean up the meniscus. And then I suffered further muscle atrophy post surgery. The first week or so was complete hell, thought I would never walk properly again. But as swelling goes down, improvement and range of motion gets better very quickly. I was back to playing hockey (ill-advised) after 3 weeks, but obviously not at a high level. Cryocuff and regular icing is absolutely key post injury and post surgery. I knew nothing about this when I was injured

I also slacked off with my rehab because the injury was on my strong leg and I figured my strong leg would take over on its own--it didn't. Took me a year post surgery to figure out why I had bad knee pain still. I got into isolating the right leg, worked on the muscle groups rigorously, and pain was 80% better within 3 weeks. My physio probably should have done a better job pushing me to rehab post surgery, but the priority was to get the range of motion and ultimately it is my own fault that I did not see the strengthening through.

Now almost 7 years post surgery, I can do everything I used to BUT I am also a lot more careful now. I used to feel like Superman before the injury, fall down brush myself off and go on with a bit of pain. But then I realized I can break. My right leg muscles are still weaker than my left, but it is good enough. My knee is not as good as it was, there is a bit of instability in the joint but I would do everything in my power to avoid going through surgery and rehab again including cutting out some of my sketchier sports and activities.

[k3mps]

i had surgery 4 years ago on a torn meniscus in my right knee.
recovery is fine, you cant feel any pain, my leg was pretty numb for a day or two.
do NOT take the easy way out of rehab, do it to the best of your abilities even if you cant.
i fell very ill and could not exercise like i should have.
my leg still recoverd, it's doing great, but it definitely does not feel like it completely healed, more like 90%.
my advice, take it super easy, lots of ice, take rehab very seriously.
mri results took 4 months, my surgery was 11 months after.
best of luck!

[hopalong]

i had my patella tendon on my knee tore right off so my knee cap was on top of my thigh...it was the worst time of my life. was in bed 24/7 for 6 months and crutches and rehab for another 8 months. ooooooh makes me shake thinking about it...