Benjamin's ACL, MCL, LCL, LM story extravaganza

by Benjamin
(Provo, UT)

I was playing basketball in March of 2010. It was a playoff game and we were ahead with 30 seconds to go. I was running fast to intercept a pass and when my right leg hit the ground, the bottom half of my leg stayed still while the top half kept moving. The immediate pain was so intense that I blacked out for about 20 seconds. When I woke up I grabbed my knee and started screaming. (We won the game, but I went home instead of staying for the final game, which we lost.)

The really long story short is that I had completely shredded my ACL. My LCL and MCL were also ripped, but not torn completely. My lateral meniscus was also damaged. My doctor tried a few things out before sending me for an MRI in May (two months later). The MRI showed all of the damage and I had surgery a few days later. The surgeon used a cadaver tendon to repair my ACL. He also snipped a little of my LM. My MCL and LCL were healing he said, so he left those alone.

Physical therapy was so hard. It was really good, but really hard. It hurt so much, but I knew that I had to fight through the pain in order to get better. My goal was to start running again 6 months post-surgery. I love to run and it was really hard to not be able to. My doctor said I had to wait that long, so I did. I tested out of PT after 3 months. My right leg was actually stronger than my left! Which was weird but I was excited to be done with all of that.

On Thanksgiving morning (which was 6 months to the day) I went to play football with some family. It felt great to be running again! After we were done, I decided to jog home. It was about a mile and I had to walk a little bit while I was jogging. But it was awesome to do that again.

I haven't been able to exercise as much as I have needed to lately. I am in graduate school and have a wife and two children so things get crazy. But starting tomorrow, I am getting up earlier than usual so that I can start exercising again. I have gained some weight since the surgery.

I didn't know where to post questions, so I will just ask here. It has now been 8 months since surgery and it is still swollen. It has also started hurting more lately and that scares me a little. Is that normal? Will that go away once I start exercising again?