Bill's ACL Surgery 8-19-09

by Bill
(Ohio)

I'm 39 I have been playing rec league soccer for about 5 years. I tore my left ACL playing indoor soccer in March this year. It was such a stupid injury, I was running to the ball then noticed it was about to hit the wall and would bounce back to me so I stopped suddenly with my left leg in front. My shoe gripped the ground like glue, my left knee hyper extended and there was a tearing ripping sound (not a pop) that seemed to last for ever. My knee collapsed and I fell to the ground in searing agony. The tearing sound was so loud the goalie who was at least 20 yds away at the time cam running over to ask what it was.

After about 5 mins rolling on the floor the pain began to subside and I was able to hobble off the field. The next day my knee was a bit unstable and it hurt to bend it too far but I could walk without pain and there was absolutely no swelling or brusing what so ever. So I figured I just tweaked somthing and I'd be fine in a week or so. A week came and went and the knee did feel better, but it wasn't right. I tried just kicking a ball about in the back yard with my son and first time I put a twist load on the knee I fell to the floor in agony again. Again after a few minutes the pain subsided but it was clear this was something serious. I went to see the family doctor. She did some pull tests on my knee and said I'd likley damaged my ACL and refered me to an orthopedic surgeon. It took 3 weeks to get an appointment with the OS and the knee continued to feel better but still wasn't right. 1st visit to the OS must have been all of 2 mins. Having heard my description of the injury and taken a quick pull of my knee joint the OS said with almost certainty that I had torn my ACL but scheduled an MRI scan "just to be sure". It took another 2 weeks to get the scan and the knee continued to improve. I could run up & down stairs and walk all day at work with no pain or fatigue. Twisting or side loads were another thing though and still could not be tolerated.

The scan was done and by this point I was thinking there would be no major problems and I would just have to tough it out for a bit and things would get back to normal. To my utter dismay the scan showed that my left ACL was "partially torn" which really mean't hanging by a thread. My OS described it perfectly, he said a partially torn ACL was a bit like being partially pregnant. He spent a bit longer with me this time talked throught the options and what it would take. He specializes in sports medicine and had lost count of the number of ACL reconstructions he'd done. I had heard many good things about him from friends in town that knew him so I was comfortable signing up for the surgery. I chose reconstruction with a hamstring tendon graft. By now it was May and summer was almost here I had plans with my kids for summer and I didn't want to be crippled now. So I put the surgery off until August. This way I figured I could enjoy summer and still have a chance of being back on the soccer field next April.

All through the summer the knee improved. It clicked and popped a bit but gave no pain. Aside from sport I was able to resume a normal life. I could do all kinds of yard work, took the kids camping, got back into the habit of going to the gym and was even able to jog 5 miles a day. I really started to question if having the surgery at all was the right thing to do. I'd never had any surgery before and was if I'm honest, a bit frightened. I did a lot of soul searching, and research on sites like this one. As I really love to play soccer and to ski I decided the surgery had to be done.

So here I am almost 4 weeks after the op. My OS is renowned for being conservative with re-hab. After the op my knee was locked straight in the brace for a week. I was told no exercise, no removing the brace, no range of motion machine - just take it easy. So I kicked back with some very strong pain meds and a lot of ice packs. After 3 days I was able to quit the pain meds. After a week I returned to work and started the PT. As of today I can walk without a limp, go up and down stairs normally, fully straighten my leg and am within about 10 degrees of full flex. I've tried to follow the physical therapist's instructions to the letter and have stuck to the schedule every day. There's still a bit of swelling and my OS still insists I wear the post op brace all the time even to sleep. Only time it's supposed to come off is for some of the PT exercises and to shower. There's no severe pain more a constant dull ache that is fairly easy to live with. So far I've not had any pain or trouble from the area where the hamstring graft was harvested from.

I plan on making a full recovery and my goal is to be on the soccer pitch mid to late April next year. I'll try to post back here a couple of times during re-hab and let you know how it's going.