Daniel's ACL Surgery

by Candy Kahany
(Brooklyn, NY)

My son, Daniel, is scheduled to have ACL surgery on 4/3/09. He will be 15 years old 4/18/09. He is in no pain right now and, after a few months of physical therapy, he leg is straight and it's hard to keep him from not playing ball in the part. He is being careful not to twist or land on it. I am between a rock and hard stone with this surgery because of the growth plate issue, but his doctor is not conservative and wants to do the surgery. He has been practicing over 25 years and comes from a family of doctors. He is well known and well liked and I do trust him with the decision. After surgery, Daniel will have 17 days before school resumes after the spring break. Do you think this is enough time. There is an elevator in his school.? Please advise me of your thoughts on my concerns ASAP. Thank you.

Candy Kahany

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Daniel's ACL Surgery

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Mar 14, 2009
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surgery
by: Bart - SII

ACL reconstruction in a 15 year old is generally not a huge concern, espeically if the physician is well versed in ACL surgeries. It becomes a much bigger concern in those patients that are younger - 9, 10, 11 years old. That is when alternate, growth plate sparing procedures are recommended.

Most of my patients have been able to return to school (high school, college, etc) after 3-5 days of recovery after surgery. The important thing is that they can have a little extra time to get between classes, avoid stairs if possible, and to be able to elevate the leg during class (putting the foot up on the chair in front of them usually works fine). If Daniel has 17 days of recovery after surgery before going back to school, he should do fine.

Bart

Mar 23, 2009
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Physical Therapy/Surgery
by: Caty

I am sorry about your son. I also tore my ACL playing soccer. I just had surgery on it 6 days ago. And I started physical therapy again today. I would recommend that your son continues straighting his knee all the way but also work on his thigh muscles like lift his leg and also bending his knee. Those are the two hardest things for me right now is lifting my leg and bending it. I worked hard on straighting my leg before surgery and now it is really easy to straighten my leg. I wish your son the best of luck!!

Apr 06, 2009
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My 17 yr old also had ACL
by: Anonymous

She had Surgery on a Thursday and and went back to school on Wednesday, she could have gone back sooner but the pain meds made her vomit. We had to take her off the meds on Saturday and I put her on tylenol pm to sleep and that made her vomit as well, so we took her off everything. She didn't really have pain as long as she had ice on it so she slept with her chiro cuff on and then put it back on as soon as she got out of school and she was fine