Mike's ACL adventures...

by Mike M
(Fort Worth)

I had my first knee surgery way back in 1988 for a Meniscus tear and a Stretched ACL suffered during a High School football game. After months of rehab I returned to High School sports. 2 years later (1990) I injured the knee again while playing College baseball. I had completely ruptured the ACL and had a Grade 3 tear of the medial meniscus, I had a Patellar graft and a repair of the meniscus completed 2 weeks later. I followed all the Dr's orders and completed the rehab. A year later I returned to playing College ball.
After College I was fortunate to continue playing baseball but I always had instability in the knee and had to wear a custom knee brace. I went back to my Dr. and he basically told me everything was fine, but I knew differently. I then made the decision to seek out another Dr. for a second opinion. I met with the former team Dr. for the Dallas Cowboys who was under whelmed by the procedure my first Dr. had done. He was curious as to why a particular technique that was standard procedure on an athlete was not done, which lead to my instability. There was no way my insurance would pay for a revision unless the graft was ruptured. My baseball career was over!
For many years I suffered with instability and continued wearing a brace to play softball and pick-up basketball. In 2009 I was walking across my bedroom when my knee went completely out and locked at about 65 degrees and felt as though the knee was completely out of place, not to mention the incredible pain. My wife who is a PTA attempted several time to straighten the knee with no success. We then went to the emergency room at 2am where the Dr. gave me a pain killing shot and tried to no avail to get it back in place. Later that morning I got in to see a New ortho who tried himself to get it back in place but he was also unsuccessful. The next day I had surgery. I had completely scraped the cartilage off the end of the femur and had to have a micro-fracture procedure, but the Doctor could not find a problem with the ACL graft.
Fast forward to 2010 as I am now 38 years old. I had began competing in Adventure races and Triathlons without any real issues until one day I woke up with my knee swollen to the size of a large cantaloupe. I got in to see the ortho who drained the knee and found that I had an ACL deficiency. The Doc. is hesitant to even consider an ACL revision surgery because of all of the arthritis that is built up in the knee. He said if I were older (like 55) we would without question be doing a knee replacement. The doctor basically told me all the problems I have today are a result of the instability in the knee because of the poor procedure in 1990.
I know this is long winded but I cannot stress enough to all of you of how important it is that you find a quality Doctor who is trained in the newest and best procedures and has your best interest in mind. Do not let them tell you that you are too old or that you need to give it up. I regret it every day.