74 Days After ACL Surgery: Bracing myself for more parties

The last few days have been pretty wild. I turned 21 on August 8th and since midnight of that date, I have been treated to a lot of partying by my friends and co. However, regardless of how silly I may have looked walking into bars with a huge brace on my leg, I still wore it every single night.

I am definitely not trying to worry about "drunkenly re-tearing it" again so I am making it a habit to wear it for all the celebrating I will be doing from now on.

Oh how I can't wait to party with out it...for now though, its my number one accessory.

70 Days After ACL Surgery: ACL graft is NOT torn

What a relief! Wow! Just...WOW, I would be really bummed if my ACL graft was torn...

...ok thats an understatement. I would have been very very very pissed and depressed and upset and angry at the world, but after seeing the doctor today and spending the last 2 or so weeks in fear and anxiety, I am so relieved right now to know that my knee is OK and that I can resume my regular therapy.

Bottom line is my ACL graft, which I feared could have been torn or stretched out, is in place. Its actually still tight and stiff, as is my whole knee, but thats better than having my knee flying all over the place.

Read after the jump to hear about what the doctor said and were we go from here.

69 Days After ACL Surgery: Tomorrow I find out if I re-tore my "new" ACL graft...I think

PT today really sucked. I was able to do most of the usual but I was feeling pain in my kneecap like never before. I had trouble doing the step-downs and even the balancing board. The bike was not too bad so thats kind of encouraging...then again I was able to ride a bike without any problems before my ACL surgery.

Anyways, tomorrow is the big day (or at least it should be). I have a 10:30AM appointment scheduled with my doctor but I'm just going to get there around 9AM, write my name down on the check-in list and be like "listen guy, I got shit to do today, my knee hurts, just tell me doc, is it torn?". Yupp, then I have to figure out how I am going to answer his question about "what happened?".

"Oh nothing you know, I just got shitfaced with my buddies and woke up the next morning with a painful knee...".

No. I can't say that. My mom would kill me before he does...even though she might have an idea that thats how it went down.

But seriously, rarely do I curse on this blog, but I-am-fucking-scared-and-nervous about tomorrow. I do have a feeling though that he is going to make me get an MRI and then come back to his office again next week and that is just going to build up my worrisome state....or whatever.

The worst case scenario that I am hoping for tomorrow is that he does the Lachman (something like that) Test and says "Hey, your ACL is fine...it must be your meniscus again". I mean, thats not something to be too happy about but at this point I realize that repairing a meniscus (or shall i say, trimming a meniscus) will be a lot easier for me and him then this whole ACL procedure as well.

Damn, I kind of just want to keep typing to get my mind of tomorrow...but it inevitable. Right now, at this very moment, my ACL graft is either fucked or totally fine...but I wont know for sure for another ehhh 10 hours.

Fantastic.

Praying for the best. Ciao happy world.

67 Days After ACL Surgery: Better than last week, but still worried..

When we left off last week, I was saying how I can't walk or bend it...or something like that and there was a lot of pain and so on.

Well here we are, about 8 days later, and my knee is better...but its still got me very nervous.

I feel like it hasn't been the same since I slipped, with regards to the pain and "wobbly" feeling I am experiencing. Now, maybe this is all in my head and I just "think" that I was able to do more before, but there is definitely pain (mostly at the end of PT and if I walk for too long...without the brace).

But back to last week....

58 Days After ACL Surgery: Did I just tear my ACL again?

Horrible news today. Absolutely horrible.

Everything has been going great my the knee. Physical therapy has been helping me a lot and I've started walking almost normally and going out all the time. Things were only getting better. 

Until last night.

We partied a little too hard last night and I was without my brace. I ended up walking home too (2 miles?) and this morning I woke up to a lot of discomfort in my knee for no known reason. As the day progressed, I started finding out from friends that I might have twisted my knee in the kitchen but nobody remembers for sure.

Then I also apparently told Michelle that my knee "gave out" and hearing her tell me that today scared the shit out of me. 

I am in bed now with the ice machine hooked up to my knee and in a lot of pain. I have been taking advil and tylenol all day but right now nothing is working. I took the tylenol around 4-5PM and I am going to take a vicodin now (10:45ishPM) so I can hopefully sleep ok.

I have pain in my whole knee, but a lot of it is in the side of my knee. Also, when I press on both sides of my knee at the same time I feel pain too. I don't want to speculate about anything because last time I did, I was right on all fronts. This time I'm just going into this situation with a different view.

I had a misstep yesterday. Then I walked a long way home. I overdid it plain and simple. My leg needs rest now and a painkiller will just help me deal with the pain. I am scheduled for PT tomorrow so I will go and take it easy. I will do the bike and other exercises and keep my knee moving so that swelling goes down. After a few days, it will be getting better and better and I will continue with my therapy.

I am praying hard for this to be true.

Updates will be flowing during this long week. Stay tuned.

50 Days After ACL Surgery: First Resistance Workouts

Exactly 60 days, or 2 months after my ACL surgery, I am finally moving to weights and resistance. To this point, most of my exercises at Physical Therapy have been range-of-motion exercises and a lot of movement. Today, Gina though it would finally be ok to start lifting some weights, especially since I was able to get the full rotation on the bike (not with toes, but middle of the foot).

Join me after the jump to read about my first weight exercises.

48 Days After ACL Surgery: Doctor says "Lose the brace!"

Today, after my 3rd visit to the doctor since surgery, I have had the most positive visit yet. He said my knee was looking better and asked me if I feel the bones (knee) shifting at all...I told him no I don't, especially since I am using the brace almost 24/7.

He checked out my knee a little more, bent it and straightened it, and said its still a bit stiff...but not bad. Some patients are a little too loose so stiffness is not a big deal. He told me to start walking without the brace (no jumping, twisting, hoping, excessive walking, etc.) and to take it slow.

Getting better and better.