31 Weeks After ACL Surgery: Cleared to begin "practicing" for sports

You read that right. I have been cleared to being "practicing" for sports. If your unsure of what that means than don't worry because I wasn't really sure either.

I saw my Doctor just the other day (January 14th) and he was happy with where I was at the moment. He made me walk back and forth in the room a couple times and then told me to squat. I did about 5 squats and it was all he needed to see that I've been doing them almost every day.

He then told me to lay down and began twisting and bending my knee in uncomfortable positions. His analysis?

Join me after the jump to find out.

7 Months After ACL Surgery: Merry Christmas and Happy Healthy Knees To All

Even when having surgery on May 25th, I still somehow overlooked that my 6 month "anniversary" would be on Christmas. By now, according to a rare few of other patients' personal stories I found on the internet, and legends such as Adrian Peterson, I should be returning to sports or at least be close to it. Well, I am not one of those rare cases and so I am not hitting the slopes or kicking soccer balls around.

You know? Maybe if I had a personal trainer or was getting paid to play, there would be a chance that I'd be back on the pitch now. But I am a 4th year college student whose real-life responsibilities at the moment outweigh my desire to be playing sports, as sad as that sounds. 

But as we speak, I still have no been able to return to any sports but I do feel better. I go to the gym as much as possible (which unfortunately means only about 2-3 times a week) and I almost always do leg workouts. From hamstring curls, to quad exercises, to hip workouts, and my favorite and most effective, yet sometimes most painful - leg presses. I push myself on the leg press machines the most and thats because I they work out almost every part of your leg (at least the parts that you most need to keep your knees stable).

My New Years Resolution - which I am sure you could guess - is to return to sports AND to focus more on my legs in the gym so that I can avoid these injuries in the future (did I ever mention I have a partially torn ACL in my left knee?). I am currently on winter break and am returning to school in late January so expect an update on my knee in the next month or so since I will find time to go see my doctor (haven't seen him since October). 

Merry Christmas to all! 

6 Months After ACL Surgery: Different kind of Thanksgiving

Today is exactly 6 months since I had my ACL reconstructed and my meniscus trimmed.

It is also the weekend of Thanksgiving and unlike other years when I would be in Vermont hitting the slopes to start of the snowboarding season, this time around I am staying in NJ and staying far away from sports...

Still, I have plenty of things to be thankful for and in the spirit of things, I have decided to list a few of those.

Join me after the jump.

22 Weeks After ACL Surgery: Hit the 2+ mile mark!

Excited to update you with even better news.

I went for another run this week and already improved on my previous times. I ran 2.38 miles in 22:31 burning 294 calories and averaging 9:28 minutes per mile (almost a whole minute better than earlier in the week). This time I felt less pain in my knee and even sped up towards the end.

It was pretty sore hour after but nothing unbearable. Also, keep in mind I was running straight the whole time and avoiding "cutting". Still too early for that, but there is progress.

Just like in the last post, here's evidence for this run:

22 Weeks After ACL Surgery: My first mile...and a half!

Have not been this happy to run in a very long time. Actually, have not been able to run like this in a very long time. Today, I hit the streets of New Brunswick and completed 1.47 miles in a time of 15:42. This is by no means an excellent run but for the shape that my knee and I are in, this is a huge milestone.

I am pretty relieved that I was able to do it and proud of myself that I was able to push through the pain. The first 1/2 mile was the most difficult to be quite honest and it might be due to the fact that I was running on a small decline. Still, I pushed through it and made it all the way home without stopping.

Obviously, before the run I did some stretches and also squatted 40X to get the muscles a little loose. Heres proof of this awesome accomplishment:

18 Weeks After ACL Surgery: Started jogging, slowly

You read that correctly...

...I jogged today!

Compared to what I have read on the internet and heard from other athletes with the same injury, I should have started jogging almost a few weeks ago but I guess everyone heals differently.

I stepped on the treadmill today afraid of what to expect and I kept a slow pace for 4 minutes. To call it running, or even jogging, is quite sad but it is what it is. I was trying to hop from one foot to the other so lets just say it was jogging :)

I felt in the front of my knee but the longer I went the more I got used to it. I got off the treadmill and everything was ok. Yet, after getting iced and standing up again to walk by knee was hurting. Nothing major but I felt pain unlike after other session. 

Less than a week left of PT, so I guess I'll be on my own after that. Gina has been great and I am excited to get check out next week and see how far I have come along since the first time I stepped into her office.

17 Weeks After ACL Surgery: Doc says I can begin to jog, soon...

I saw my doctor today and he was happy with my progress. He told me that my ROM is getting better but to keep working on it and that my leg is actually straighter than my non-operated one...wierd. I obviously asked him a bunch of question about sports, stretching, pain, etc. and heres some things he told me:

- keep doing squats to build the quads
- hamstring muscle is looking great, but quad is still small and too weak
- begin resistance for quad (we don't have any machines like that in PT)
- keep riding my bike; its the safest and best thing to do to help ROM (and to build up the quad, again)
- start slowly jogging for short time frames and see how it feels; don't push it right away
- avoid the brace because then your leg will rely on the brace to hold your knee together and not your muscles
- start rollerblading in a month to work on different muscles

Finally, I asked him about snowboarding this winter because my friends are planning a week-long trip to PA in the beginning of January. He just kind of smiled at me and said "Olympic athletes have had ACL surgeries in the summer and returned to compete in the winter. Some blew out their knees and others were perfectly fine. My advice to you is that your not getting paid to snowboard, so just give it time and don't risk it. Maybe by February you can start hitting the slopes".

How about soccer, Doc?

"You shouldn't be thinking about soccer until the spring time."

Next update will be when I start jogging...hopefully soon.