FYI to first timers and recent ranks of the injured. I tore my ACL 4 weeks ago and just had 2 physical therapy sessions this week. You can’t have surgery until swelling goes down and you can straighten your leg reasonably well. I cannot begin to say how much of a difference each made that day of PT. I was hobbling badly for 3 weeks, including being in a worthless Ace brace that is more harmful than benficial right after injury as it restricts straightening your knee. So what did we do?
PT first put on his soothing cream which is heated up, gave my leg a good rub down, and “pushed out” the swelling and blood from the afflicted area. Man… it’s great. I have decided that perhaps this incident wasn’t so bad after all… rofl. We then did some exercises to straighten my knee by using an electronic muscle stimulator which contracted my muscles while I pushed down hard on a table to “straighten out” my knee. Then we did a couple of straight leg and side raises with a weight on my ankle. Afterwards, about 15 minutes on the bike, followed by icing down of my knee with that ice pack wrap of ice water (doesn’t feel cold to me!) I am not back to walking correctly yet but the difference in my step and cadence is HUGE.
I have no idea when I’m going to do the recon since I’m still not sure which method and which doc. I’m way too busy for this but will have to find the time and will decide within a week or two. My PT said that the Patella is still the gold standard in his opinion although the doctor you feel most comfortable will probably determine method given what he/she is most comfortable with. Patella seems like a most challenging recovery although hammy is supposedly not so far behind. His concern is potential stretching but advances in technology might be why he sees more of them these days. We’ll see… but I shall take 2-4 more physical therapy sessions to build myself up and get in shape before surgery.
So what do we learn from all this? Those braces that you get in the store can be far more damaging than not having anything on your knee. They can slip, slide, cause discomfort, lack of blood flow and they don’t protect you from hyperextension or anything else for that matter. My advice: Don’t bother with them. The only braces worth buying are through your doctor and they will cost you some serious buckage.
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