I had to stay over night because of logistics (I live an hour away from the hospital). My first ACL recon I lived close to the hospital and was out in 3-4 hours, so 2 hours isn’t far-fetched.
Be mentally prepared for a lot of pain, I’ve been in tears both times. The first night is always the worst. I recommend understanding what options are available for pain mgmt. The first operation, I was on Demerol injections for 3 days and then jumped straight to Tylenol 3s (codeine).
This time, I had one shot of Demerol post-op and then went to Percocet. I’ll be on Percocet until I can manage with over the counter Tylenol. I have read in other places that people have had epidural spine taps for 2 or 3 days, which relieve almost all pain. Talk to your doc about options.
One other note on pain killers - they will back you up big time. I find perocet better than codeine, but either way make sure you get a strong fiber supplement. I am using Satisfiber by the greens+ folks. I wake up and have two scoops (20g of fiber) mixed with water, and than I eat an apple. Its keeping me regular… but only just.
At physio today I met a guy who went off his pain medication because he was so backlogged. This caused him to fall behind about 2 weeks in his rehab… so it is important to plan for this.
I just want to get it over with now… Tired of waiting for the surgery… Hope your rehab goes well… I’m going to start working my leg this week, while I’m in the gym… People look at me crazy when I come in the gym with crutches already, LOL… I’ve been just doing upperbody lifting the past two weeks but I really need to start preparing my for this surgery…
Got some great news from my physio yesterday, my range of motion is doing very well so I can start some training. Here’s my kick ass workout:
-standing leg extension (hands on chair, kick leg out backwards)
-glute bridges
-lying back single leg extension
-side hip/leg raises
-lying ham curl (no weight)
-quad contraction (lie on back and squeeze the quad)
I do that circuit 3x. That circuit is kick-ass, hardcore… it needs a cool name like dogcrapp training.
The bigger news, I was able to do a full pedal on the bike. I then biked for 5 minutes. I’m a few days early on my recovery, even in an aggressive timeframe the bike should have been tomorrow.
The inflammation is starting to reduce on my knee. I’ve lost an inch, my knee is now at 16.5" (other knee is 15.25"). I’ve switched fish oils to a high-EPA brand as well as doubled my acai intake and added more veggies to get more anti-oxidants, so I’m wondering if that helped.
The biggest goals from here until Monday next week are still to keep inflammation & pain under control. If my workouts cause any pain I have to back off right away.
Oh yeah, I’m off crutches as well! An aggressive timeframe for this is 5 days after surgery, so I’m right on track. Doc wants me on for 2 weeks since this is a redo. I’ll take his advice for the outdoors, but indoors I’m walking.
I’m addicted to percocet. Wait, I’m not addicted to percocet, but the withdrawal symptoms are so f’in awful that i don’t want to come off of it. The withdrawal process - you basically get the flu, and you want to fight everybody. I had gone cold turkey but have now switched to a weaning off process.
More good progress. The pain is becoming very manageable, I forgot my pain killers for 3 hours today and didn’t have any pain.
Physio is going well, currently I’m doing:
-electric current & icing for swelling/pain
-biking for Range Of Motion
-therapist pushing my leg through ROM exercises
-leg raise/quad contraction/extension with muscle stim
-massage
Next week I’m supposed to start squats, step-ups and biking at home. Note that I am on day 8. So squats, etc are being started on ~day 11.
I’m also off crutches. Since this is a re-do the doc asked me to stay on for 2 weeks, but the truth is I’m more stable without them.
The bad news, I’m still having problems with percocet withdrawal. I usually have 2 hours of feeling really crappy.
As my leg is coming along quite nicely I have decided its time to get my ass back in the gym. I’m going to start on an upper body only workout for the next 3 weeks. Right now I am thinking of doing the upper body workout out Thibs had Bartl on in the Physique Clinic, anybody else have any other suggestions?
Today I’ll do the following to get myself somewhat warmed up:
-chins/dips
-rows/incline db bench
-military press/bb bi curl
-lateral raise/rope pulldown
I’m 11 days post-op now. Things are doing very well, life is starting to look normal again:
-I can live with just Tylenol, and I can forget my pain pills for a few hours without having a pain-induced mental breakdown
-cortisol levels are dropping and therefore my wife can come near me again without getting her head ripped off
-I feel ‘normal’
-I’ve been back at the gym for 2 days now doing my upper body workout
-I walked to brunch this morning… it was my first walk longer than the 5 minutes (~20 minutes each way), and I was able to sit at a table for 40 minutes with only a some discomfort
Last time I went through surgery things were way worse. I was on crutches for 2 weeks and I was barely able to get off of them at that point. I think this is because of a few reasons:
Prehab & diet - I’ve got much higher protein intake with a massive amount of veggies, anti-oxidants and healthy fats
Hamstring graft this time instead of a patella graft
I would recommend anybody having ACL reconstruction surgery push their doctor to go with the hamstring over the patella. When the hamstring is used quad activation is significantly earlier. Quad activation means you can walk/stretch/move, all those things that make your rehab experience better & better. Its one of those positive vicious spirals.
Good to hear things are going well… I’m less than 2 weeks away from surgery and can’t wait… I want to get this over with so I can get to rehab and done with that as soon as possible…
I want try the v-diet as soon as I can… How long after surgery do you think it will be til I can try it?
Re: allograft. I actually wanted to use an allograft and had a long conversation with my surgeon about it. The reality is that testing of grafts from cadavers is quite dismal up here in Canada. There is no AIDs, hepatitis, or other blood disease testing done on these body parts (organs are another story). In the US, depending on the state you live in, the regulation around testing is stronger, but you should investigate.
Your metabolism is through the roof while rehabing and your body needs massive loads of calories and protein to heal. You will likely need to eat heavy and increase calories by about 50%.
Thus I wouldn’t recommend doing V-Diet until your bad leg has healed and gotten as strong as your good leg. This should be @ 10-12 weeks.
I’d recommend tailoring your workout and diet around a strength or size gain once you get the swelling low enough. Thus something like what crew pierce might be applicable??
Days 3-14:
-CPM at home until 110 degrees of flexion is achieved,
-weightbearing (get off crutches),
-extension exercises with weight if full extension is not present
-Active -assisted flexion
-Hamstring curls
-Quarter squats
-Step ups
-Calf raises
-Straight leg raises
-balance exercises
Weeks 2-4 you can add the following:
-stationary bike
-stairmaster
-leg press
-wobble board
-swimming, dolphin kick only
4 to 6 months:
-agility drills & sprinting
-eventual return to sports
I’m on day 12 and I’m about to start 1/4 squats, step-ups & calf raises on Monday. I wonder if my therapist should have started me on them last week based on this protocol?
Recovery is going well. At yesterday’s physio I was able to hit 90 degree overhead squats with a 15lb bar. However, I’m not supposed to go past 90 degrees for a full year due to ACL shearing. I’m also able to do step-ups as well, bodyweight-only, 8 times. Before surgery I was doing step-ups with 60lb dumbells
Right now I’m doing the following leg workout three times a week, circuit style, no rest, 3 sets:
-balance/wobble board
-overhead squat
-flat leg, ball glute raises
-ball supported wall squats
-raised leg, ball glute raises
-step-ups
-ball ham curls
-ball back leg extension
-side leg extensions
On top of that I’m doing the Bartl upper body workout as well, which is absolutely killer with all the lactic acid. The cool part is how pumped you are afterwards. I sit in the gym changeroom flexing down forever (yes I am that guy at the gym!).
Pain is still annoying. Most of the time in the day I’m ok, but sleeping is another story. I wake up frequently in pain. Last night I had to take a percocet, my first one in 4 days.
