ACL Surgery Recovery

I've had an ACL surgery and recovery. So did my wife and two kids. They are hard but be grateful if you didn't do damage to the meniscus. I shredded mine off the bone. The ACL recovery was painful and hard but the Meniscus was a three-year process. Son and wife didn't hurt their meniscus and it was nothing for them to recover with no lasting effects. Daughter tore (slightly) her meniscus -- was a bit harder for her.

Be grateful if it's just your ACL. That's not that bad in the scheme of things. Yes, progress will be lost for sure.

I didn't workout/lose weight until I hurt my knee. Even with half the strength in that leg, I started a fitness journey and took up running 10 mile trail races, spinning and, later on, competitive indoor rowing.

The better shape you are, the easier the recovery will be. When I blew mine out, I was at my biggest. So your recovery, already being very active, will be assisted by being in shape already. My right leg lost half its mass -- couldn't walk for over a year. You can't see a difference visibly now -- just on a weight machine it's measurable in how much I can lift with each leg.

Car driver nerfed me off my motorbike way back in 1991 - completely ruptured PCL (reconstruction not advised) and bucket handle tear of lateral meniscus.
Short term and long term it was the meniscus damage that has caused the biggest impact.

Short term as it was blocking my knee joint I couldn't weight bear and coupled with the surgeon's refusal to open up the knee and see what was going on I suffered massive muscle loss.
Rehab was prolonged to recover from a 5" loss of quad circumference after finally getting 90% of the meniscus removed and having to relearn movement patterns from being on crutches for months.
Long term there has been a decline in the range of exercises I can do / should do and it will be the wear and tear from the missing meniscus that will probably result in knee replacement. I'm already 12 years past that predicted date though!
Over the years I've gone from being a keen squash player (wearing a PCL specific brace) to the point where just a mile of running results in days of soreness.

But I've concentrated on what I can do which is cycling and weight training. 6,000 miles a year cyclist these days.

My biggest mistake during the period of being on crutches was allowing my weight to shoot up. Lesser mistake was pushing too hard too soon in the gym immediately after surgery including tearing out the sutures from open knee surgery.
I didn't suffer much swelling but I do (perhaps unusually?) react badly to compression bandaging - it makes me swell rather than helps keep it down.

kjo1713 wrote: »

Thank you so much for this perspective- it’s very helpful to know what others have gone through and how you managed and even turned it into a victory!

Did you experience a lot of swelling and inflammation throughout your body? Or just localized to your knee?

Thank you again for all input on this topic.::

I don't experience a ton of inflammation at all, but it's likely because I've changed everything.

I was when I ran but that's why I stopped running. I'm still stocky and pretty muscular, so running added too much swelling and inflammation to my entire lower body. I do much better with the Assault Bike and the Concept2 Rower.

Since you're a runner, though, I would imagine it would be mostly your knee for a long time. ACLs hurt for a year or two. My ACL (and my wife and kids) was taken from the Patella tendon. Very painful and slow healing. Most of my long-term pain (from the ACL at least) came from that. The meniscus stuff was completely separate and way more excruciating long term, but I could tell which was which, if that makes sense.

Just progress slowly. Listen to your body. Know the difference between tired pain from pushing within limits to sharp pain that's not necessary.

I remember one time, around 18 months post surgery, I was doing a Spinning class. The instructor said do some BS where you do a standing run with little resistance. A terrible idea and I knew it at the time. Of course, I did it anyway. That night, my wife and I went to a movie. After the movie, I went to get up and walk and couldn't. I mean hardly at all. My poor wife had to act as a crutch till I got to the car and it was a huge struggle. Lessons learned can be brutal along the way.

If you can get your hands on an Assault Bike that would be a much better way to get back to doing cardio than jumping straight back into jogging/running IMHO.