Fourth Day of Physical Therapy

Last session today before my 2 week post op appointment with my surgeon. Really good session as was able to do full revolutions on the bike and also hit my target of 110 degrees ROM 2 days early.

Worked a lot on the swelling above my knee today and by the time I walked out of there is was almost completely gone! Something that really helped was the electric stim on my knee, we changed the order of the program so that some of the swelling would be worked out by the pulsing quad.

Physio said the progress so far was excellent and will update the surgeon ahead of my appointment! Feels good to be making progress. Target for the next 2 weeks is to get me off crutches he says. That's what I like to hear!

Knee felt so good I walked home with the brace unlocked to 40 degrees ROM. Still on crutches but felt really good. Ran into a friend on the way home and found out he's had his ACL done as well (Hamstring Autograft, 5 years ago) and hasn't had any issues with it. Count of friends with ACL operations I didn't know about is now 5.

Electric Stim picture as promised, knee looking good and much less swelling

Second Day of Physical Therapy

Second day basically a repeat of the first, except that my range of motion (ROM) is now 87 degress and electric stimulation has been increased to 12 minutes for each setting (24 minutes total).

Here are some examples of some of the exercises I'm doing. Obviously don't start doing any of these without the guidance of a trained physiotherapist.

Doing 3 sessions a week now for the next few weeks.

First Day of Physical Therapy

Today was my first physiotherapy session and also my first time out of the house since the surgery. Felt great to be outside and the physio is only located a few blocks away in a cab.

During the session he measures my range of motion (73 degrees) and does some passive movement on my knee to loosen it up. The main thing is straightening the leg to zero degrees. Not there yet (about 3 degrees) but have exercises now to improve.

Also started electrical stimulation in the knee. This helps to get my quads to "fire". Two different settings, one which makes my quad contract repeatedly with an ice pack on my knee. Second setting where busts or current are passed through my knee as I flex my quads at the same time. This will help get the muscles and brain going again, getting used to using the muscle. Will post a picture soon.

The physio seems to know exactly what he's doing and has also rehabbed a few other patients operated on by my surgeon. This is definitely comforting, specially at the end when he says he's seen this a bunch of times before and that everything will be fine.

Current daily regimen is:
- 100 leg raises
- 100 passive knee bends
- 100 quad bursts
- 100 heel slides

No painkillers for the first time today even with the physio, so far so good. Still icing like crazy with the Game Ready.

MRI Follow Up

So the knee is feeling a lot better today and I'm thinking I might have gotten away with a strain of some kind or a small tear that will heal itself. With a bit of physio and better stretching I should be OK in a week or two I'm sure.

The doctor walks in, I shake his hand and I'm quietly confident.

"So Nick, it's as we though. You've torn your ACL..... and your Meniscus."

Boom.

The doc walks me through the MRI and it's not even close. The whole ACL is not even visible on the MRI, it's completely disintegrated. The meniscus also has a tear in it (turns out about 70% of all ACL tears have some meniscus damage because of the twisting motion needed to tear the ACL).

The doctor tells me I don't have to have surgery right away, and in fact he says I don't ever need to have it. "With physiotherapy you could live an active lifestyle, but a return to "cutting sports" is unlikely."

It's a no brainer, I decide right there and then to go for the surgery because:
1) I want to play any sport I damn well please;
2) I don't want to risk further injury to my meniscus which may lead to arthritis; and
3) Physiotherapy to compensate for not having an ACL will probably take as long as rehab from surgery anyway.

The last thing the doctor tells me is that if I choose surgery I get to choose my own surgeon and that I'm not restricted to the ones at Beth Israel Medical Center. Interesting...