ACL Injury

[j.e.s.-U.S.]

Not sure if this is the right forum but...
So I tore my ACL and was wondering if any of you had any Dr. recommendations that you can give. Things like recovery time, how soon did you walk again, are you still active after surgery, etc. I am not in much phyical pain right now, mostly psychological. I play alot of basketball and other sports and I am not too thrilled about this happening. I live in Austin, so that is why I wrote this hear. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TheBrit]

Tore mine 3 years ago. I was walking with my brace very soon after. Had surgery done by Dr. Pearce up at St. Davids on 38th. He does a lot of the UT Athletics Ortho surgeries along with Carey Windler (Austin Sports Medecine).
I had the hamstring graft as opposed to patella tendon - I really just asked him to do whichever one he preferred and that he thought would get me back on my feet quickly.
One thing that set back my rehab was that I tore my hammy due to my brace being fit incorrectly (too tight). Possibly a combination of the type of surgery as well.
If you have any lay off before your surgery get into a physical trainer and start working the muscles around the knee, your quad and hammy - they atrophy very quickly and will help with a speedy recovery. Stretch constantly after the surgery and follow your rehab through to the end - it is long and a pain in the ***, but you will end up pretty much as good as new.
I just played a full season of rugby in SoCal so am feeling good.

 

[TXSNOS]

I tore the ACL in my left knee back in 1991. My surgeon was Dr. Eugene Schoch, and he used the middle third of my patella tendon as the replacement graft. I feel like he did a good job. Here's a link to a web site with info about him: The Link

They probably do things a little differently now, but my ACL rehab was a lot of work. I was in physical therapy about 3 hours a day 3 days a week for about 7 or 8 months. Had to do a lot of strengthening and flexibility work. Be sure to work on both flexion and extension. Early on I focused too much on flexion and I never did quite get back to full extension. Almost but not quite.

Even after I finished therapy I had to really take it easy on my knee for awhile and watch what I was doing. Whenever I played sports (tennis and volleyball at that time) I always wore my knee brace. In fact I wore it for sports up until about 6 years ago. Around 2000, I started playing a lot more tennis and eventually dropped the brace. Now I rarely even think about the knee anymore. I still have my brace, but the only time I would possibly use it would be if I were to go skiing (and probably not even then).

 

[Horn'n VA]

I tored my ACL MCL and PCL back in 97. Windler did my surgery in 99 I think it was. I was playing running within 6 months and playing football within 9 months. It still isn't the same as before and I still have pain. But it is a lot better than those 2 years that it was trashed.