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ACL recovery

Hi,
I had an ACL reconstruction in May this year and I am still struggling! I have a fair amount of pain on the inside of the injured knee, and find it difficult to weight bear specifically on that leg (can't even get started on a single leg squat). The OS said the knee was pretty badly damaged, and he had to repair the meniscus by shaving it and also removed a piece of the torn cartilage. Just wondering if i'm way behind on the recovery, or should i do more exercises? I'm at the gym 3 days a week but it still hurts when i do too much weight on the injured knee, and occasionally locks a little afterwards.  Its now 7 months out from surgery, and I want to get back to doing crazy stuff!!
Thanks
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Avatar universal
I have three complete ACL reconstructions in addition to an ACL revision in between, so i have quite a bit of experience to share. My most recent repair was in June. I always felt that everyone makes you feel that it will be easy and quick and you will be back to your old self soon. I never found that to be the case. It always took me longer than i anticipated to get to back to a somewhat functional status. I can tell you that the more work you put into your recovery, the more you will get in return. Although I spent A LOT of time and energy on my knee rehab, I have never been able to get back to the way a was before. I think part of this is psychological. After spending so much time favoring your bad leg, I think you are always a bit weary to go full force on it. Did you have a allo or autograft?  If auto, was it a hamstring graft? That also makes a difference in your recovery time. I do also know that you should not even think about really running or putting a lot of stress on your knee until at least nine months out. At seven months, your graft is still healing in and should not be stressed. My second ACL reconstruction was a result of a failed graft because I began playing sports again too soon and ended up destroying the graft. Use this as a lesson not to push it. I can tell you that i really know what you are going through. It is a much bigger surgery than you probably anticipated, but do know that things will get better. It sounds to me that you are on track for your recovery. Just keep up the hard work and it will pay off in the end. It will get better. I hope I helped. Please let me know if I can help in any other way. Good luck!
Helpful - 0
1148201 tn?1262165258
I have had to live with torn ACL for a year and a half  due to other issues from a crash due to some body esles bad driving and will be having mine repaired too.Not only have I torn my ACL but PCL and and I think the other is LCL but know that MCL is the only ligament I have that's not torn in two. I wish you luck and will be looking out for posts on your recovery as it will give me a bit of insight of what to expect. I think you think the same and have looked into your ACL repair aswell and have found that everyone shows you how to fix it but not what to expect afterwards.

Can I add you as a friend?
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