6 weeks post op setback

So far so good.Rather so I thought.Yesterday was supposed to be yet another day, but sadly when I was on the bus, there was a sudden change of speed , and I felt what I thought was a fairly innocuous twist to my knee.The whole day was painful, and there was quite some pain at certain angles.The local ortho was not quite sure and told me that it could be anything, but atleast he confirmed that the graft was intact,which was definitely comforting.Fingers crossed.

3 weeks post-op

Life has been all about work and PT immediately after every single day, so it kinda sucks.The only thing that keeps me at it is football waiting for me at the end of it all(hopefully). My PT has stepped up and it involves a half hour on the static bike every day, along with the usual heel slides, straight leg raises with a half KG resistance among other stuff.The bike really feels like a savior and I can feel slow but steady progress everyday, though my flexion seems to have hit a bit of a plateau at 120-130, so there is still a lot of work to be done on that front.Walking seems to improve progressively, though stairs, especially downwards, is still extremely uncomfortable and quite painful.

Off crutches!!!!

Days 18 now, and all the sympathetic looks i get on the street,in office, and everywhere else has finally got to me.I now feel like I can manage safely enough without crutches, and so thats what I did.I still walk around with a slight limp, but its still quite a leap from feeling absolutely unstable on my knee without support a few days back.Due to logistical reasons I have changed my PT, and its off to a good start I would say.

2 weeks post-op..first day of office

Today was day 16 post-op.First day of office too.I have been hobbling around on one crutch for the past few days and this is how I went to office.The extra sympathy felt good for a bit and it eventually started pissing me off.Anyways, the day passed without any incident(you know,knee-wise).Its going to be a hard week or so with the crutch.

post op-day 4

Caught some champions league action last night and watched united come away with a point at sociadad.Anyways today was a bit different with regards to my physiotherapy.The physio sent me into their "Department" which sort of resembles a gym.As I waited inside for my physio to catch up, I looked around and went absolutely nuts.There were people in beds surrounded my physios helping them get back their range of motion.There were grown ass men moaning,screaming and shedding tears like babies with the physios not really giving a deal.All they cared about was restoring motion and I don't blame them.Without exaggerating, it was stuff of torture scenes from low budget movies haha.So my physio finally arrived, I started with basic stuff like straight leg raises,quad and hammy presses etc and then came to the dreaded heel slides.She flexed my knee till I started screaming out loud and I pushed a little but more, and we were all pleasantly surprised.I could get to 120 degrees on day 4 without much fuss(relatively). I'm actually beginning to like these pt sessions now and have only one thing in mind-playing football again without a worry in life.So far there's nothing I can complain about with regards to progress.I still have 10 days off from office(yay!) and looking forward to barca Milan tonight.Cheers.

post op-day 2

So it's been 2 days since the op on Nov 2.Well I'm not gonna lie and call it a walk in the park, but it has not been as bad as most of the post op horror stories that I had come across, especially for the pattelar tendon  variant of the surgery.Pain has drastically subsided since the day of the operation after the anesthesia had worn out, but there is still this nagging pain, which would eventually just become an irritation.My physiotherapy started surprisingly early,infact yesterday(the day after surgery).She got started on flexing my quads and hammys,which seem to be diminishing by the day.Then came the worst part-getting flexion and improving my ROM(range of motion).There is absolutely nothing fun about this and just downright hurts.I also got started walking slowly on crutches the very next day after surgery.

Day 2 was more of the same ROM stuff.It still sucks btw.On the bright side I seem to have got my flexion to somewhere around 80-90 degrees today.I insisted on doing stairs with crutches and it was fairly easy.So all in all, a good day I guess.

Day 0-surgery day

Had a good night's sleep the previous day and was extremely chilled out about the surgery.One can even say that I couldn't wait for it(retarded I know).I was taken into the OR at around 830am, and the sugery began in some half hour I guess.I was given the spinal anesthesia thing which numbed my lower half of my body.I was basically watching the insides of my knee throughout the operation on the screen and was constantly being told what exactly was being done.The surgery was over before I knew it and was taken back in a with a huge dressing and knee brace.Took quite a while for the numbness to wear out and the pain started getting worse slowly but steadily.On a scale of 10, it started with a manageable 4 and went all the way up to an 8 or 9 by the end of the day.Needless to say, the nasty combo of the pain and the brace made it impossible to sleep.Hopefully the worst has passed as far as pain is concerned, but I was told the 1st few PT sessions, starting 2moro,is gonna be a bitch.

Pre surgery

Well, I am now around 3 days away from surgery.I did LOT of reading and these are my key takeaways regarding this stage-

• First and foremost find the best surgeon you can possibly get.Preferably a guy who has done a few thousand of these..you get the idea.

• Quads and other supporting muscles shut down, and all the more after the surgery,so the stronger you go into surgery the easier you recover.

• Get back your full range of motion(ROM) before the surgery.Or else the recovery will be that much longer.
• Maintain a positive frame of mind throughout,be focused on the end result(for me that would be getting back to playing football withing 6-10 months).

So anyways, as I could feel my left quad starting to sort of atrophy, I got started on my exercises to get full ROM and salvage whats left of the quads,hamstrings,calf muscles.Some daily quad presses, half squats and heel raises did the trick for me, along with a conscious effort to walk without a limp with a normal gait.Looking forward to the surgery.

Intro - what it is,how it happened

What is it?

Anterior Cruciate Ligament.The three dreaded words every athlete hopes he/she is never associated with.According to my non-medical know-how, it is the ligament that provides most stability to a knee joint.Think a kind of rubber band that snaps under sudden stress.It is a very common injury among athletes involved in pivoting sports like football and basketball. What makes this injury a lot more complicated than the average bone break is that this ligament,unlike a bone ,does not regenerate on giving it time to heal, hence requiring some sort of a reconstruction.

michael owen-ACL tear at the world cup

How it happened to me:

I am actively involved in sports,mostly football(FOR THE LAST TIME IT IS NOT CALLED SOCCER!!) ever since school,and then into my university.Right now I have a 9-5 job, but still find time for some good 5-a-side around 4 days a week and the occasional tennis during the weekend.It was all going well until a couple of weeks back(7th OCT to be precise).I was chasing the ball,suddenly decelerated and changed direction.My body moved forward,but unfortunately my left knee did not follow suit.I felt what I though was my knee cap dislocating and then back to position, accompanied by an almost electric shock sort of a feeling    of tearing something.Before I knew it, I was down on the ground clutching my knee and had to be helped back home.

Any weight I put on the leg would lead to excruciating pain and was neither able to extend nor flex my leg.The next morning, I had an MRI and the doctor confirmed my worst fear-a torn ACL requiring reconstruction.What was even more painful was knowing that this meant atleast 6-10 months out of football.

After doing some research on the available variations of the reconstruction procedure, I decided to go with the patellar tendon autograph.I got in touch with one of the best surgeons in the city and have booked my operation date for the 2nd of November.Fingers crossed.