Anyone had an ACL Knee Reconstruction?

[D Faff Master]

Hi,

I'm booked in to have knee reconstruction surgery on the 10th April

I was just wondering if anyone else has been through this? I have 2 months of pre-operation physio to do that apparently greatly increases the chance of a successful outcome.

So I've gone from planning a bikepacking trip to Iceland and aiming to do well in the Polaris, BearBones 200 etc to wondering if I'm going to be able to mountain bike again.

Thanks
Mark

[gairym]

I know loads of people who've had it and the one main thing everyone says is to do the exercises/physio in order to return to full strength.

My sister-in-law did hers and she's skiing, climbing and riding again like nothing ever happened.

On the other side my sister did her (drunken biking accident) and never bothered with the follow-up crap (as she put it) and now has pain and aches when it's cold.

Seems pretty important to me!

Good luck fella.

[D Faff Master]

Thanks Gairy,

I'm still at the stage where I'm trying to get my head around it. I've been doing my physio religiously as everything I've read suggests it makes a big difference.

Your advice suggests the same :)

Still gutted though did it playing football no one near me at the time either! I I'm confident I'll be able to bike just worry about all the twisty turny stuff as I'm a PE teacher. Don't think I'm ready to become a classroom teacher yet.

[u02sgb]

Had mine reconstructed about 12 years ago now. As good or better than it was before I snapped the ACL.

I'd echo the comments about making sure you do the exercises though. My recovery wasn't going great, until I started religiously following the exercises I'd been set. Worth building the muscles up well beforehand too, apparently it helps a lot.

Stu.

[D Faff Master]

Well- I had an unexpected call from my consultant yesterday evening, most of which was him apologising profusely.

He double checked my MRI and said that he had in fact mis-interpreted my MRI scan and that my ACL is completely intact. No operation required, yipee! :D

Hopefully be back biking soon.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Good stuff ... I've never spent a night in hospital or had any operations but my imagination tells me it's not nice.

[gairym]

Nice dodge!

Though.....you'll miss the morphine induced silliness (but not the months of rehabilitation).

[D Faff Master]

Knee still not right but I'm sure it will get better sooner than if I'd had the operation. The silliness will have to wait for now

[valleydaddy]

I haven't had an ACL reconstruction yet but I did have a major knee injury last year, ripped my knee cap off :? and echo the advice above follow your physio's advice to the letter, it helped me massively and I am back running and riding better than ever, but still have a major mojo issues off road with fear of damaging my knee again, this is getting better as I ride more off road which is great :D