Famid...so sorry to hear about your injury. There are a lot of people among the collective that have the same "what if" story - what if I hadn't done that last run, etc. First and foremost, the determination you obviously showed skiing down on one ski after such a severe injury is what's going to get you through this more than anything else, including graft choice.
There's no magic bullet among graft choices. Someone who is as aggressively active as you may arguably benefit from autograft over allograft (the tradeoff is slightly higher re-rupture rates with the latter), but when it comes to patellar vs. hamstring graft it really is surgeon preference that makes all the difference in the world. Find a surgeon you trust and let him/her operate his his/her comfort zone - that's more important than anything. You had a severe injury and it's going to be a tough road regardless of a perceived hamstring strength decline vs. anterior knee pain. Sometimes, when something outside of our control happens, such as your injury, we tend to focus on the stuff we can control, like graft choice. But I can't imagine that someone who basically dislocated his knee and subsequently skied down on one leg doesn't have as good a chance as anybody on this forum to bounce back wonderfully. The graft choice doesn't strike me as what's going to make the biggest difference in your recovery. Your personality will.
Best of luck and keep us posted.
Originally Posted by jm2e:
To be a JONG is no curse in these unfortunate times. 'Tis better that than to be alone.
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