12 Month Post-op ACL issues

[reid]

Hi all,

I'm a twenty-two year old male who loves snowboarding, climbing, and mountain biking. I have had three ACL surgeries. FIrst, I had a reconstruction and revision done on my right knee 5 and 3 years ago. This knee gives me very few issues now, although it gets sore at times. More recently, I tore my Left ACL and sprained my MCL in a skiing accident. I had a BPTB autograft reconstruction. I was a model patient in physical therapy, moving quickly through the range of motion and strength exercises. I was constantly doing physical therapy and my knee was feeling fantastic. At six months post-op, however, my trouble began. I was messing around with a friend outside the bars (being an idiot) when I stepped back and felt my knee shift slightly. Obviously very freaked out I went to the doc/PT and they said everything was fine, it was just a proprioceptive deficit. After that first "slippage" incident there were several other times that I experienced minor instability, or a "dynamic event" as my doc called it. I got a brace and that seemed to solve the problem. I was snowboarding aggressively. Yesterday, though, I was bouldering at a local gym, with my brace on. I fell onto the mat and my knee fell inwards and I felt a sharp pain. It seems most likely that I strained my MCL, I have quite a bit of swelling and medial tenderness from the femoral condyle down to the joint line. This injury is insanely frustrating. The doc says my ACL feels very solid and that my muscles are more than strong enough to control my knee. Their theory was that I had a hamstring-quadricep sequencing error. I just wanted to see if anyone had a similar experience or had any advice. Thanks! and sorry for the novel.

[jma233]

Proprioception doesn't return in 6 months. It takes a long time of you being active but safe. Do a medline search for proprioception deficiency following acl tear for more specifics. The pro athletes that are playing 12 mo later have worked their ass off doing drills and strengthening.