How the Injury Happened…
“You’ve got a torn ACL”
~Dr. John Hoffman
I originally injured my ACL about 5 years before I had ACL surgery. I was playing touch football with a bunch of guys and I was running full speed. The ball carrier cut back the other way, so I started to cut back to catch him. When I did, my foot caught in the grass and my momentum kept me going in the original direction… I kind of hyper-extended it a little and then heard the infamous “pop”. I felt pain immediately and went right to the ground. It took the breath right out of me. It also seemed to start swelling right away. I got up and hobbled home (I only lived a block away.) I used ice and elevated it, but it got pretty swollen and sore. I don’t remember for sure how long it was before I could walk on it. A couple of days anyway. Eventually, the swelling went down and it started to feel better. I never did see the doctor.
About 10 days later, I went to play another game of football… this one had been planned for a month or so and I didn’t want to miss it. I wrapped my knee up and went on my way. Everything went well until about halfway through the game. I had just caught a ball and was on my way to picking up a good 20 yards when a guy came in low and hit me from the side right on the knee. I could feel it go out of place and heard a faint “pop”. That was it for the day. I could still walk on it and I got to my car and went home. I took care of this one the same way… with ice and elevation. I could walk on it the next day so I wasn’t really concerned.
A couple months passed and I didn’t have any more problems. I was still playing football and basketball, I was just careful of which foot to plant. One afternoon while I was playing 2 on 2 basketball, I went up for a rebound and came down on someone elses foot. I felt my knee go out of place and then it went right back in. I hate that feeling!! I was in a lot of pain, so one of the guys took me in to the emergency room at the hospital. They were little to no help. The told me to stay off of it for a while and wrap it up. They didn’t say anything about ice or if had a torn ACL or anything. It was a total waste of money. They took x-rays and that was it.
I made an appointment to see a doctor the following week. When I saw him, he said I probably had a torn ACL, because my knee was a little loose. He said I could try to rehab it and try to avoid surgery, so that’s what I did. BIG mistake.
I rehabbed and continued to play sports. I probably averaged about 2 injuries/year. They weren’t always severe, but they involved my knee “giving away.” The last injury happened on November 8th, 1998. I was playing touch football and I had the ball, I turned to do a flea-flicker and my knee gave way. Again, there was a faint “pop.” I sat out for a while, I could put some weight on it, so I played for the last half as quarterback. That way I wouldn’t have to run… I could just chuck the ball away if I was going to get sacked. After it was over, I went home and took care of it. At that point, I decided I had had enough.
I saw a new doctor the following week… I already knew I had a torn ACL and was ready for surgery. So I went in, he checked me out and asked me what I wanted to do. I said “fix it.” He said ok and explained how he would perform the surgery. I made an appointment to have the surgery in two weeks.
On December 2, 1998, I had ACL surgery using the patellar tendon method. You can read all about it and my rehab in my diary on the web.
There were a couple reasons I didn’t want to have surgery in the beginning. First off, I didn’t have any insurance, and I didn’t have the money. There wasn’t much I could do about it. The second reason was because the doctor said it would be a minimum of one year before I would be active in any kind of sports again. That’s not what I wanted to hear. Of course in the process of not having the surgery, each time I reinjured my knee, I caused more damgage. I ended up with torn ACL, torn meniscus, and damage to the bone. I will have arthritis at an early age now. I do feel bad that I didn’t have the surgery sooner, but I also feel lucky that methods have improved vastly in the past 5 years. Now, rehab is only 6 months and the reconstructions are more refined. Bottom line… I should have had the surgery much sooner, but it’s definitely better late than never.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave a message below.
28 Comments
Hi, I injured my knee on Sunday. Knock kneed position with a pop. My knee did not swell and the pain did not go away. My pain is mainly on the inside of my knee. I went to the doc, he is not sure whether it is a torn ACL or MCL. I wanted to know where exactly you felt pain, and any other advice you could give me is greatly appreciated. Thank You.
I felt pain all around my knee, and the inside of my knee hurt the most I would say.
It is good that you didn’t have much swelling. Of course, the ACL can still be torn without much swelling.
If it is a sharp kind of pain inside your knee (in the joint), that is usually meniscus damage. MCL damage will sort of feel like it is just underneath your skin on the inside of your knee (outside of the joint.)
They may ask you to go in for an MRI to check your knee out.
For now, just take it easy on your knee… see if some of the pain goes away and have the doctor check it out after a while.
Well, i haven’t had the surgery, but even sitting at the computer desk, it feels like no blood is circulating in my left leg. Like the blood stops moving when I’m sitting, even for 3 minutes. What should I do? No insurance, no income, nothing at all to help. Where should I turn?
First thing to do would probably be heading to a clinic/free clinic to see if you can get some kind of a diagnosis and see if there is another issue involved.
I really feel for you… we should no be allowing this to happen in the united states. If other countries can figure out how to give health care to all citizens, we certainly should too. The problem is that we have too many people making too much money in this stuff… They won’t ever allow it to be any other way.
They usually claim that it takes months to get in to see doctors and the care is substandard in places like Canada that provide free health/medical care… but if you ask any Canadian, they will tell you they are absolutely happy with their health care system. It’s not like it doesn’t takes weeks and months to get appointments with specialists in the USA as well.
Well, my doctor told me that without insurance, there’s nothing any clinic could do. I even tried applying for medicaid, but you have to either have a child, or be over the age of 65. And, the day I went to a Orthopedic Specialist, he told me that, it’s not an “emergency” so, he couldn’t do the surgery. What kind of bull**** is that?
Hey man just found your site, awesome stuff and loads of good info.
I just had ACL reconstruct (patendon), medial meniscus removed, and torn other meniscus fixed on my right knee just 2 days ago. Still in the hospital recovering have it braced up (donjoy xtreme) and iced at the moment. Also had injury to the bone but doc says ain’t no thaang.
Doc doesn’t want me to be dependent on my crutches though and wants me to walk with my brace at 60deg till i get stitches removed in a week and start PT pretty much straight after. Is it normal to recommend a no crutches approach?
Injury happened about 5 months ago snowboarding, should have speedchecked but that bitch adrenaline got the best of me and I overshot the landing and landed in the flats pretty hard.
It’s not the worst injury I’ve had but it is my first surgery and I’m pretty anxious about what comes next but looking forward to getting back in shape and on my board again.
Anyways, awesome site and I’ll try to visit regularly.
Peace!
Sorry to hear about your injury, but glad this site could help you out.
I’ve heard of doctors doing crutches and no crutches. There are probably more that would go the crutches route, but i’m sure both ways would be fine.
Good luck with your recovery and PT. You shouldn’t have any problem with PT since you are already athletic and aren’t afraid of doing hard work.
The good news is they can pretty much get you back to new these days and you’ll be back riding the board in no time.
hey man just went through ur website. i had the acl surgery and fixed the torn meniscus. ive been told that the acl surgeries usually done using 3 holes around the knee joint. in my case i was surprised to see that the surgeon made 4 large cross shaped openings around the knee ! do u have any idea about it ??
I’m not sure. I’m having a hard time picturing what you are describing. Are the scars very big?
Geff,
This website is extremely informative. It has made me feel a lot better about getting surgery. Similar to your situation, I tore my ACL around 6 years ago and with no insurance I was unable to get the surgery. I am now scheduled for surgery in November. It seems that the recovery time is long….Is it feasible to go back to work within 2 weeks after the surgery. I work in an office so much of the time is spent sitting down.
Thank you in advance!
It is possible to work in an office two weeks after surgery. You will need to be able to prop your leg up though, or it will really swell up a lot and you will have some trouble with that.
My boyfriend had tore his ACL twice
Whats going to happend if it tore for the 3rd time??
And he tore it the second time today…
The would do a 3rd surgery. Probably using an allograft. That is not a bad thing though.
I’m awaiting surgery for my 4th acl reconstruction.However, before this is done i’ve got to undergo a bone graft from my hip and that will be used to fill all the tunnels in my tib and femur from all the previous failed recons. This has been going on for 15 years and I have never been able to get back to sport. I’ve had a prosthetic ligament,hamstring graft, patella tendon and now the consultant is opting for allograft(cadaver). I’m beginning to get alittle worried and just hope that this time, i’m 4th time lucky!!Am I doing the right thing? The last op caused me to be off work for a year and i was unable to walk unaided for 7months. Don’t know that much about allograft. Any advice would be greatly received.
Thanks
The allograft will be a little less painful since they aren’t harvesting the tissue from your body. The recovery time is similar to the other methods, but you will tend to feel better a little faster… even though the graft itself is at the same recovery point as all the other methods would be.
I’m sorry you’ve had so many problems. Hopefully this will be successful for you.
Do the doctors have any reasoning for the multiple reconstruction failures? I’m curious. It’s not often that someone has to go through it that many times. You are only the 2nd person I’ve heard about over the past 13 years I’ve been involved in this stuff.
thank you for your site. I go Friday to find out if I need surgery and what type. My knee gives out constantly right now. Actually, one ortho already told me I tore my ACL and meniscus, but I was on vacation at the time – so I just need to see a local Ortho to get it set up.
Do you have any photos of the type of brace I’ll have after surgery? Christmas is coming you know, so I’m trying to figure out what type of outfits I’ll be able to wear.
Also, I LOVE the skin of your website – did you do this or get this somewhere – I LOVE it.
I’m not a nut, just already bored being slowed down!
Glad you like the site! The layout of the site is a free download from the wordpress site. I thought it looked nice.
I don’t have a picture of the brace I wore… they may have changed how they look now since it’s been quite a few years. Some doctors like to use an immobilizer (which I had) and those are big gray things. There is really no making them look good, lol. They go on the outside of whatever you are wearing… no real way to wear it underneath anything. I know some doctors use braces that are a bit smaller and the can be locked into different degree bends. Your doctor may use that instead of an immobilizer. Although, I believe there are probably more doctors that still use the immobilizer.
I know what you mean about being bored and needing something to do. That was one big reason this website was created.
I have never had a brace following any of my recons. Never been an option. I’ve looked to buy one of my own but they cost about £400. The Donjoy ones look good, bit bionic!!!
Have reconstruction surgery December 27th. These blogs are very helpful. I think I’ll also document mine
Awesome. I’ve been thinking about adding a section to this site where some people could document their surgery/recovery. I might have to get on that.
I tore my acl 6 years ago from a direct blow to the knee from a fall. Dr said I could have surgery but it was my choice because I’m not and never have been an athlete, it was just a freak accident. I did PT and that really helped and hadn’t had anymore problems with it until today. I’m guessing I twisted it or something yesterday because it’s swollen, hurts to bend etc…almost feels tight (not sure really how to describe it) really don’t want to have to go back to the dr over this but do you think I should?
If you aren’t having any stability problems with your knee (having it feel “loose” or like it may give out on you), you may be alright. You could have just tweaked it. The swelling should go down after a week or so. The tightness you feel is from the swelling. Be sure to ice it and keep it elevated whenever you can. See how much that helps.
Hi – I’m glad I found this site. I had a completely severed ACL and autograft reconstruction 20 years ago. It was a horrible experience because I woke up alone in the recovery room with no meds and my leg was in a constant passive motion machine and a drain had been inserted wrong (which wasn’t discovered until about 25 hours later) so it was actually stabbing me in the wound site each time my leg moved up and down. The surgeon had left the hospital and no one would do anything for me without his orders…anyway…after the drain was removed I was able to get up and walk. I worked super hard in rehab and did end up with a good result which was fine…until…I took up Crossfit training a few months ago (I’m a petite 51 year old woman) -Been doing all kinds of things such as leaping up onto a 20″ box, lunges with 25lbs carried overhead and my knee started to swell. Didn’t think much of it, figured it was just what happens from working out hard… I was squatting 100lbs on a bar a few days ago and now my is a bit more swollen – Yikes!!! Some pain, not a lot… Wondering if anyone knows if I really have to go get the whole MRI, x-ray thing going – or if it could just be that I hyperextended it and it will be ok…Ok, it’s been swollen for a week but I didn’t stop working out – so if I lay off of the knee for a bit and the swelling goes down (with ice), should I still go get the MRI etc? I’m trying to believe it will be ok…Any advice?
Pain, by itself, isn’t necessarily an indication of ACL tear or anything like that. You would more than likely have instability issues if the ACL was torn. It could be scar tissue that has broken loose and/or breaking up in the joint. That will cause a lot of swelling and can be painful.
It sounds like you are very active… That is great! Have you ever had any issues with swelling and/or pain over the years?
I am now 16 months post ACL Surgery and am still experiencing clicking/cracking sounds in the knee as well as discomfort. The ligament is still healing and far from being 100%. I’m going to the gym again and working on quads, running and other leg excercises.
Is there a pivotal point where I should expect a change?
Hi Geff,
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. It is so informative and honest. I am having the surgery March 8th (allograft) and I’m really nervous about it. I’m a single mom to a 6 year old and I know this isn’t going to be easy. Your site has given me a generic timeline for what to expect. I don’t usually respond to things like this, but yours made such an impression on me I just had to thank you. Hope you’re continuing to do well with your knee.
Take care.
You are welcome! I’m glad people are still getting some use out of something I started so long ago.
You will do great… don’t be too nervous about the surgery. Be sure you have someone around for the first few days… those are the toughest and you will really be thankful if someone is there.
I am dying to get surgery done but I am in debt up to my ears after finishing my bachelors degree. The medical insurance I pay for now doesn’t really cover anything. Wonder what I can do. How much was the entire surgery?