The answer is…

It varies.

It really depends on what sport you are wanting to get back to.  How much rehab and physical therapy you . How fast your body heals. And most importantly, how quickly you are mentally ready to return.

Most contact sports and/or sports where there is a lot of starting, stopping, changing direction, or pivoting will take slightly longer than the others.

Typically it will take somewhere around 12 months to get back to sports.  Some people can do it quicker and come back around 9 months, but that takes a lot of rehab and PT.   It would take more time than most people have to devote to rehab.

One thing that can’t be rushed is the length of time it takes for your new ACL to become strong enough to withstand some of the punishment it will take.  For most people, your new ACL will be 85% healed back to normal after about 12 months.  That is considered strong enough to get back into sports (usually wearing a knee brace.)

The new ACL won’t be at it’s strongest point until somewhere around 18 months.  That just can’t be sped up.  It is just the rate it heals at.

You CAN strengthen the quad, hamstring and calf muscles as much as possible and they will help your knee stay stable.  Some people do have such freakishly strong leg muscles that they can play with a torn ACL.  John Elway played his entire NFL career on a torn ACL… but it is really rare to be able to do that.

Bottom line, it will usually be about 12 months before most people can return fully to sports.

It can be done quicker, but the risk of re-injury is higher when you come back sooner.

Some people will say it’s very hard and others will say it isn’t that hard at all.  For me, recovery was hard work, but it always felt good to be working toward recovery.

What I mean by that is yes, recovery was a lot of hard work… but when you finish your exercises for the day, you really feel good about it.  Your body might be tired, but it just feels really good to do the work know that your normal life is on the other side of it.

ACL surgery recovery is harder in the beginning than at the end if you are talking about it pain-wise.  However, you are working a lot harder at the end of the recovery. The workouts are more vigorous and take longer.

Thinking about returning to sports without limitations was a big motivator for me and kept me going.  You should find something that helps motivate you to keep working hard on recovery.

I honestly think the first day after acl surgery varies a lot from person to person.

The first day for me wasn’t the most difficult, but it was very difficult to focus on anything for very long.  My mind didn’t really wander, it was just hard to keep a thought in my head for very long.  I’m sure it was the medication that was making me feel that way, but it is definitely a very weird feeling.

The first day after acl surgery was also when everything became more “real”. There was no backing out of anything and the only only choice was to move forward and deal with everything the best I could.  I hope that makes sense.

I had a drain tube still in my knee.  It kinda looks like a baby booger sucker. Anyway, it creates a slight suction and I did have to drain it  a couple times.  My mom was awesome about everything and didn’t complain about having to get rid of the fluid.  It was a little gross.  At the end of the first day, a nurse came by and took the drain tube out… we didn’t have to worry about it anymore after that.

That’s pretty much it for the first day after ACL surgery.  I did start doing some simple easy exercises that the doctor asked me to do. They were mostly bending the knee to start getting some range of motion back.

Some people get sent home the a passive motion machine that does that for you without you having to do anything, but I didn’t get one of those.  For me, it was just a knee brace and a little ice machine that circulated water around a pad that was on my knee.  That is a great invention.

At first, I wasn’t sure why they were asking about that. I never considered NOT going to rehab after ACL Surgery. I wanted my knee to be normal again and wanted to do everything I could. After lots of thought, here is what I have come up with.

Almost all people asking me about going to rehab after ACL surgery were asking because of cost. There is no doubt about it… Rehab costs LOTS and LOTS of money. If your insurance doesn’t cover all the costs, or part of the costs, it becomes very expensive.

Still don’t think it is a good idea for most people to skip going to a Physical Therapist. I would do anything I had to do to get some guidance on exercises for recovery.

If you don’t have insurance or insurance won’t pay much (if any) then you may want to call around or visit Physical Therapy places. See if they will give you a discount for paying at each visit. Many times, they will give you the same rate they give the insurance companies if you pay up front before or after each session.

Also, you may be able to work with them and only see the Physical Therapist once every couple weeks or so. Have them go over exercises that you will need to be doing for the next two weeks… Do all those exercises at home and the next time you go back, they will check your progress and adjust the exercises you will do for the following two weeks.

By combining the discount and only going every couple weeks, you can really keep the cost down. Not all Physical Therapy places will allow you to do this, but shop around. You should be able to find one that fits your needs.

This is the first overhaul of this website since I started it in January of 2000.  It was created to host my ACL diary and experiences I went through when I had ACL Reconstruction Surgery after tearing my ACL.

I felt lucky to find a few other ACL diaries on the internet that helped me through my surgery and recovery.  It helped to know that there were others out there and see what they went through.

So I decided to put my personal ACL Diary online for everyone to read.

I hope someone out there gets some use out of it.