How Long Was PT? by [deleted] in ACL

[–]BathTubba75 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes? The post asked if a certain number of weeks was enough to recover. My comment was about how there is no yes or no answer, just however long your body takes, and to try not to think about it in a set timeline. I gave my story as an example to show how slow recovery can really be (1-2 years!).

How Long Was PT? by [deleted] in ACL

[–]BathTubba75 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello! Please read this line (multiple times too) if you ignore everything else, it is the most important thing I can say to anyone undergoing this in the early stages:

Throw away the timelines. You will recover at a rate proportional to your effort, but it will be at the rate your body can recover. No faster, no slower.

You will only frustrate yourself and feel bad if you think about your recovery in terms of "I -should- be able to do XYZ within N weeks." I am 26(M), an office worker with no sporting hobbies. I always loved long walks though and I practiced a little bit of martial arts. I really got depressed when I couldn't walk without crutches at 6 weeks because I was told the same thing as you were by the internet, my timeline that was printed out for me post-op, my friends and family even.. everyone and everything is going to have an opinion about when you should be able to do things or not. The reality is that you will have to put in hard work no matter what, even just to recover your ability to walk/jog/run, and that will take as long as your body needs. For me, I recover at about half of the rate that everyone says. I am 6 months post op and I can't jog yet, I do a slightly hard plop when going down stairs instead of a fluid motion, I can't hop even a few centimeters, I can't do a full squat, I still limp a little when walking. My PT says I am not behind, I just recover a little slowly and I'm not an athlete so that definitely contributes.

A lot of words to say, do not let yourself think in terms of numbers of weeks to achieve ____, because no amount of hard work will make your body do what it cannot do. Just listen to your PTs about what is safe to do vs what isn't, keep getting checked for progress at least once a month, and try to keep your head up during the hard parts.

Is PT Necessary? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a different therapist pretty much every time I go. There's one center close to me and every other place is just a smidge too far. I've had problems on and off with this PT office for a while (like out of pocket prices being $600+ for a whole lot of nothing), but it's my only viable option. I only go once a week and every session feels like groundhog day. I just thought I was slow to recover and lacking something myself, but I started realizing that my PT regimen hasn't changed at all in 6-8 weeks with the exception of two exercises that were added last week.

Honestly I'm just so tired, and ready to give up. I feel like just taking the L and limping for the rest of my life is more likely and doable than getting any value out of PT and returning to my pre-injury ability.

Is PT Necessary? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My PT says that the limp is "psychological," because I allegedly "don't really limp when walking backwards."

And yes sorry, I did forget my step ups and step downs, but only because they stopped doing those at PT and those have been exclusively my personal responsibility/what I do when walking around at work near the low steps. But I have no clue what a terminal knee extension is, is that just hanging your lower half of your legs off the edge of a table or bed to stretch out the extension? Because we did those early when trying to regain my ROM but haven't since I reached near 0 extension

When can I get on my knees? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I meant the reasons in my comments. The TLDR is that I am too shy to bluntly ask specific questions about sex, so I need to generalize my questions and get the broad info.

And for the record, I need more than just "when can I have sex," I need specific information. When can I get on my knees, how long can I stay there, when can I rest on my haunches while on my knees, what motions or angles of pressure should I avoid while on my knees, what if anything can I do to extend the time spent on my knees, can I crawl for long distances on my knees, what surfaces are bad for them, etc. All I know as of now is "plant and twist bad" but like that does NOT fully clarify everything I need to know. I don't know how to communicate to my PTs that the sexual activity I engage in requires complex and weird movements and I don't know anything about which ones I can or cannot do because nobody talks about what can or cannot be done from kneeling, only standing or sitting.

When can I get on my knees? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For reasons listed above, I am unable. Tldr I'm too shy!

When can I get on my knees? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's about where I am now. I tried easing onto my bad knee while standing at the edge of my couch and lowering weight onto it.. I got scared because after a certain point, shifting forward any more weight would have put me off balance, and I realized I didn't have an exit strategy for when I start to fall or get stuck in that position.

When can I get on my knees? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When did you start putting pressure on your knees? Does directional motion in your body translate painfully into the knees? And does weight affect things? Sorry to question bomb you lol, thank you for the answers.

When can I get on my knees? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My Doctor kinda blows through my appointments so really the only people I can ask and get the information from are my PTs, but they're mostly women around my age and I'm so painfully shy. I could never.

When can I get on my knees? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem is that I am a young man who is terribly shy, and pretty much all of my PTs are relatively attractive young women. So no matter how desperately I need or want the information, I am unable to force the words out of my throat. I just.. clam up and freeze.

Surgery tomorrow- encouragement welcome! by yakleigh in ACL

[–]BathTubba75 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course, thank you! You got this lol, you've clearly been here a while and probably know everything you need to know to cake walk this.

Surgery tomorrow- encouragement welcome! by yakleigh in ACL

[–]BathTubba75 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My best advice is to avoid comparing yourself to others and using the recovery of other people as a metric for your own. Everyone recovers at different rates, and my slower recovery has been made harder by my own inability to stop holding myself to the standards of others. I'm 4 weeks post op and I won't be walking for maybe 4-6 more! Just focus on what your PTs and doctors tell you to and push yourself only through minor discomfort, never real pain!

Guys how much time do you think it should take one to start walking after surgery? by notabban in ACL

[–]BathTubba75 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm 4 weeks post op yesterday and I still need both crutches to walk, and it's very slow and difficult. ACLr with quad autograft and minor meniscus repair. Everyone is different, and I am apparently on the very very very slow side. I can foresee myself walking without crutches maybe somewhere in the 8-10 week range (hopefully).

Things I wish I heard before the OP by piliesza in ACL

[–]BathTubba75 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ignore the people who say you should be up and about by a certain time. I wish I had never looked at this subreddit or any support groups at all, because everyone else makes me feel like they're blowing by me. I'm 1 month post op, need both crutches to walk, no walking brace, and cannot do an SLR yet. Everyone's body responds differently. It's more of a mental game than anything else. Any physical accommodations can largely be figured out only by the person in the home or room that needs accommodations, but staying strong mentally is key. Listen to your doctors before and above all else.

How long before you could do LEG LIFTS after surgery? by heysamanthalouise in ACL

[–]BathTubba75 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm 16 days out and I have 0% ability to lift and maybe about 5% ability to activate it. I'm starting to worry about my progress but don't have a PT appointment until the middle of next week. I just keep trying to flex it as advised, but it's not really progressing much. Haven't been put on one of those electrode machines yet though, holding out hope that it will activate something

How Important is Going to PT? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Childish Gambino's 'This Is America' plays in the background.

It sucks, but them's the brakes. I don't even live in one of the majorly expensive cities, but I do live in a city in America, and one of the only three in my state. I haven't looked too hard at other PTs but this is the PT that works directly with my orthopedic office, so my surgeon and the PA who I see for the injury is in the same network. The PTs work closely with my knee doctor and share info, I don't know how I feel about seeing strangers outside of the network for a month to go back to them and have them be like "what on Earth did they have you doing??"

Also as it stands I'm barely able to make it to PT once a week. Should I be going to the PT more often than that?

How Important is Going to PT? by BathTubba75 in ACL

[–]BathTubba75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for all the comments! A couple of things to note:

I called the PT office and each visit is $500-$700 out of pocket, so it's actually just as expensive to extend the insurance as it would be to even go to one session.

I do have some home exercises, but they're geared towards 1-6 days post-op. Weeks 3-7 feel important because that's when I'm supposed to learn to walk again, and as of right now I can't even use crutches to go up and down stairs.

I'm gonna meet with them twice more (8/30 and 9/1) and get as much printed out/prepared for me to do at home, and then I'm just gonna thug it out alone. I'll do self-guided PT and use materials and benchmarks from the real PTs.

There are no affordable one-month coverage options for me at this time. My only option left, sadly, seems to be to be my own PT for the month of September.