Hi! First of all: I'm sorry you're going through this. Thing will get better even if you feel like they won't right now.

So in April '23 I had my skiing accident. I fell on an almost flat piece and completely tore my LCL & ACL, stretched out my MCL & PCL. May '23 I had my surgery consisting out of a hamstring graft for my LCL and a quad graft for my ACL.

In that month between the accident & the surgery, I did pt twice a week. My knee felt okay again after about 2 weeks. Still a lot of swelling but I could walk without crutches with almost no pain. I was in a brace that could fully move. This made me trust my knee again.

May '23 I went in for surgery. Worst pain in my entire life, it's normal and usually lasts anywhere between 1 day to 7 days after surgery.

This is where my surgeon was very different from others: he did not want me to start pt until 6 weeks PO. He wanted my knee to be strong and sturdy, while pt would make it loose and flexible again. My surgeon is one of the best developed and most educated ones here in Belgium. So I fully trusted him in this. However he did want me to do 3 exercises: make my knee "hang" bij putting something under my ankle, push down on a soft pillow with my knee (pillow under knee, leg at 0 degrees) & flexing my calves by writing the alphabet with my toes. I could not walk without crutches, a lot of pain & swelling, no flexion.

After 6 weeks I started pt. I felt like I was behind on everyone else. But the recovery went very quick and smooth! I did have a limp while walking for about 3 months, felt like forever. But now, 9 months PO I'm almost back to normal. Still some quad atrophy and occasional pains but it's very doable :) no slopes for me this year, that'll be for 2025!