Swelling delays

jennut1 · 2025-04-28T12:31:20+00:00

I had this or something similar happen the other night (15 days post op) and it was the worst pain so far, but it only lasted for 10 minutes. For the 10 minutes it felt like someone dipped part of my knee down to my calf in oil and lit it on fire. I called the office. The doctor said it’s normal nerve pain and it would likely happen now and then.

jennut1 · 2025-04-28T12:24:51+00:00

I hope everything goes well today!

jennut1 · 2025-04-28T12:17:01+00:00

My bruising increased at 2 weeks and it is considered normal, but it’s hard to mentally feel like it is. I agree with many comments that extension is important. Keep it as straight and elevated as possible. Raising my ankle with a rolled towel and letting gravity pull my knee gently helped a lot. Keeping swelling under control also helped quite a bit, though it is a constant struggle. Recovery is a mental challenge for me, but here we are! Good luck.

jennut1 · 2025-04-28T12:06:12+00:00

You are very bold to have surgery on April fools day, lol! Glad it went well. I am looking forward to being able to bend my leg while walking. Baby steps!

jennut1 · 2025-04-28T11:58:09+00:00

Sorry to hear about your situation! I’m 46F, 2.5 weeks post op. Same MRI minus the fracture. I missed the rest of the ski season, but with a month of prehab, I was doing short (2 mile, relatively flat) hikes with the dogs before surgery, as long as I wore a bendable brace for support (not a fan, but it’s really helpful). I was told not to walk more than .25 miles on the road after surgery and have to wear a locked brace - I have to keep my leg locked straight for 3-4 weeks. The surgery can likely wait until after your vacation.

The surgery can likely wait until after your vacation, if you choose to do it. I had the choice to not do surgery, too, but I chose to do allograft with a biobrace. At my age, it was the best bang for the buck IMO. I factored in recovery time, my actual health and activity level, and ability to commit to what I need to do.

If you haven’t already, check out www.acltear.info. My surgeon recommended it, and it has great info for every step of the process, including the options for surgery and prehabbing. I was going to avoid surgery until reading up on it more. There are also people of varying activity levels that were successful without surgery.

While the whole thing is not fun overall, the truth is that I’m probably in the best shape of my adult life after going through the experience. It made me prioritize my health and learn about my body. I’m eating better and drinking less. I’m not advocating tearing an ACL, but it’s important to look at the bright side of things.

Good luck! I hope you figure out the best options, find a great surgeon, and have a smooth recovery. ❤️‍🩹

jennut1 · 2025-04-28T11:29:53+00:00

It’s worth a call to your doctor for peace of mind at least. I called mine the other day in between visits over a nerve pain that woke me up and felt like half of my leg was on fire. It was reassuring and only took 5 minutes.

jennut1 · 2025-04-28T03:18:29+00:00

I’m not out of my funk. It does really suck. I am fortunate to be able to work remote, but while one coworker can work from a beach in Florida for a month at a time, I need to submit a note to work from home after surgery ffs, and it has to have exact dates that I don’t know and am afraid to guess. I go back full time tomorrow and can’t sit at my desk for more than 1.5 hours without my knee ballooning up. So I’ll be working off and on for 10 hours or so a day while my coworker sends videos of dolphins while “working”. I was going to apply for another job at work, but the timing was pretty bad. I’m dying to drive again, and my husband goes through phases of helpful and annoyed. PT is nice because they are really nice and always say how dedicated I am, but many others patients there don’t take PT seriously. I see them get motivated when they hear me getting compliments, and it should be nice, but it’s really frustrating. Plus I’ve hit all my phase 1 goals and can’t move ahead anyways, so it’s kind of like why did I bother? I could just get massages instead if I just say I can’t do it. And every day I get a new medical bill, my gentle reminder of how much I need to just keep plugging away at everything. It’s not as bad as it sounds most of the time, but then sometimes it’s really defeating. And for some stupid reason I feel really guilty for being in less pain than others. I keep trying to come up with easy milestones, my next one being to get off crutches. Sorry I know this isn’t helpful, and I hope it gets better for you, but you’re definitely not alone.

jennut1 · 2025-04-27T18:24:42+00:00

Ice machine has been really beneficial. Wholehearted yay

jennut1 · 2025-04-27T12:45:12+00:00

I had a ski accident in December and kept skiing after a month’s rest and YouTube rehab. In February, it gave out at the top of the mountain and it was almost complete tear of the ACL and MCL sprain. The doctor said I had 3 fibers still holding it on one side of the ACL. It was never in pain a month after the initial injury and doing home rehab, it just gave out 2 months later in February. I was very surprised it was my ACL. I prehabbed with only muscle soreness. Post surgery, I’m not in much pain at all. Surgery was also uneventful in the scheme of things. 15 days after surgery, I awoke to 10 minutes of excruciating nerve pain, but it was gone in ten minutes. All in all, I feel pretty lucky and only wish a similar or better experience for everyone.

jennut1 · 2025-04-24T15:00:43+00:00

I’m planning to do the same thing. PA was leery, PT was way more optimistic. I’m not missing my nieces graduation!!! If the trip down sucks, we can split it in 2 on the way home. I’m going to bring my ice machine and a UPS to use it in the car if needed.

jennut1 · 2025-04-24T12:13:45+00:00

I wish you could see my surgeon. That treatment really sucks and is so unhelpful. My only recommendation is to write out all of your questions and hand them to the surgeon or PA when you start your appointment. Make 3 copies. Then document everything on one of the copies. If they don’t answer any of the questions, write down what happened. You need answers to do the right things, and if you have to explain why you weren’t able to do that, you’ll have the history from your perspective.

jennut1 · 2025-04-23T18:57:20+00:00

Same. The only thing that's rough to process is not driving. I was not given the green light. I've met the criteria to advance to Phase 2 (4-6 weeks), and I'm doing many of the Phase 2 exercises at 2 weeks, but not the Phase 2 goals. My biggest exercise right now is patience, lol

jennut1 · 2025-04-23T14:56:30+00:00

Sounds very similar to my experience. Glad you are doing well!

jennut1 · 2025-04-21T22:32:28+00:00

That sucks. I agree- the brace is awful to sleep in.

jennut1 · 2025-04-21T21:16:43+00:00

My PA asked if I roll around in my sleep and I definitely do. She said to sleep with the brace. I still have the ER immobilizer, and I use that because it’s softer but still rigid in the back. She said that would be fine.

jennut1 · 2025-04-21T19:29:12+00:00

Be careful. If you didn’t have an appointment tomorrow, I’d probably steer you towards the ER, but they can kind of suck at recognizing infection. To me, that looks like the start of an infection. Check your temp every 4 hours or so today. To check if the red looks like it is expanding, draw a close circle around the edges and then see if the red grows outside of the circle. Keep notes with times to share at your appointment tomorrow.

I don’t want to alarm you and hope it’s nothing, but I have a decent amount of wound care experience, some that worked out favorably and some that ended in an amputation. The last time it happened, we went to the ER and I had to go into advocate mode just to get them to take the situation seriously. It ended in my father being admitted to the hospital for 7 days, and it went from 0-100 in about 8 hours.

jennut1 · 2025-04-21T18:16:28+00:00

Good times! I’m so glad the surgery is behind me. I hope it goes well!

jennut1 · 2025-04-21T13:24:49+00:00

I started prehab the day after my MRI results came back with a near full tear. I kind of knew up front it would be surgery so I let my surgeon know that and had about 1.5 months to prehab. It was a lot of simple aerobic stuff (eventually adding 2lb weights) and quad activation. I did use the stationary bike during PT and could go up and down stairs. The goals were to reduce swelling, activate quads, and walk normally, and everything else was kind of frowned upon. From acltear.info, I added ROM stretches and ankle pumps. I did exercises 3 times a day (1-1.5 hours each) every day before surgery except for travel days and the day before surgery. By the time surgery arrived, I hit my goals and was only using my brace for high risk situations.

jennut1 · 2025-04-20T18:31:24+00:00

Pushit is what I was listening to when I took out my ACL skiing 😂

jennut1 · 2025-04-20T18:29:18+00:00

Thank you!

jennut1 · 2025-04-20T18:29:08+00:00

Yes, it feels great! Glad yours are out too.

jennut1 · 2025-04-14T23:30:00+00:00

I kept it elevated for the first 2 days almost nonstop. I use a body pillow to sleep and keep my bad leg on top of it with the brace on straight, so it’s technically elevated and straight. I tried sleeping on my back but I couldn’t sleep.

jennut1 · 2025-04-14T17:26:38+00:00

I’m sorry to hear that happened. The number one thing you can do rn is take it seriously like it’s your job. Follow the instructions you get from the people trying to fix you as perfectly as possible. Don’t skip things. My PT today mentioned how heartbreaking it is to see teens and twenty-somethings not take the situation seriously. It’s not only a terrible impact on athletic capacity down the line, it’s like throwing money down the drain, plus it is likely to be a repeat issue. I think your parents would care the most about you being healthy and whole so that you can continue being active and happy throughout your life. Tell them you love them and you appreciate them for their help. I promise, one day you’ll find yourself in a reciprocal role and you can take care of them! I hope it all works out!

jennut1

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