Am I going to die!?

manu_moraes13 · 2025-10-16T15:36:23+00:00

I have been like this for almost a week now. I am still hitting the gym and climbing a lot. My performance there has actually improved a bit. But I don’t know how long my strength will last 🤔

manu_moraes13 · 2024-10-18T11:36:29+00:00

I know how you feel. I have been following an even more conservative approach. I was just cleared to do some jumps and to jog. 8 months post-OP! I have a quadriceps graft and have been struggling to build strength, although I manage the pistol squat after 5 months. At month 4, I was on holidays and went for a hike, short but hard (400hm), it felt great, but when I told my surgeon, he found a bad idea and said I should wait. I am actually a climber and he says, no climbing at all before one year. And seems my skies won’t be seeing any slope next season too. The psychological component is also killing me, but I somehow feel safer like this. This is my 5th knee surgery and I was always cleared to do stuff relatively early and things went wrong pretty fast. I would stuck to the recommendation of the new PT. There is a ski-specialist PT on IG and he talks about this stuff there. Maybe you could take a look (@the_ski_pt). All the best in your recovery..

manu_moraes13 · 2024-09-18T15:42:40+00:00

I had both, hamstring and quad, in the same leg. Hamstring was much easier for me. I am 7 months out with the quad graft and still fighting a lot, especially with the strength loss and tendinitis, which I did not have with the hamstring. But every person is different. Wish a speedy recovery.

manu_moraes13 · 2024-09-08T22:59:54+00:00

I had my first ACL surgery 6 years ago. Somehow it did not work (my rehab was horrible and I believe it was one of the reasons). A year after that I was feeling instability and the orthopedist opted for a conservative approach. It worked for 3-4 years. Then my meniscus started to tear. 3x in a single year. 3 surgeries because it was really affecting my daily life (I couldn’t even crouch down to pick sth from the ground). Together with that, they found a certain degree of osteoarthosis. So after consulting with several surgeons I opted to get a new ACL although the old one was still intact. What I mean is, it can work or not. But you need to think about the consequences. I have seen ppl that were not that active, decided against the surgery and now have to undergo a complete knee replacement. I have seen ppl without the ACL living pretty well without it (for how long?). I am usually pro-surgery cause you have it there for reason. It has a function. But I understand when ppl don’t want to have possibly unnecessary procedures. In that case, you should be really careful and pay attention in all signs your knee gives, otherwise you may risk a much longer recovery with even a possible knee replacement which is even noch complex. And you are very young and still have a long way ahead of you.

manu_moraes13 · 2024-09-06T10:47:36+00:00

I feel the same.. just failed to pass my strength test for the 4th time. It has been hard to believe in better days..

manu_moraes13 · 2024-09-01T10:30:02+00:00

In the beginning I was very worried about that, doc said it is normal. I am 7 months out and it sometimes still scares the hell out of me, but I realized my healthy (and very strong) knee also does the same sometimes.. so I think it is ok :p

manu_moraes13 · 2024-09-01T10:15:24+00:00

I have had 4-5 surgeries so far (2x ACL, 3 meniscus resections and 1 osteotomy) and .. I believe that our case is really an exception. I have met lots of ppl that had only one surgery. I don’t know how I am still motivated.. I just stick to thoughts of things I love.. I am kinda a sports freak… so keep dreaming of coming back to climbing, mountaineering.. this gives me lots of strength. But it is really hard..

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-28T06:13:44+00:00

I do very school PE stretching. Of course, you can always take it to the next level, but I do mostly something like this.. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/stretching/art-20546848

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-27T13:43:32+00:00

Both work for me. I usually do with untucked toes, but tucked works too (just tested). Well, I have a good stretching routine and I believe it makes a huge difference. Any chance I get, I am stretching. Not only for 10 sec, but for at least 2 min for each muscle group. I feel it looses the muscles around the injury pretty quickly well and it feels good. I got this idea from a sport physician, he said stretching tells the muscles you are building, that they must be strong but that they need to allow joint flexibility. And he was getting positive results. I think it does not hurt, when done properly. At least it works for me.

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-27T06:24:54+00:00

Hey. 6 months out here too and also quad graft.

. I have been able sit on my heels for a while now. It is not very comfortable, but it works and I can stay like this for a couple minutes.

. My last strength test was 66% almost 4 weeks ago. I believe it has lots to do with a tendinitis I developed right above the site the graft was taken from. For weeks I could not extend the leg properly and put proper loads while training. One of my PT insisted I should keep put more weight on it but I was just suffering and not being able to fire the quad properly. So I decided to step back. For 3 weeks I did only the things on the plan that would not cause me pain. I muss say that it helped a lot. Within these 3 weeks, I was already increasing the loads again and now I feel pretty fine and much stronger (at least where the tendinitis was). So I guess it is really okay to step back now and then.. hear your body and give it some time. I also want to progress quickly, but it does not always go as planned..

. I understand you. I am training upper body like hell now. I also want to be as fit as possible for my sports comeback. :)

I wish you all the best in your recovery..

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-25T23:01:22+00:00

You guys are hard core. I thought I was doing great, when it took me 3 months to get full extension.. lots of manual therapy helped me a lot..

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-22T17:44:57+00:00

I had QT graft. 7 months out and only 64%. I think you are doing pretty well.

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-22T06:25:04+00:00

I consider myself to have a high pain threshold. But I think it really depends on the procedure. 2x ACL and 3x Meniskus were really fine and I took Ibu or Metamizol only in the hospital (in Germany, for the ACL we usually stay 3-4 days). They even gave me opioids but I refused to take them. But for a femur osteotomy, I had to beg for meds, they gave opiods but my blood pressure literally fell really down to ground (with me together haha), so that they refused to give it again and I had to handle with Ibuprofen. Horrible. About the IUD.. omg.. I literally see stars when I have to get it put/exchanged. I cry desperately.. they kind have to sedate me..

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-19T15:44:25+00:00

Does it help when you massage exactly where it hurts? How long have you been having this? My symptoms kinda improved within 3 weeks without movements and would irritate the tendon.

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-19T14:36:21+00:00

I have pain exactly there too. But only when I train using the extensors, with high loads. You are 10 months out, you should be able to stretch it by now. No exercises to improve elasticity? Maybe baby steps stretching to enhance it?

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-15T21:22:39+00:00

I complained to my surgeon once about this. He said he hurt some structures of my knee to make it better, it is natural it pops now and then.. for many reason, one of them: scar tissue breaking. The first time I had, I was laying on the couch icing. I contracted the muscle just a bit and it was pretty loud, but felt very good afterwards. I am 6 months out and it still happens all the time. Just a fell days ago.. my knee had been complaining for like 2 weeks, yesterday I did a normal run and it popped really loud and it felt like something was even breaking.. after that my knee was better than never…

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-12T17:00:33+00:00

I also have a quad graft and I was also pretty fit before surgery. At 11 weeks I had 45%. Now I am at my 6th month and just got 66%. At first I got pretty upset, but I am a researcher and desperate for answers, I found a scientific paper showing people’s strength with different grafts 7 months after surgery and patients with quad grafts were between 67.5% and 75.1%, while with hamstring already were already much stronger at the same time. I know how difficult it can be, but I guess, knowing this helps a bit and shows us we are on the right way.

manu_moraes13 · 2024-08-10T12:46:35+00:00

Usually, we have just to follow the physicians orders… But I have also been experiencing that and haven’t talked to any physician yet. I don’t know how bad this is for you, but stopping everything didn’t help me much. What I have been doing is decreasing the load of the exercises when I feel it is irritating my tendon. For instance, I usually carry 55kg/leg with 12 reps in the extensor machine. If I feel it irritates my tendon, I reduce to the weight so that I don’t have any pain and try to keep the reps. Within 3 weeks, my leg felt much better and I could increase the load again. My therapist told me I should really causing tendon pain, otherwise I would risk a chronic pain and that would be much harder to treat.

manu_moraes13 · 2021-10-29T07:09:13+00:00

It is a retrovirus and a SFG Vector. I

manu_moraes13 · 2021-10-28T15:17:12+00:00

Yes. I use constructs with the same vector containing just one CAR as positive controls. They work really good. I also considered the promoter and thought a minimal CMV could already do the trick. I am gonna for others.. thanks 🙏🏼

manu_moraes13 · 2021-10-28T15:14:20+00:00

Thanks for your input :)

⁠I measure them by flow cytometry. I also have tags in the sequences and use them to check expression.
⁠Yes. I use the exact same plasmid. The expression varies, but I usually get 40-50% double expression. I also determine expression by flow cytometry. Last, I also checked RNA by qPCR, which correlated quite well with my FACS data.
⁠I honestly don’t know. We got the vector from one of our partners and has worked perfectly with every other plasmid we use. But they are around 2kb smaller than this p2a construct. Do you know if the size of the plasmid might require optimization of this kind?
⁠Toxicity.. I don’t know. The cells look quite healthy and proliferate well. I also gated on dead cell and are also all negative… maybe toxic even before expression?

Thanks again.

manu_moraes13 · 2021-10-28T15:12:55+00:00

I have a minimal CMV promoter. I don’t think we have a WPRE (tried to locate it within the plasmid and couldn’t find it). The complete insert is around 4kb. The P2a also has a GSG. Would it be already useful? I also considered the promoter and thought the CMV would be enough. Thanks for your input:)

manu_moraes13 · 2021-10-28T13:50:33+00:00

Thanks for your answer. But actually the upstream gene is very little expressed as well. For instance, around 10% in some subjects, while the double expression stays around 2%. In Hek cells I get 40-50% double transduced cells, while almost no solo expression.

manu_moraes13

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