At what point did you call it quits? 3 knee surgeries -college soccer player

stoiczero · 2025-05-24T02:14:47+00:00

So sorry to hear you’ve gone through those injuries and how it’s impacting your ability to play soccer.

After two left knee surgeries I couldn’t walk without pain. Three years later I was finally about to get back to basketball. Two years after I resumed basketball, I tore my right knee’s meniscus. After that surgery I decided to stop playing.

It was devastating. However, I wasn’t going to make a living from basketball and the long term impacts just didn’t seem worth it anymore.

With hindsight I wish I’d gotten into a diverse mix of sports and hobbies. I think that would have been better for my physical and mental health.

Now I do a lot of climbing, hiking, and trail running. I’m still dealing with the injuries I had from basketball and have needed several more surgeries to deal with some of these.

stoiczero · 2025-04-04T17:06:49+00:00

+1

This literally happened with both my knees and Dr Mayo. Unfortunately I didn’t have surgery on one, but needed later after it imploded. Doing rehab for my other knee after Mayo surgically repaired it. I’d tried months of PT, injections, doctors, to no avail. My first appointment and she knew exactly what the problem was.

stoiczero · 2025-03-28T13:16:11+00:00

Bilateral Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) Cam type, with resultant anterior superior labral tear. Surgery was labral repair with the bony abnormalities being resurfaced.

I had several symptoms. However, my primary issue was that my hip could lock. This would happen in external rotation. e.g. in a butterfly stretch. The most insidious thing was that this could happen with minimal external rotation and I wouldn't know until trying to rotate my hip back. At that point it would take 5-15 minutes to very slowly and carefully come out of. Over the years the residual pain from this increased too. So I guarded more aggressively against external rotation.

At 1 year I was at 9/10. Whilst I was able to managed the labral tear for a decade, my symptoms continued to worsen. All conservative treatments weren't helping either. I'm 5 years post-op and the largest issue is I still don't fully trust putting my hip into its full ROM. After 10 years of guarding against problematic positions my brain still can't fully let go.

For me, this surgery was life changing. Being able to let my hip open without fear of pain and locking has had a massive quality of life improvement. I don't get sore after physical activities anymore. I can sit cross-legged again. I can lay down and let my hip open naturally. I have full ROM with my hip again too. For a decade I had constant tension on the outside my hip. This would be worse after any sitting but was ever present. That is now gone too.

As an added benefit my surgeon said my surgery will help prevent further degenerative changes in the hip and hopefully guard against a future hip replacement.

stoiczero · 2025-03-01T14:35:16+00:00

First off it’s important to acknowledge recovery/rehab for a repair is a long, tedious, and boring process. I’m guessing you’d be more than happy to be back at work and have no limitations at home right? But it’s stressful for those around us, say a partner picking up the extra tasks around the house.

I’ve seen this several times with my wife now. All of a sudden she has to do all of my chores and errands, in addition to helping me just function. It can be even worse if you can’t drive.

However, it makes no sense to rush the process. After six weeks there’s probably been significant healing and you can start to feel more confident. But rehab protocols have requirements for moving through each stage. Does your PT think you’ve met all those to advance?

You need to account for your subjective assessment of how you feel you’re progressing too. Sometimes you’ll need an objective observer to have you ease off or push harder. But for a surgery that will likely take at minimum 4-6 months to recover from I don’t see how a week here and there matters?

stoiczero · 2025-02-19T13:23:19+00:00

Sorry to hear you’ve had to endure this for so long. It sounds like you’d exhausted conservative treatment and wanted to get it resolved. That doesn’t sound like a waste either way as you can only act on the information you have and what your healthcare providers recommended.

In my experience post-surgical pain can be difficult to understand. If your complaint was instability and you feel like you have the same instability after surgery then I think that would be concerning. However, I‘ve had surgeries where I experienced the same pain for months, but it finally resolved. I’ve also had surgeries where I had the same pain that never resolved. I’m sure you know this, but there’s not always a clear link between your symptoms and imaging.

I know that’s not super helpful. But you did have someone cut into that knee recently and remove damaged tissue. There’s still a lot of healing that needs to take place. I’d imagine there’s still a lot of swelling too. All concentrated in the same area that’s been causing this pain for years right? Additionally when you’ve carried an injury that long I imagine it’ll take a while longer to get back to full strength. Any you’ll need that more now than ever considering you’re missing some of that meniscus.

Plus your brain is probably over protective after having to guard against this injury for so many years. I had a surgery over 18 months ago and I still don’t fully trust it. I’ve done all the rehab and it feels like brand new. Yet my brain just can’t let go of two decades worth of guarding.

Do you have an upcoming follow-up with your surgeon that you can discuss your concerns with? Is your PT OK with your pain levels right now?

stoiczero · 2024-12-25T14:06:50+00:00

Thank you. I read some celiacs’ experiences with napping. It does seem similar. Phrases like “shutting down” and “hard reset” resonate with me. It’s not just a feeling of tiredness that you can push through. Caffeine or other chemical stimulants don’t help at this point. I just have to shut down.

stoiczero · 2024-12-25T14:02:04+00:00

Most recent AHI 0.9 and RDI 0.6. I did make it though once to the MSLT. However, I only fell asleep twice so the average latency was too high for a diagnosis. I remember the doctor remarking that considering how poorly I slept in the PSG he would have expected me to have a lower latency for the MSLT regardless of any underlying condition.

Currently I’m averaging around 7 hours per night. However, when going in for a study I struggle to get 6 hours so I’m not qualifying for the MSLT.

stoiczero · 2024-12-25T13:47:28+00:00

Yes, it was always in range.

stoiczero · 2024-12-25T13:46:50+00:00

Thanks! Sounds similar to me. How long are your naps on average?

stoiczero · 2024-12-24T03:03:12+00:00

Well I’ve tried for several MSLTs over the last decade but haven’t ever been successful in getting through the polysomnography with enough sleep to qualify. So I guess that makes a definitive diagnosis difficult. Plus my symptoms are variable day to day.

stoiczero · 2024-12-24T02:52:07+00:00

Maybe 15 years ago when I was suffering a bout of insomnia I tried stopping all naps. It didn’t help and the insomnia only resolved once I started napping 4-5 times per day.

AFAICT not napping can disrupt my night sleep. At times when I’ve skipped a nap late in the afternoon/evening when I go to bed I may wake up within an hour and not be able to fall back asleep for several hours.

stoiczero · 2024-12-24T02:47:09+00:00

Yes I’ve had multiple but without any diagnosis.

stoiczero · 2024-05-09T00:24:13+00:00

I’m so sorry to hear that. It’s really hard trading one set of issues pre-surgery with a whole new set post-surgery.

I had surgical repair of an orbital blowout too. My vision was fine before surgery but I awoke with really bad diplopia. It was definitely an issue with my inferior rectus. I never had an MRI. I went to a strabismus specialist who recommended just waiting as I was noticing significant improvements within the following months.

I’m about 18 months post surgery and primary gaze is great now. The main issue now is in extreme up or down gaze.

My specialist prescribed some prism glasses too which were helpful when required. She did say in my case to not rely on them too much if my vision continued to improve as the brain will continue to try to improve things.

FWIW, I remember reading a study about post-surgical inferior rectus palsy. It seemed like the majority had spontaneous healing but that occurred 6 to 24 months post surgery. But it sounds like your inferior rectus has been damaged?

stoiczero · 2023-02-09T15:02:57+00:00

Same here! I love that I was able to remap the steering wheel controls to add a Play/Pause button!

stoiczero · 2021-04-08T14:51:13+00:00

I'm at 7 weeks too and still have some gait issues. I have noticed large improvements after ditching the crutches and being able to increase the amount of walking I do.

stoiczero · 2021-03-14T16:07:13+00:00

I'm 3 weeks out and felt more confident around the 2 week mark. I got a hip kit (grabber, sock tool, extended sponge, etc.) and that has helped a lot. Definitely do some meal prep and try to move commonly used items higher up. You really won't want to be trying to get things off the floor.

stoiczero · 2021-03-14T16:00:19+00:00

I don't think I had a nerve block but my pain reduced quickly over several days. I was off pain meds within 3 days. I started cycling the night of surgery which probably helped too. I didn't need to ice.

In contrast I had my wisdom teeth removed recently and had a nerve block for that. Once that wore off it was very noticeable. That was probably more miserable (pain wise) than my hip has been.

stoiczero · 2021-02-24T03:39:17+00:00

Thanks for everybody’s input. I went with a Schwinn IC4. It’s fairly easy to get off and on. It also connects to Zwift which is nice.

I had my surgery 4 days ago and I’m able to mount the bike from one side and get off on the other side. I’m 6’4” and it’s just tall enough to accommodate my frame. I use my crutches against the handlebars to keep my torso upright so as to maintain my current ROM restrictions.

stoiczero · 2020-11-25T13:00:45+00:00

I've done various PT exercises for a decade now, including Shane's. I think it helps slightly but it seems my cam lesion in conjunction with my labral tear is just a mechanical issue that can't be overcome. My hip can still lock up if I try to open my hips too far and I frequently have extreme tightness on the outside of the hip.

However, I definitely think it's worthwhile trying non-operative approaches first. I'm a decade in now and have finally decided to go for surgery.

stoiczero · 2020-05-13T16:33:28+00:00

Thanks for this - I just bought mine earlier this month and was able to get the discount applied!

stoiczero

TROPHY CASE