Tore my ACL riding,anybody else?

[Bigtim]

I was riding indoors on 12.30.09 & highsided a shiny lefthander & hyperextended rt knee. Had to have spotter kickstart my 500, on acct of not being able to hold any weight. MRI said total ACL tear, partial PCL, and miniscus too. I'm def not posting looking for sympathy, only in hopes that other riders could share their surgery/ recovery stories. I'm sure I'm not the only guy with a blown knee from riding. My ortho guy is telling me 6 mo before I even think about riding again. thanks!
I'll be the first to say at least it happened in winter and I just may get some riding in this year. Only problem there. I love snowboarding as much as Moto

[Danger4u2]

Sorry to hear of your injury.  This may help.
I looped my K5 on Dec.11 2004.  Very low speed but I landed on my right knee.  It dislocated the knee cap, mashing it under the skin to the back side of my leg.  My body twisted as my back hit the ground with my foot under my butt.  I folded the leg with the knee cap in back with so much force it made the patella tendon rupture and tear completely from the bone.  After surgery and 40 days to heal, they sent me to the hospital's physical therapy wing.  I could tell right away this was set up for old people that had a hip replacement.  I needed more.  I changed to the University of Oklahoma's Sports recovery center. 
Go to a sports related physical therapy (P.T.) center.   They will push you harder and have better equipment.  It may be different in your area but something to think about.  I was told NOT to bend my knee for 40 days.  Scar tissue grew in the knee and I could not bend it after the 40 days.  Three months of  P.T. and I could only bend my knee 35 degrees.  135 degrees is normal.  I had to have a second procedure,  they put me to sleep and physically manipulated the knee to break up the scar tissue.  Yes, I was out but the second procedure hurt more than the actual injury.  The thing that helped me the most......my family,  my Brother helped me with P.T. on my off days and my Mother helped with food and getting to the doctor appointments.  I did not work for 13 months.  My boss helped me financially or I would have lost everything I have worked for.

Ok, now for the suggestions.  Your injury is different than mine but you will experience some of the same problems.
Work your GOOD leg every day.  Make sure you do full range of motion with your GOOD leg.  You will favor it and you will not be using it like you used to.  I have problems with my left ankle because I was not using it like I would have if I was not injured.
I developed scar tissue in the left ankle because I did not use the full range of motion.  I'm not the best at typing so if you have more questions like how I drove or anything else give me a P.M.  I'm sure your injury is no fun at all but I think the patella rupture is more traumatic an injury than ACL injuries.  What I mean is you will be getting around sooner and better than I did.  Another thing,  get a temporary Handi Cap permit.  Not only for when you start driving but use it when other people transport you here and there.
Good luck and best wishes on your recovery.
Danger4u2 aka David J.

Post Script:  I used a knee board, there is a picture in this link.  My Brother made it for me from pictures.  I would throw a towel over it, put my leg on the board and try to let the knee relax to get my heel to touch.  Take a look and you will understand better.
http://www.kxriders.com/forums/index.php/topic,2754.0.html

A little more here.
http://www.kxriders.com/forums/index.php/topic,4564.0.html

[don46]

I tore mine in 1993, climbing a hill that I didn't make, no crash just stopped put my leg down rolled the bike back and hyper extended the knee. I knew I was in troupble got back to my truck, in pain I might add, I felt a pop, then I knew I was in trouble. By the time I got home I was sporting a soccer ball in my knee. They couldn't do anything but remove the fluid till the swelling went down. In the end I didn't get it replaced and in hind sight it was a bad idea, now it will be a full knee replacement. I went for many years where just rolling over in bed would cause it to pop out, I got very proficient at popping it back in. Now I think ther is so much scar tissue that it doesn't pop out any more but it gets sore very easy and I think it's too weak to really do its job, its loading up the left knee to compensate.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have had it fixed right away because I'm now paying for it everyday.

My son had his blown out when he was riding 80's, they didn't want to do anything with it until he quit growing, afraid that it would stunt the growth in that leg. When he quit growing we had it done, he did his physical therapy with a personal trainer, he was back riding bikes in 3 months and racing in 6 (Dr. gave the OK, he also said that they heal much quicker but they want to make sure parents aren't pushing kids to soon and some heal quicker and are more dedicated to the rehab.

Good luck

Don

[Bigtim]

awesome replys guys! I got it drained the day after reinjuring at work about 3 weeks after crash. I have been going to sports med PT 2-3 times/ week b/c knee has to be healthy before operation. I'm very nervous about surgery. Only other sedated procedure was wisdom teeth when I was a teen. Pretty sure I freaked myself out looked at ACL trauma on youtube. Thankfully I do have family here to help out

[don46]

what are they going to use a replacement? I've heard bad things about cadaver parts.

[ThrottleJunky]

Yep, Knees and shoulders are definitely poor designs.  

I've had 6 knee surgeries which include both popped ACL's and knee reconstructions.  I could use a scope clean up on both right now but a shoulder job is going to be first.

Danger4U2 has a lot of good advice.  The only advice I would have would be for you to add some spinning or road biking to your excercise regement.   Something about pumping those pedals distributes the joint fluid around/through the knee and really helps.   Keep those leg muscles strong!

Good Luck!

[Bigtim]

definatly planning on doing some peddling this summer. Always wanted a rowing erg, but they are super expensive. ....doing hamstring graft, cadaver donors are usually for repeat problems were the hammy didn't work anymore. At first doc was going to scope to clean up loose ends and fit me for brace, and try living life without the ACL. Then it went out on me at work. Hurt 20X more than initial tear. Just can't afford recovery down time right now 

[ThrottleJunky]

Yeah Bigtim I fell for the same sales pitch from the doctors. "Your getting older and don't really need an ACL. Clean it up with the scope and fit you with a special ACL custom made brace to ride and play sports with."

The problem with that is there's alot of activities that you wouldn't classify as sports.  So you don't' go through the trouble of putting the braces on.  One wrong move without the braces and  OUCH !   Now the "clean up job" was a waste of time. Back in the same situation you was originally in...

I  wouldn't do the cadaver thing and the old school patella procedure didn't excite me either.  My ACL jobs were using my hamstring tendon as a replacement.  One year of hamstring pain later everythings good.   If I had to do it again, I'd go with the cadaver parts.    I guess I was afraid of possibly getting a female part and sitting down to PEE after the operation... 

[KXcam22]

Bigtim,
  I did mine wakeboarding.  Get the full repair as fast as possible.  Up here they drill a hole through your knee and pull the hamstring through to act as an ACL.  Rehab is 6 months to walking decent, 1 year to riding and 2 years till it feels 100%.  Add a bunch of time if you are not dedicated to the rehab.  Get a good kneebrace, you will need it.  Worst part was I  split my meniscal cartilage and there is no repair except removal.  Removal is bad news so I opted to keep it and suffer the pain (which aint that bad - most of the time).  Heal fast. Cam.

[Bigtim]

thanks for the honesty cam. Right now I just hope I don't let injury keep me from doing the things I love, indefinatly. You still go wakeboarding, right?

[KXcam22]

Bigtim,
  The dumb thing is that I made it through 15 years of MX, 12 year of martial arts, 42 years of skiing and then hurt it as a rookie wakeboarder.  I use dual kneebraces to ski (the sideload drives the meniscal cartilage nuts) but none to dirbike so far although I know I should get some soon.  No I don't wakeboard anymore (scared of re-injuring) but just got a new boat so plan to switch to wakesurfing.  My motto is, "heal it, brace it, and go for it"  Hope this helps. Heal fast. Cam.

[Bigtim]

thanks again. 

[cbxracer30]

Bigtim , I tore my knee up at work blew out the ACL tore up the MCL andust plain made a mess of things . Had to have it drained before they could do the MRI , lots of blood - not a good thing. Had to do rehab before they would operate, but decideed to go riding about 3 weeks into all went fine  until I went to load the bike and the knee gave out and the bike ended up ontop of me - lots of pain. But had the surgery ACL replaced with wrapped kne muscle and bone chips. The Innovation Sports CTI2 knee brace is a must 15 ounces of titanium and carbon-fiber , I wear it whenever I ride offroad, ski , waterski anything that I might get stupid doing.CBX

[Bigtim]

I've heard CTI over don joy from just about everybody.

[cbxracer30]

They tried to put me in a don joy brace and everyone I know that has one hates them but that was the one that all the doctors around here pushed[must give a good kick back]. I insisted on the cti2 even if I had to pay the difference , cti sent a guy in to cast my leg to make the brace, it ended up costing the same price and even the doctors said it was a much better brace , its 10 years old still in great shape and I can take it to any pro motorcross event and have it refurbished on site, but other than worn paint on the carbonfiber I've only had to replace a few little pads on each side .CBX