Rehab has been going well. I've dropped off daily exercises somewhat, favoring the occasional bike ride, working outside in the yard, and some light hitting on the tennis court. About three weeks ago I was cleared to start hitting tennis balls again, so the same day, I found someone to hit with. I wore a basic knee brace, just as a reminder, and managed to move about rather stiffly, though without any discomfort pretty well. The next day, no real affects -- no pain, no swelling. Feeling good.
Last weekend, I played some doubles, what I like to call "social tennis" and also felt good. I served very gingerly (shoulder procedure coming up in August for SLAP tear). I moved better, not as stiffly, but was very careful not to push it too hard by going for wide, deep, or short balls unless they were easy to reach. I especially wanted to get out there before I have the shoulder procedure next month (4 weeks to go), after which I don't think I'll even be lifting a beer with the involved shoulder for three weeks.
I can go for several days now and realize I haven't given my knee a single moment of thought, which is a good indication how solid and normal it feels. I'm ready to start some light running on grass inside the oval at the high school track. At PT, I'm doing two-legged and also one-legged hopping over low bicycle handle-like hurdles. The idea is to land softly, with as vertical a calf as possible, with butt out and weight centered.
In the meantime, I've been remodeling my upstairs bathroom, which means a lot of work on my knees working on the floor. This has mostly been tolerable, though there are some positions with my involved knee that are uncomfortable. No big deal though, and again, no day-after affects, soreness or stiffness.
So, going forward: Increase tennis until I have to go in for my shoulder. Also, start doing more weight work at the gym, especially after the shoulder procedure. Because of the autograft, my involved leg hamstring is about 50% as strong as my right leg, and I need to build up that strength to help stabilize and protect my reconstructed knee, especially if I'm going to be doing any skiing this year (haven't decided).
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Hi,
I had an ACL reconstruction but using the patellar tendon approach rather than hamstring and that was slightly over 3 months ago.
I'm at the stage where I'm doing physio and gym but bi-dimensional exercises with weights and no jogging/run yet.
My notes/issues:
- I can fully extend leg but it feels uncomfortable if I try to over extend it
- I can't fully bend leg, painful, locking sensation when I try to do that
- Bending/doing exercise is ok until a certain point, if I go any lower then I feel the knee is very weak and I get a bit of locking (around the patellar, where they took the tendon)
Do you remember how this would sound compare to your experience?
Cheers
Alex
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