Knees

When I tore my ACL in 2013 I asked around for advice on what to expect from friends and acquaintances who had been through the surgery before.  One of the blogs I came across was from a guy named Tyler Kinley, an ultimate player in Seattle.  While our recoveries weren't exactly the same, his blog served as a great resource for me.  His blog is here:  http://seattleaclrecovery.blogspot.com/

I kept a brief journal of my recovery, and I find it interesting to go back through it every once in a while.

9/21/2013		Backing up to fight for position on a jump ball with Ian and Jack. Prior to contact I plant hard on the super uneven purdue fields, knee buckles, heard a pop. Very painful for 4-5 seconds I think, but felt a lot longer than that. Trainer says he can't tell, still have lots of stability but doesn't think its the ACL. I know from talking to nemesis that if you hear a pop, something is up, so I sit out and ice it.
9/22/2013	Sunday at Regionals	Still pretty swollen, it's hard to bend it or extend it or put weight on it without pain. Driving is fine though. I get a 2nd opinion from the trainer who is there (different from first day), she says she can't tell either but it's probably my ACL. After talking with Lien, Tots, Vegas, etc. on nemesis, my story is eerily similar to their stories of acl tears. At this point I'm pretty sure I tore it at least partially. It doesn't hurt that much, I just can't really extend it or flex it much. Hasn't really sunk in yet, feeling kind of indifferent about the whole situation.
9/23/2013		I email Dr. Rich to ask for suggestions on knee specialists in Chicago, and he gets me in to see him that day. I emailed at 10:30 and showed up at 2pm same day. I am extremely grateful for his help. He says it looks like an ACL tear to him and refers me to the sports medicine guys at rush. I see Dr. Verma and he gives me a prescription for an MRI and for PT to increase range of motion prior to surgery. MRI is scheduled for 9/30.
9/30/2013	MRI (take 1)	There is some insurance info problem and they had the wrong phone number to notify me. I provide them the right info and reschedule for 10/4.
10/1/2013	first PT	PT says it looks like it might just be a partial tear and that It's really good that I have lots of quad muscles. Says my range of motion is pretty good. He says the stronger I can get prior to surgery the more quickly I can recover post-op. This is very motivating. I am already starting to get antsy since I am not able to play ultimate or train in any real way.
		By this point the swelling has gone down mostly, but I still feel pain at full extension. If I sit for too long my knee gets stiff and I can't walk quite right. My knee locks up about once a day for a second.
10/4/2013	MRI (take 2)	I showed up at 6:15, but the place didn't open up until 6:40 or so. The MRI system was loud, but completely fine since I had some headphones with the NPR fall pledge drive on. Almost fell asleep. I got a CD of the results, but I never looked at them by myself.
10/4/2013	2nd PT	Everything is going fine, PT is pretty easy. We up the amount of work I'm doing considerably in this session.
10/8/2013	3rd PT	Everything is still fine. At this point my PT says I'm just maintaining until surgery, and to just do PT 1-2 times a day.
10/9/2013	Appointment with Jamie	I meet with Jamie (Dr. Verma's assistant) to review the MRI results. Full tear, no meniscus damage. We schedule the surgery for 10/25 at rush, after club nationals. Jamie confirms that mobility and strength look fine.
10/10/2013		I go to nut practice to meet everyone, but it goes really late. This was one of the only days I didn't do PT at least 1 time.
10/16 - 10/20	Club Nationals	I go to watch Carol play with Nemesis at club natties. They do okay, getting 5th and hopefully qualifying for worlds. Lots of drinking happens and I don't do my daily pt on any of these days. Lots of sitting and standing around, so I guess not that abnormal.
10/21/2013		I get my daily pt going again. I get the paperwork back from Dr. Verma and it looks like I get two weeks paid time off work. Sweet. Lots of time to sit around and watch old ultivillage videos. I can start to visibly see my legs decreasing in size, and I'm down a few pounds despite still lifting (upper body) twice a week. I think it's pretty safe to say this is due to losing muscle mass. The definition in my right quad is still pretty good from daily PT, but noticeably thinner.
10/22/2013		Good thing I have a job with insurance, even mediocre insurance. Car payments start this week too. Real life is expensive.
10/24/2013		The surgeon sent some pretty graphic interactive slideshows of what was going to happen to my knee. But they did shed some light on how the patellar autograft process works, so that was interesting. I was told I can't eat the day of surgery, but that I should have a big meal the night before. I ate AYCE sushi for lunch and about 5/8 of a medium deep dish pizza for dinner.
10/25/2013	Surgery	Carol drove me to the hospital. I probably got in around 7am. Everything was done by about 1pm or so. The nurse who was getting me ready was in a good mood. I turns out this was the 2nd surgery that Dr. Verma had to do that day, but he was in a good mood too. I went into the surgery feeling good. I remember getting rolled into the surgery room, them strapping me down, then telling me to take deep breaths. I was out by the 3rd breath. I woke up feeling pretty good, remembering nothing and very high on painkillers. They had me all hooked up to the an ice machine and with a brace on and everything. Getting dressed was easier than expected, there was basically no pain at all because I was so doped up. Went home, fell asleep. I could walk with no crutches and just the brace immediately.
10/26/2013	Day After	The pain hits today. I was taking painkillers every 3 hours, trying to replace the ice in my machine every 5 or 6 hours. Sleeping through the night was not possible since the painkillers wore off after 5-6 hours and it's tough to get comfortable. Moving is a lot harder. Basically keeping the leg elevated and iced 100% of the time. Tons of toe alphabets to keep blood flowing, quad sets as much as possible. The painkillers made me constipated and nauseated, but I could still handle eating soup and rice and so on.
10/28/2013	Post op appointment	Went back to Rush for them to check everything out. They say everything looks good and re-wrap my dressing. Just a tiny bit of bleeding from my scar, almost none.
10/29/2013	PT starts	Crutch 5 blocks to PT, takes me about 30 minutes. Start doing quad sets and some really basic stuff. I have full extension right away, but flexion is very difficult. Probably hit about 50 degrees flexion this week at best. Brace is locked all the time. Sleeping with brace locked and elevated and iced all the time.
10/28 - 11/1	PT week 1	Lying around on my back. Watched a bunch of ultimate footage Walden gave me. Damn Ron used to be good. Miller brought me some ice cream, so that ruled. Tons of chilling. Pretty difficult to move around, still haven't showered. Eating lots of soup and watching a lot of movies/napping all day.
11/4 - 11/8	PT week 2	More lying around. On 11/4 I went in for my 10 day check up and got my stitches removed. Everything still looks great. On 11/4 I took my first shower. Standing in the shower on my crutches under some hot water was incredible after 10 days of baby wipes and funkiness. This week I got to 90 degrees knee flexion at PT. Extension is still good. PT consists of assisted straight leg raises, tons of quad sets, calf pumps and some flexion exercises. I did my first unassisted straight leg raise at the end of week 2.
11/11 - 11/15	PT week 3	I was completely off painkillers by Monday, started working from home. Brace is unlocked and I am allowed to keep it unlocked for walking around the house. I can sorta walk without it, not smoothly yet. Can't sit in a chair for that long without soreness, still elevating and sleeping with the brace on and locked. Can sleep through the night now since the pain has died down a bunch. Basically just taking Alleve now and then. At about 110 degrees flexion this week.
11/18 - 11/22	PT week 4	Back in the office this week, I can drive now. Walking around is getting easier, exercises are now: straight leg raises with a 5 sec hold, calf raises, some proprioception, some light squats, and more quad sets. Don't use crutches anymore except for showering now. Walked without the brace for the first time this week! Just around the PT center and my apartment. Showering gets a ton easier. Drove myself to work on 11/20. First 30 min felt fine, last 40 min felt terrible. Cycled on a stationary bike for the first time this week as well.
11/25 - 11/29	PT week 5
12/2 - 12/6	PT week 6	I go in for my 5 week check on Monday and everything looks great. I get to run in 6 weeks if all goes well! This week I was allowed to do partial split squats and step downs. My calf is starting to look pretty normal.

I was cleared to play by my surgeon on 6/2/2014, after 2-3 months of getting back in to lifting and field workouts 4 times/wk.  After being cleared, I re-injured an old groin injury while doing a field workout and spent 6 weeks at Athletico doing physical therapy.  I played ultimate again for the first time on 9/4/2014, at Evanston pickup.