Turnquist
Mar-10-08, 05:04 PM
I seriously doubt there is a guide about this anywhere on this site so I did not bother searching for one so I don't double post. If I'm wrong, don't kill me
I got the amazing gift of an ACL tear on September 15th, 2007.... doing a flying sidekick. Embarrassing as hell, i know, but whatever.
Few pointers for when this event happens-
1. Don't walk.
2. Don't walk.
and finally,
3. DON'T WALK.
now these 3 are hard not to do. mostly because I'm sure that if its your first ACL tear your going to have no idea what it feels like, and instead of getting help decide to try and walk it off which results in a strange "slipping" feel in your knees, followed by about 3 minutes of pain.
THE DOCTOR
Tell them exactly what you did, but instead of throwing a bunch of useless martial arts / tricking lingo at them, just explain it in English. i told my doctor I messed up a TKD Flying side kick and she wrote down something along the lines of "fell on ground" which doesn't make much sense.
Span of time between the initial doctor visit and surgery-
1. Eat Healthy
2. Get used to not moving around very much
3. Eat healthy
4. don't make stupid decisions, such as "my knee feels fine enough for a run!" or "my doctor can go @#$% themselves I just have a ______"
5. Eat Healthy
and 6. Don't eat anything stupid, and do not over eat. I found that i felt better eating less than I did before.
SURGERY
... not much you can do here
POST-SURGERY / PHYSICAL THERAPY
Right after surgery you should find a huge brace on your leg and if you got it, a capider full of painkillers that pumps directly into your leg (dont drop this)
The hospital won't let you out until you successfully go to the bathroom and stay awake. Sounds simple, no? well it took me 17 hours to do this
Walking-
Get a walker or better yet a wheelchair. krutches are horrible at this point because your knee does not want to bounce around after being cut open. move slow enough that you do not fall / hit your leg, but fast enough that blood doesn't pool in your dead leg.
Sitting down/ getting up (aka bathroom guide)
Have sturdy handrails / anything strong enough to hold yourself up ON ALL SIDES OF THE WALLS AROUND THE TOILET / CHAIR. I cannot stress that enough, even though most of the time there is no of having these guide rails.
I found that I had a little over a minute before my bad leg would fall asleep or pool blood because of the weight and position of the brace. so, do not take your time or your... uhh dismount will be increasingly harder. It really helps to have somebody help you (after you get your pants on).
This part is really the hardest part of the whole recovery. everything else is easy.. kind of
Getting up off your back, from the floor (no ledges, just flat flooring)
near impossibility. i was stuck on the ground for 3 hours because i could not get myself up. this is worst case senario, because after 5 minutes of lying down flat your leg starts to hurt and gets progressively worse. 3 hours of that? awesome. if your the kind of person that gets off from pain
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
that last part is up until you are comfortable enough to get around on krutches / move around. oh and go slow on the krutches. I have fallen numerous times on my bad leg from being a jackass on them.
physical therapy-
Do everything they say. at home, do all the stretches, everything but do not do more than that because your leg is still messed up.
Leg-ups are possibly the best thing you can do at this point. not only will your leg become more stable, but the blood pooling will reduce the more you do it. I made sure I did 10 every hour, at least. and within 2 days I went from the post-surgery period to the recovery period (which is amazing.) after a few weeks you will be able to walk again, and feel confident enough to jog (don't.)
Post Physical therapy-
After physical therapy you will still have about 2 months before you get back to where you were the day before the initial injury (well not really, but in terms of knee stability) Until that time, Ride a bike. Start with indoor so you don't crash and kill your knee, then slowly move on to riding a real bike. the bike will stretch your knee while at the same time rebuilding the muscle you lost from the recovery, which is very important. to keep myself in the working out schedule I did every kind of workout I could possibly do at the gym that does not involve the use of legs, then slowly adding in light exercises in to get my legs back into habit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
after this stage your knee should be able to take a direct hit and not hurt for 224050607003473298474057.1230 hours. this does not mean that you can go back to jumping through the air and kicking without stretching. Stretching takes up about half of my workout time because I do NOT want my leg to freak out. and I know you don't want it to either.
Btw. Im going to fix this article up and add more scientific references and words and all that good stuff later, but right now im tired. so whatever.
Btw #2 Im not even sure if this is even the right place to have this article, and if it isn't, sorry. im a noob.
I got the amazing gift of an ACL tear on September 15th, 2007.... doing a flying sidekick. Embarrassing as hell, i know, but whatever.
Few pointers for when this event happens-
1. Don't walk.
2. Don't walk.
and finally,
3. DON'T WALK.
now these 3 are hard not to do. mostly because I'm sure that if its your first ACL tear your going to have no idea what it feels like, and instead of getting help decide to try and walk it off which results in a strange "slipping" feel in your knees, followed by about 3 minutes of pain.
THE DOCTOR
Tell them exactly what you did, but instead of throwing a bunch of useless martial arts / tricking lingo at them, just explain it in English. i told my doctor I messed up a TKD Flying side kick and she wrote down something along the lines of "fell on ground" which doesn't make much sense.
Span of time between the initial doctor visit and surgery-
1. Eat Healthy
2. Get used to not moving around very much
3. Eat healthy
4. don't make stupid decisions, such as "my knee feels fine enough for a run!" or "my doctor can go @#$% themselves I just have a ______"
5. Eat Healthy
and 6. Don't eat anything stupid, and do not over eat. I found that i felt better eating less than I did before.
SURGERY
... not much you can do here
POST-SURGERY / PHYSICAL THERAPY
Right after surgery you should find a huge brace on your leg and if you got it, a capider full of painkillers that pumps directly into your leg (dont drop this)
The hospital won't let you out until you successfully go to the bathroom and stay awake. Sounds simple, no? well it took me 17 hours to do this
Walking-
Get a walker or better yet a wheelchair. krutches are horrible at this point because your knee does not want to bounce around after being cut open. move slow enough that you do not fall / hit your leg, but fast enough that blood doesn't pool in your dead leg.
Sitting down/ getting up (aka bathroom guide)
Have sturdy handrails / anything strong enough to hold yourself up ON ALL SIDES OF THE WALLS AROUND THE TOILET / CHAIR. I cannot stress that enough, even though most of the time there is no of having these guide rails.
I found that I had a little over a minute before my bad leg would fall asleep or pool blood because of the weight and position of the brace. so, do not take your time or your... uhh dismount will be increasingly harder. It really helps to have somebody help you (after you get your pants on).
This part is really the hardest part of the whole recovery. everything else is easy.. kind of
Getting up off your back, from the floor (no ledges, just flat flooring)
near impossibility. i was stuck on the ground for 3 hours because i could not get myself up. this is worst case senario, because after 5 minutes of lying down flat your leg starts to hurt and gets progressively worse. 3 hours of that? awesome. if your the kind of person that gets off from pain
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
that last part is up until you are comfortable enough to get around on krutches / move around. oh and go slow on the krutches. I have fallen numerous times on my bad leg from being a jackass on them.
physical therapy-
Do everything they say. at home, do all the stretches, everything but do not do more than that because your leg is still messed up.
Leg-ups are possibly the best thing you can do at this point. not only will your leg become more stable, but the blood pooling will reduce the more you do it. I made sure I did 10 every hour, at least. and within 2 days I went from the post-surgery period to the recovery period (which is amazing.) after a few weeks you will be able to walk again, and feel confident enough to jog (don't.)
Post Physical therapy-
After physical therapy you will still have about 2 months before you get back to where you were the day before the initial injury (well not really, but in terms of knee stability) Until that time, Ride a bike. Start with indoor so you don't crash and kill your knee, then slowly move on to riding a real bike. the bike will stretch your knee while at the same time rebuilding the muscle you lost from the recovery, which is very important. to keep myself in the working out schedule I did every kind of workout I could possibly do at the gym that does not involve the use of legs, then slowly adding in light exercises in to get my legs back into habit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
after this stage your knee should be able to take a direct hit and not hurt for 224050607003473298474057.1230 hours. this does not mean that you can go back to jumping through the air and kicking without stretching. Stretching takes up about half of my workout time because I do NOT want my leg to freak out. and I know you don't want it to either.
Btw. Im going to fix this article up and add more scientific references and words and all that good stuff later, but right now im tired. so whatever.
Btw #2 Im not even sure if this is even the right place to have this article, and if it isn't, sorry. im a noob.