gally99

i tore, or at least totally ****ed up my ACL on saturday night... i'm going to see a surgeon within the next two weeks... i've gathered that this is a somewhat common bike related injury... anyone have any healing tips? so far vicodan and motrin and a little bit of whiskey is doing me pretty well... at least well enough to be able to ignore the leg stabilizer while i nod off watching movies...

no more biking for a while... no more brakeless for a long while...

**** knee injuries...

fixedfiend

i can sympathize. blew my ACL skateboarding about 13 years ago. full reconstruction and the best rehab was riding a brakeless fix.

BlastRadius

Take care of that ACL. You don't want anything permanent damage. Heal fast do you can join us on a ride sometime. BTW, what kind of tire blew out on you?

Ceya

I feel your pain.. You will ride again and on a track bike too. Keep your leg straight after the surgery.

S/F,
CEYA!

harlot

Dude that sux, but depending on how bad the tear is you could heal pretty quick (at least 8 weeks depending on what you want to get back into). How did you do it anyway? I've never heard on an acl tear from a bike, but if you toss yourself around enough anything's possible. Hopefully you didn't mess up the cartiledge either. Get a doc with good recs and who can read your MRI well. Luckily cycling (non-fixie for now) is the best physical therapy you can do. Spin away and get the mobility back and make it stronger. You probably already have strong hams and quads from riding so that will help recovery also. I have to disagree about keeping the leg straight after surgery though. Get that bugger moving asap so your range of motion doesn't get compromised. I've had 2 recons and was put on a freakin' stair master the day after surgery. Thank god for codeine.

Ceya

The reason you keep your leg straight so that your graft and other muscles (remember muscle memory) doesn't stay locked up.

I agree with the stairmaster ,,it was due to get your leg moving and ligament moving.

When they do a patella graft it not as bad keep it straight but a hamstring graft keep it straight because if your hamsting get used to being in that bent position stand the F*&* by..

Yes you can tear on a bike after hard use or twisting the knee alot..I have seen alot of guys in the messenger biz go down ..

S/F,
CEYA!

harlot

Gotcha, by "keeping it straight" you mean don't let it lock up being bent in the same position. I thought you meant something along the lines of keeping it immobile in a cast which would be a bad idea and lock it up just as much. Gally99, just make sure to keep it limber and moving. Your bike will be your best friend!

icithecat

Tore my right at 16 playing Rugby ( tackled by someone over a hundred pounds hevier).
Tore my left at ~40 skiing during a wipeout with a tree.
After the reconstructive process, I needed visits to a Chiriro due to my limping.
Again. You will live to ride afar. Maybe even farther, after the rehab.

pitboss

I had mine torn whilst rugging too, but I stepped in a small hole on the pitch and went one way and my knee went to other. Felt like one hundred knuckles popping all at once inside my knee. Xrays. motrin, and a knee wrap - ****ing University medicine. Had no clue my ACL went south. So I tried playing a week after and POP! Again...and then a few months later, during XMAS break, POP! as I walked across the warehouse I was working at. I think rugby was but a smaller part of my bad knee though.
After F-ing it up a thrdd time, the surgeon said "No St. Patrick's for you. You get the knife instead." They took the central 3rd of my patellar tendon and gave it back to my knee joint. They removed over 50% of my Meniscal Cartiledge, leaving the remains stichted together somehow. It has been over 10 years and things are great - cept' when it is really cold and humid (think Galway, IRL...ouch).
I was on a CPM machine almost right after surgery. I didn't get pain pills, nor did I want them. It let me know my limits on bending and soft hyperextension stretching.
Riding (yes, streettrack) and swimming are my friends now. Build up your strength before hoping back on your track ride. Give it time or it will never come back.

gally99

i blew my front tire while making a left hand turn... i started to fall to the right, so i put my right foot down to catch myself... still falling to the right, but moving (turning) to the left my body just seemed to find a convenient place to fold... which was my knee... i watched my shin get to about 90? from my thigh and heard it pop three times...

i'm in the process of finding an orthopedic surgeon right now...

and the tires are some very beat conti tour 2000s... i still don't know what i ran over but there's a big old gash in the front now...

na975

ouch!

TheDL

*shutters* ugh...scary. Get well soon man, good luck.

gally99

so a little over a month later...
i still can't get back on my bike, and can't walk more than a block without a cane, and can't do stairs without a cane at all...
my legs are smaller and my belly is bigger...
tomorrow i have the pleasure of sitting at SF general for a bagillion hours waiting for my follow up from my MRI...
at least i get to get hammerewd all day after...

iamjberube

sorry man...i'm just waiting for my turn. my family torn acl score=dad-2, brother-2, other brother-1. insert sound of knocking on wood here. i know what you're going through, having lived with my brother when he rehabbed. try to stay positive, enjoy the painkillers and think of the big picture. soon your knee will be back and stronger than ever.

ryan_c

Maybe you can even get a bionic knee, that would be pretty rad.

In all seriousness, good luck with the recovery, gally. Find other stuff to keep you busy, before you know it you'll be riding brakeless up and down mountains.

sloppy robot

nothing 30,000 dollars cant fix.. when i had mine.. they put me on a machine the day after surgery to get it moving.. i had to do a few hours a day and adjust the range every few days.. and i think it was the way to go.. because it feels great now..so there you have it.. i did go to rehab and they put you on this bike that barely has resistence and tell you to pedal for a half hour and any person on this forums reaction would be the same "you have to be kidding me" it felt like a bike that the chain had fallen off of..i started skipping rehab and goin g on my own rides

sloppy robot

alas.. i began that post a newbie... i completed as a junior member.. i have arrived...

schwinnbikelove

There is a link to eBay in the ad that says "Find new and used ACL Tear. Check out the huge selection now!"

You really can get anything on eBay nowadays, huh?

MKRG

I should get insurance Feb 1. I finally get to see what's been going on in my knee for the last few years. I have floating cartilidge now. Should be fun.

gally99

had my follow up yesterday...

my acl is gone... completely seperated... so i get a ligament and chunks of bone from a different part of my knee screwed onto the inside of my knee to make up for the acl...
and my miniscus is obliterated, and they're not sure what they can do until they actually open me up...
scheduling the surgery today...
then i get to look forward to 4 weeks of being on crutches again...
i'm probably gonna take a term off from school for this, so i get to sit at home watching movies and chewing painkillers for five weeks...

woo!

wunder

I remember telling really gnarly (fictional) stories when I was on the pain meds after my ACL reconstruction.

But yeah, recovery is a little long...but once you get that quad built up and get your confidence back, you'll be going like nothing ever happened.

pitboss

gally99
don't blow school off - I had my surgery in March during my 1st year back at school. Cold and ice were still around a little. Yeah, it sucked. But don;t drop school if you can stay in.

Ceya

I agree with 165.

S/F,
CEYA!

iamjberube

me too, my friend had his acl rebuilt and managed to go to school. get a pretty person to drive you to class, that's what he did.