Hey dudes,

I posted a while back after getting diagnosed with a complete tear of the acl, wondering if I should just rehab or go with the surgery.
Well after a visit to a specialist/surgeon he confirmed the tear but seems to think it was an old injury and the new injury was a tear on the inner knee. which was consistent with the bone bruising shown on the MRI etc...

Now I did suffer a game stopping, loud pop, knee injury about 18 years ago wake boarding, no MRI, just an X-ray and no diagnosis.. Bed ridden for two weeks and a looooong time getting anywhere back to normal...never did really but still hasn't stopped me doing snow seasons, kiting, surfing, skating etc...

Sorry for the long story but I've been on the list for an ACL recon for the past nine months and its come around for mid September... My dilemma is do I take the opportunity to get it fixed incase it comes back to haunt me later or just keep doing what I'm doing and hope for the best... If I can't stay active into the second innings (I'm 40 in dec, two kids, one on the way) ill probably turn into a full blown alcoholic...

It hasn't stopped me till now but will it deteriorate if I don't get it done, basically thats the advice I'm after or anyones experiences with surgery or giving it a miss themselves...

Thanks again...

Been down that pathway Benny...and had ACL recon.

From what I understand if the stability isn't there in your knee joint, every time it "slips out" you are doing decent damage to the joint and remaining cartilage and interconnecting ligaments and tendons. Basically, from what I gather this is not an ideal situation as it will greatly increase your chances of arthritis in the knee in later life and could lead to more drastic surgery than such as knee replacement.

Surgery sucks balls, and recovery is even worse. But if you strictly follow the physio program and have a good surgeon then you should make a good return to a strong knee. That said, it took me about six months to gain confidence to really use my knee properly (ie. jumping from height) and a further 6 months before I loaded up my knee when exercising and playing sport without thinking about it.

Benny

Time to surrender the "Tricks" of youth and grow old gracefully..
3 kids to support..
Perhaps get into board offs instead

Hey buddy . Have you checked out the option of a LARS instead of a donor tendon might be ok for you . Best of luck, jeff

I just went to ortho surgeon re my hip. He asked me
-could I walk
-could I drive
- could I work
- could I surf
- could I sleep comfortably
i can do all these but am on medication and am impaired for full range of movement. His response to when I will need surgery was 'you won't be asking about it.... you will be telling me to do it.' I guess asking yourself the same questions may answer it. I know so many people with your predicament at the moment. Modern high performance on older bodies the cause. Good luck

Select to expand quote

pearl said..
I just went to ortho surgeon re my hip. He asked me
-could I walk
-could I drive
- could I work
- could I surf
- could I sleep comfortably
i can do all these but am on medication and am impaired for full range of movement. His response to when I will need surgery was 'you won't be asking about it.... you will be telling me to do it.' I guess asking yourself the same questions may answer it. I know so many people with your predicament at the moment. Modern high performance on older bodies the cause. Good luck

My knee specialist actually recommended against ACL recon surgery for me, saying it looks like I have good "functional stability". I can surf and kite surf, and do everything else I want to at the moment. He said pretty much the same as above... "If you lose stability in your knee, you will know about it, and will probably come back in here asking for the surgery".

Take the advice of your specialist, in conjunction with what you feel in your knee. I still have the odd moment of instability. If I were a 25 year old pro athlete I'd probably want the surgery to compete at the top level. But I always feel the starting position is to avoid going under the knife unless you really need it - hospitals and surgery carry risks of their own.

Steroids work - ask your Surgeon..

Do steroids rebuild tendon or just muscle around it?

back in the day i read mark shinn did his acl completely snapped and just left it as is and did rehab building up the muscles around teh knee hard out instead

surgery really, really sux if your everyday staple serotonin/ endorphins come from board sports. not the actual surgery... the time after

talking from experience - 5 months down - 7+ to go (ankle not knee)

degeneration - seems a sensible thing to consider if that is what a doctor says - always hard to trust a surgeon for me - they are in the business of butchery!