No one likes being injured when you are playing sports regularly, and hearing that you are going to have to get surgery to continue playing the sport that you love is always hard to hear. In August of 2017 I ended up tearing my ACL, MCL and my meniscus in two different places from a bad fall while playing soccer. After having to wait to December to get surgery, it was a very difficult thing to deal with and I unfortunately didn’t really have anybody to give me any advice throughout the whole process. So here are some steps that will hopefully help you get through your surgery.
RECOVERY. The first two weeks after an extensive knee surgery is always going to be a rough one. From the inability to not be able to bend your leg or walk where you please can be quite frustrating for most people. Although it may feel like the end of the world, don’t worry its completely normal and an unfortunate process that you must endure while you are getting better. Make sure that you are taking the medication that your doctor has provided for you, drink water and try to get as much sleep as possible. Sleeping is quite hard while your leg is completely locked in place with the huge brace on so whenever you are feeling tired, take that opportunity to just fall asleep.
UNDERSTANDING/PATIENCE. Unlike most other injuries, an ACL tear can be one of the longest to heal and can take from anywhere to 9 months to a year to be fully repaired. The quicker that you understand that this is going to be a long process the faster it will actually go. This is an injury that should not be rushed in the slightest and you should always be careful. Patience is an important skill to practice during your recovery. It will take quite some time before you are 100% again. There will be times at around the fourth month mark where you will start to feel really good but make sure that you don’t try and play any pick up games with your friends, because re-injury is something that no one wants and you will only have yourself to blame if it happens.
SETBACKS. Unfortunately, during your recovery, your progress may feel like it is going no where and you feel like you have plateaued. Do not let these setbacks detour you from your goal of being fully recovered. Make sure that you continue to workout your leg and continue going to physical therapy because I promise that you will start to see improvement once again. In fact, if your were to stop working out your leg because you feel that what you are doing isn’t working anymore, you could significantly increase the risk of re-injury and/or increase the time in which your leg would recover. These setbacks will be frustrating and for me personally I felt that this was the most challenging thing to go through seeing that my leg wasn’t getting any stronger and I just felt like it was never going to be better again. Luckily, I kept at what I was doing, held my head high and now I am fully recovered.
MOTIVATION. Keeping your head up during this process is very important. After the surgery you won’t be able to do as much as you used to, you will rely on others to do somethings for you and the simplest tasks will feel almost impossible and unbearable. But these things are all just temporary. From going from crutches to stretching to walking to then finally being able to run and kick a ball again, these are all things that should be in the back of your mind pushing you. The hardest parts of the surgery are in the beginning (first 2 to 3 weeks) but after that, slowly watching yourself progress back to full strength is always a great and endearing feeling.
Hopefully this gave you some helpful advice to the process of getting an ACL surgery.
