ACL reconstruction WARNING contains explicit images

[welwell]

Hello to you all. Just felt like sharing.

 

A few months ago on site I aggravated an existing and old football injury, 20yrs ago I torn my medial meniscus in my left knee, then sometime after that the ACL (Cruciate ligament) got torn also.

 

So for the last 20 yrs I've been working in the trees with the knowledge that one day my knee will finally give up.

 

It did exactly this mid October last year in a fairly spectacular fashion. My unstable knee, after jumping off a barb fence gave way resulting in my Femur smacking down on to my Tibia and fracturing it. Naturally I carried on working the rest of the day in substantial pain etc. and indeed walked around on it for 4 weeks before I was made aware of the full extent of injury. I then had to wait for the fracture to mend before the op could be scheduled.

 

To cut a long story short, nearly 3 weeks ago I had my ACL reconstructed using a graft harvested from my Hamstring.

 

I have never experienced pain like like it, excusing the pun it had me on my knees, or it would have done ifI was able to bend them!!!

 

But I have to say, with the exemption of stiffness (swelling) and the mental fear of using it, it does appear to be getting there. Within 6 months it should be 85%. It's a long process and I'm finding myself wistfully looking at trees wondering what it would be like to climb them.

 

On the bright side, apart from going insane in the house, at least I've kept fairly dry this winter

 

And I have to say, I'm pretty sure I can feel the knee already feeling more stable.

 

Here's the vid, it goes a little way to explain why it was so tender for a wee while.

 

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVnlW86TZ4g]Arthroscopic ACL Reconstruction Surgery with Hamstring Graft Dr. Eric Janssen - YouTube[/ame]

[Graham]

Daren't look at the video because I'm going through knee probs at the moment:001_smile: Nothing like yours though. Hope it all mends ok for you.

[welwell]

I have to say, I still haven't watched it all the way through!