Wednesday, April 30, 2008

A little about me and why I'm blogging my PCL


Hi everyone. 15 weeks ago I took a bad fall on the ice and tore my PCL. Before this accident I didn't even know what a PCL was. For those of you that still don't, it's a Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL). The PCL is the ligament that prevents the tibia (shinbone) from sliding too far backwards. Along with the ACL which keeps the tibia from sliding too far forwards, the PCL helps to maintain the tibia in position below the femur (thigh bone).

I was your typical workout freak, going to the gym 5 times a week to lift weights and running about 18 miles a week. I had this big goal of running 900 miles this year. Uh huh, that was halted on Feb 15th 2008. The big day I crashed on a sheet of ice.

No matter how you look at it, it's painful! I'm taking pictures every day and you're invited to see how all this recovery stuff works out. I hope the information here helps you.

I'm at day 15 already so I have some catching up to do.

When I got home from the surgical center I was given a KINEX ice machine. It was placed under my immobilizer and swirls ice water over the surgical site. Life saver for sure! They put these ugly little foot pads that pumped up with air to prevent blood clots. I had to wear those things for two days. Really made getting in and out of bed difficult.

The first week was pretty much the same. Day after day of taking pains pills, antibiotics every couple hours. I never really slept that whole week. Just dozed in and out.

2 comments:

momofsprinter said...

Thanks for sharing your experiences with PCL surgery. Your commitment to therapy is impressive and I wish you the very best.

There isn't much information on the web about PCL surgery and most folks think it is similar to ACL surgery.
My son tore his PCL 11 months ago and is now 5 days postop. He had a quadricep tendon graft (used his own quad tendon) for the procedure. Did you have an allograft or autograft? Best of luck!

Skinnygurl said...

Oh wow, I just found this post! Sorry about that!!
My doctor used a cadaver allograft for my operation.
How is your son doing? I wish him the best of luck with his recovery.
I made this blog because there is so little on the internet about the pcl. I was surprised and hoped through my blog, I could help someone.
Thank you for leaving a comment. I wish I would have found it sooner though!
I hope to be back to sprinting again by the end of the summer. My e-mail name is sprinter2fun! Thought you would get a kick out of that. Drop me a line anytime.