Friday, August 29, 2008

Day 136 PCL Surgery And Recovery


Yup! That's me working my leg!!! I get to do so many more things now!!


125 degrees range of motion, all by myself at rehab today! My leg was measured for strength in all directions and rated good or level 4. Five would be better but I'm working on that! See? All this hard work is really paying off and it's only been 136 days. I'm turning corners now!!!!

The acute soreness I felt earlier this week is normal. I'm engaging muscles that have been dormant for months. It's a different kind of pain than what I experienced after a really tough workout back in the day. Not like lactic acid pain but more intense. So much more intense that it shot me back to using crutches for a couple days. So beware.

I'm still icing a lot and use my cpm device three hours every day. My gait looks better but I catch myself gimping when it hurts. I guess that's just me trying to protect it. Probably normal. I'm still struggling to go upstairs but it's getting better. Haven't been able to go down even one stair yet but it's something to shoot for.
Drop me a line.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

BRAVO! It hurts real good, huh?

When I was becoming discouraged about the pain, my PT explained that two things are going on: 1)My quads had not stretched that far in more than a year (so the pain I was feeling was from little muscle tears that have to occur for the flexion to come back) and 2) The interior scar tissue is like gelatin and needs to be moved an smoothed and kept out of the way with regular activity before it hardens.

Skinnygurl said...

Bingo Molly!
You're right. You know you're stuff, that's for sure.
We're becoming pcl specialists!
Have a great holiday weekend.

DW_TEX said...

Sounds like your making progress! The recovery is like a marathon where you measure your progress over miles not yards. Keep up the PT and I am sure you will be up to speed within several more months. I am surprised that you are still using the CPM machine, I don't recall having mine that long.

Going up and down has always been hard since my surgery, however, the Dr.'s say that is normal. BTW, how often do you go to PT? I am back doing it 2X/week.

I agree with Molly about the muscles engagement. Even now when I try to run my calf gives me problems. This is just do to lack of use. As for the scar tissue, I have talked with several people and this can become an issue and may require a "clean-up" surgery after most everything has healed.

When I had may ACL replaced, the Dr. wanted to get things moving quickly to avoid the scar tissue. With the PCL my leg was immobile for 8 weeks while the attachments healed. I understand the differences but there does seem that PCL patients may be more prone to scar tissue issues.

Skinnygurl said...

Hey there DW_Tex!

I didn't get my cpm until a few weeks ago and because I'm behnd in my ROM, I'll have it for at least another six weeks. Gaining 5 degrees ROM per week to make goal of 140 by then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm in PT three times per week. Add that with my CPm plus exercises. I'm pretty busy! Really looking forward to getting this behind me.
Thanks for joining in and please add whenever you want! Welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sockers4 said...

hi, my name is charlie and im 20 years old and play division 1 soccer. my goal is to become pro in the next year or two but i recently tore my pcl and have to have surgery in the next couple weeks. i guess my question is the recovery time. next season starts late august but that means i have to be back to playing soccer and in shape and back to 100% normal by then. I'm trying to plan my surgery around tests. I also just had sports hernia surgery on both sides of my groin last week. When walking down the stairs a day after i tore my pcl i fell down the stairs and broke my wrist and elbow. I had to wait until my groin heals, cast off my arm comes off and my scaps on my knee heal in order to get pcl surgery. The surgeon told me that he will use a piece of my Achilles to fix my pcl. My recovery for the hernia should just be another 2 or 3 weeks and my cast should come off in 2 to three weeks as well. How long do you think getting back to normal will take for 20 year old that has physical therapist 7 days a week as disposal through athletic dept. Thanks

Charlie