Danny; Trying to get through PCL Recovery and needs our help.

 

Hello everyone, My name is Danny,  thank you for sharing your stories. This blog  has helped me to keep my eye on the prize for the last few months because, as you all know - there is little to no information about PCL Recovery on the internet.  

I am, however dealing with some setbacks.  Until 6 months ago I worked as an arborist in Seattle, and an old (3+ yr) injury kept giving me trouble while working.  I felt like I couldn't trust my leg (And I often use a chainsaw in trees).  Sometimes while out on a precarious limb walk, a client would ask me "have you ever fallen?" To which I would reply "only once, when my ladder failed while I was on the fourth step".  I hate ladders.  This fall resulted in a misdiagnosed ACL injury and finally diagnosed to PCL.  

I had reconstructive surgery (PCL-achilles allograft and PLC hamstring allograft) in March of 2020 in Seattle.  After the first hellish weeks, what with the numb, purple lower leg (I kept wiggling my toes and doing ankle pumps bc I thought I'd lose my  leg, still have hemosiderin stains on my shin from all the internal bleeding), my recovery was going great.  I graduated to cycling, and was walking without a limp!  My surgeon advised me to wear my brace "as much as possible".  I wore it all the time, but especially during PT, and cycling, where we were beginning to do some jumping and running in place.  That's when my knee started to feel really bad.  Crunching, pain with weighted flexion, just not capable of doing that kind of stuff.  

After a visit with my surgeon he noted 2+ laxity.  He also realized that I was wearing the wrong knee brace (Ossur CTi with PCL kit, not the Ossur Rebound PCL).He told me he'd be getting me the correct brace, but I still don't have it, or any way to stop the trend in my knee.  

It's devastating for me to have the last six months down the toilet because my team messed up something as critical as the brace.  I'm just trying to find out what others' experience was like.  

Did you ever run into laxity problems that somehow resolved with time? 

What model of brace did you use and for how long did you use it for?   

Anyone out there have a revision reconstruction?

I don't think I've ever had a mistake in my life produce so much nausea whenever I think about it.  I really regret having this surgery at all, because my laxity problems are the same, if not worse than before, plus I'm almost positive my meniscus is going to shreds.  I know that my care could have been better, but is it too late for my knee?  

I'm hopeful that at the very least, getting the correct brace will allow me to cycle, so that I can remain fit even if I have to hang up the spurs.  Also I'm not giving up having a functional left leg.  It's too important to me to let slide.  I had hoped to be up in the cascades munching huckleberries with my daughter by now.  Have to settle for blackberries down the road.  🤤

Mitch And His Bad Luck With That Truck! PCL Question - please help

Hi, my name is Mitch and I had PCL Reconstruction 8 days ago and  unable to move my leg at all.   I am looking for information to help me understand my doctors line of thinking. 

Is this normal? My surgeon told me he wants me in a locked brace and to just lay low,  no weight or bending for 6 weeks... I feel like he’s not telling me something. My surgery lasted 6 hours and my leg was numb for 5 days.. it’s so hard to find anybody who has gone through this surgery so all I have is myself and my research.   To me it seems  like something has gone wrong..

Mitch's Story

Last July I fell off the back of a truck. I knew the moment my knee hit the ground something major had happened.. Unfortunately before my MRI date came up,  the knee started feeling better so I told myself it’s healing, it can’t be major.   Couple months later the pain started to show up more and more so I finally did the MRI.  The MRI showed a full rupture but no other knee damage.. surgeon said if it wasn’t for all the scar tissue I could have tried a non surgical  route. From what I was told, my surgeon was trained in Germany from the inventor of the Ossur Rebound PCL Brace. Anyways, here is my embarrassing story of how I got hurt and why it took to long to fix lol.

 

Here we are at day 42

I've been assigned physical therapy for one month to help me with my gate and straightening.
The bending is worked on daily as well.  Yesterday the doctor  pushed me to 125!

Day 36

I'm finally able to use coconut oil on my knee and as you can see, the swelling is down just a little bit.
It's still very painful and my at home rehabbing is hard.  Push, Push, Push to gain one or two degrees at a time.  I'm still working on straightening my leg as well. I don't remember the PCL surgery being this difficult as far as gains but I had someone else actually pushing me.

24 Days Post Op

Not much change in the size of my knee.  It's constantly stiff and the bends are difficult.
In just four days I need to be at 110 degrees.  I think I'm close.  Everyone knows how bad it hurts to force it to bend.  No different with a knee replacement.
For the most part I am using a walker.  I've found after pushing down on my knee to straighten it, my knee wants to buckle afterwards when I'm walking.  I can't risk that so the walker is always used.
If anyone has any tips on straightening I sure would like to hear them.  Mine isn't bad although it does take 3 rounds of pushing down to get it to about 2 degrees.  They say the straightening comes later and the bending is more important now.  I don't see any reason not to focus on both early on.

Getting up to speed. 2 Week Post Op and Scar

The first 3 days in the hospital I was really  drugged up.  Getting home and working on rehab has been different.  I had a team before and now it's Me pushing Me.

At my first post op appt. I was 5 degrees short of goal which was 90.  Next goal is 115 degrees in two weeks.  I  push myself so hard, I end up in tears on the final exercise/bend of 15 reps.  I can do this!

Day 15 First Thing In The Morning

Well, Here I Am Again.

Hi Readers!  Skinnygurl here.
On Valentines Day I had a complete knee replacement done on my left knee.  The pcl knee (right) is next and we'll talk about that later.
I'm home now and at day 14 doing rehab on my own.  My doctor appointment showed me at almost a 90 degree bend which is slightly under what the goal was.
I have another two weeks to get to 115 and be rechecked.  Then of course another goal 135? and another recheck.
The story is back in 1977 I had a bad horse accident and tore my ACL.  I was told I would be needing a knee replacement in about 40 years (it's almost exact) which of course I scoffed at.  Well, here I am!