Should I do the OP? (What to expect?)
Hiya everyone,
I tore both ACLs in an injury this February. Left side with no other injuries to the knee. I will get details about the right side today. I originally got diagnosed because my left leg started swelling after the injury, right tear was only discovered by chance.(I’m 28 and active)
So basically I am just so overwhelmed by the decision I have to make. I had an appointment with a surgeon 2 weeks ago, who basically told me that a surgery would be my best option to get full ROM for my knee (no problem with stretching whatsoever but I got a terrible feeling of instability when he tried to move my knee “circular” left to right -ish. I was given an appointment for the surgery later this month and was pretty happy. I had gotten a prescription for physiotherapy from another doctor and the surgeon recommended I do as much of it as I can before the procedure.
The physiotherapist was very helpful and nice and told me that if I wanted to (because apparently my knee is very stable and strong) I could also try a conservative approach of strengthening my leg and seeing if I even want to do the surgery afterwards. I was also told that the recovery would be better and easier if I did the strengthening first. He also said that the decision is up to me and that I can also do the surgery and just go with that and then do the rehabilitation with them. As part of the surgery I also did a strength test for my legs. (83% of the right side in my left leg). They also told me that they usually shoot for a long term result of 90% strength in the operated leg if you end up doing the operation. (Which totally scares me is my leg always going to be a liability no matter what??)
Yeah so basically I am confused and the more I try to find out about it the less sure I am.
Could you (especially people who ended up doing the operation) give me a realistic idea of how the recovery is going to go, I.e.
Will an operated leg always be/feel worse or can you compensate with training?
Should I just wait to see if the physio helps or is it smarter to just get the OP over with?
How long does it take to do things like walking and “normal life stuff” again versus how long does it take to do sports again?
Is it significantly better to do the rehabilitation in a specialised rehabilitation clinic or can you do almost everything with a physiotherapist?
What about proprioception? I’ve heard a lot about this and would like to know if you can “train” to get that back or if my knee is forever going to feel “off”
I have a lot of things to do this summer (dad died and I need to clear out his house) so I’m probably going to move the OP no matter what. I’d love to hear your experiences since I’m kind of freaking out right now!
Thanks a lot!