MCL, ACL and their functions in finning and diving?

[mddolson]

Spectre bubbled: The only good part is having a prescription to be stoned for 5 days straight.

Yes I agree Spectre, although I has some troubles at first.

I had a total knee replacement.

My first two days was on a morphine pump, WELL That Went WELL, what I remember anyway.
Then the doctor prescribed coedine at first which I am apparently resistant to, and I was up half the night in pain.
I was switched to demoral, that worked, but made me stupid, dopey and drool like a fool for the first hour, so then I was finally switched to a slow released morphine that kept the edge off, and I was also given 10 mg fast release morphine, for the pain triggered by my physio-theorapy sessions.

Once my meds were ok I was getting sleep at night, doing the physio and started on the way to recovery.
4 months worth.
Mike D

 

[Spectre]

beepbird once bubbled...
What would convince me? I used to play 2-3 hours of tennis a week, rollarblade 17 miles on Saturdays, rockclimb, and hike, snow ski and whitewater raft. Shore dive in Laguna (yea, down the steps). I was a dancer and gymnast in college.

Used to... I'm assuming you basically mean you did maintain, and you want to return to an active lifestyle?

If you have friends in the sports you are active in, expecially tennis and skiing, find the ones that have had knee injuries, and get their stories... You can also find a lot of stories on the web that include doctors names [For every doctor I looked into, I searched the web for stories from people that had work done by that doctor]. Eventually I went with a guy that was recommended by one of my friends in my racing circles. He completely understood my goals, and made recommendations and explained why he recommended certain things based on my desire to return to where I was pre-injury.

Hobbling for a month is definately not good. I was pissed off after a week being stuck in an immobilizer. I finally got a decent doctor after two weeks and he had me in a hinged brace immediately; and in PT a few days later.

3 weeks after incident, people couldn't tell I was missing two ligaments when I had long pants covering the brace.

 

[beepbird]

Yes I was very active right up to the slow motion ski accident. I caught an edge about 50 yards from the top of a lift on Blackcomb Mountain. On twice used skis. Arrgh!!!!!! I was still standing up when I felt the pop. Didn't ride down in a basket though. Toughed it out and skied down kinda one legged.

I still want to be active. I have a hard time thinking that this injury will turn the switch that takes out the adrenalin rush I am so used to.

The jointed leg brace makes me hobble worse that if I just had an Ace bandage on but I guess it is supposed to stablize me.

Thanks for the tips, both Spectre and Wheezy, you have been most helpful.

Beepbird

 

[Spectre]

beepbird once bubbled...
The jointed leg brace makes me hobble worse that if I just had an Ace bandage on but I guess it is supposed to stablize me.

Are you doing any PT to build up your strength to compensate? The ace is going to provide more resistance then the brace, but it sounds like you aren't using your thigh and calf muscles to compensate for the play in your knee...

 

[jules]

I completely ruptured my ACL 3 years ago (nothing left in my right knee) and have been doing great without surgery. I train and teach martial arts, walk, hike, run, and dive. I wore the CTI2 brace almost constantly for the first 6 months, then backed off to only when I was being active. I haven't worn the brace at all for about 18 months. I did lots of PT and still work to keep all of the supporting muscles in that leg strong. The only impact it's really had is on the running. I can't run as fast or as long now due to the impact on the joint. Eventually it gets sore.

I have friends who have had surgery. One runs marathons and dives and is happy she had the surgery. The other had 4 surgeries that made the problem worse and had a total knee replacement done about 6 months ago.

For me it was a the choice that I'd rather see how I could do without the surgery and if I couldn't live the life I wanted then surgery was still an option. My ortho had the same view and was very supportive. Finding a good Dr. helps a lot.

 

[pdoege]

You sound like me.

I had a lot of stuff to get fixed. Gained 50lbs over the 3 years that it took to get going again. I'm still at 200, it'll be awhile before I hit 190.

I had a lot of pain too. I could barely hobble, no bike riding, I could roller blade a bit.

Any form of rehab just caused pain. Bad, throbbing, stabbing, "you can't sleep" pain.

After the surgery the pain went away. Lots of rehab was required. My leg was really atrophied. 3 inches smaller than the other!

I'm back to doing what I love now. No regrets.

Peter

 

[beepbird]

They haven't prescribed PT yet because some of the tissues are caught in my joint and I can't straighten out my leg. They are going to clean it out on May 1 via arthoscopy before they do anything else. I hate waiting.

beepbird