ACL Rehab

[physiofi]

Hi, thanks for the extra info.

Sorry to hear you're feeling so rubbish - it's a painful and sickening injury, especially with that giving way/instability feeling, not that any injury is pleasant! I know it's difficult but honestly can not give a definitive answer with regards to being back to "normal" or how much of a recovery you will make. Everyone is different.

If the MRI shows a tear and you are conservatively managed - as far as I know, the physio would probably oversee your rehab and base it on principles similar to the post-op protocol e.g. closed chain exercise initially, hamstrings strengthening, lots of proprioception work etc...gradually increasing intensity to return to exercise as able. You may still be given a follow up with orthopaedics to see how you're progressing during/after physio.

5 weeks post-ACL tear you are relatively early days so I wouldn't be too negative regarding recovery/rehab. I know everyone wants answers but sometimes it's a case of work hard, wait and see. You're under a physio and getting an MRI scan so sounds like all is in hand and proceeding well.

Definitely focus on core stability, it's something people tend to forget but just as important as hamstrings/quads strengthening and proprioception! What about static bike? You could get cycling relatively early on which would help maintain fitness. The feeling of instability should decrease as you train your hamstrings and other muscles to take over the job the ACL would be doing...it's obviously going to feel unstable at the moment - you're not far on from the injury and you still need to allow time for proprioception training and graded strengthening.

I tend to progress my patients slowly and gradually...I know you're impatient and keen to get back jogging, but you need to make sure you work hard on strengthening and training your muscles/core stability etc first so that you don't possibly re-injure or do too much too soon, which may set you back with regards to pain etc.

As I said previously, I saw a young man with a complete ACL rupture who was completely asymptomatic and carried on running because all his other muscles/core stability were strong enough to function without it. In fact, I was convinced it was probably only a partial tear as initially I saw him pre-MRI, so was rather surprised when the MRI said the opposite! But just goes to show sometimes presentation isn't always what you expect...

Hope this helps.

[sarahkelly]

Thanks for the advice, I will try and focus more on core stuff. I thought I was doing ok but have regressed once again. I know its' early days but the pain was terrible today and I felt like I was dragging a dead leg attached to an elastic band around with me, there is a lot of talk about what ex's to do when, surgery vs conservative management etc but a steep lack in info on outcomes, will it ever feel like a normal leg? do patients ever get "better" or will my leg always feel unsteady? Will I always walk with a limp? At what stage do you discharge your patients? and have any of them get their leg back to normal? I really don't care if it take 3 years and 5 hours of rehab a day, I need my leg to work and more importantly I need a realistic idea of my outcomes.