Bob's ACL WWWBoard

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Leacat

Hi, I am a 36 year old active mom of two. At the age of 15 I had a snowmobile accident that left me with a total rupture of my right ACL and torn meniscus (medial and lateral). Over the next 2 years of high school I had 2 arthroscopies to remove torn meniscus (which kept being damaged every time my knee went out dut to the ACL rupture)Unlike some of the other post that I have read here my knee was very unstable and ongoing "giving out" led to much more meniscal damage than from my initial accident. My orthopedist thought nothing of having a 16 yr old athletically active girl walk around with no ACL. Finally, he referred me into Boston where they were doing patellar bone/tendon/bone ACL grafts. This was in 1988. For all intents and purposes this surgery was successful. However, I began having "arthritis" pain/swelling that has been intermittent probably since I turned 28. X-rays have shown that I do have some "bone on bone osteoarthritis". At times this pain and swelling have been significant and have interferred with daily life. Any doctor I have seen for this has basically told me to "take ibuprofen and deal with it as long as you can". I began strength training and cardio work outs regularly and I hadn't had 1 day of swelling in this time. UNTIL... 5 days ago doing plank lunges at the gym while my knee was flexed I felt a POP and PAIN, then couldn't unbend my leg. When I finally forced it with my hand I felt another POP and the pain subsided, until later that day when my knee swelled to twice the size of the other knee. The swelling has improved and the pain lingers on. I have an appointment with a new orthopedist in 2 weeks but I'm discouraged to hear that there's "nothing they can do" for me again... I am not willing to accept that I have to live like an old lady at 36!

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