my full ACL story is on my own website http://acl.supertsai.com
There's about 20 entries in there that should answer a lot of questions people have on the subject of surgery and recovery.
Date of My Injury: late March 2003 (playing soccer) - I was 23 at the time.
I had an allograft, which is tissue from donor or cadaver tissue. This donor tissue is inserted into the knee and is held down by small titanium screws. In a couple of weeks the body will begin regenerating tissue around the implanted tissue. There is a small chance that the body may reject this new implant. If that hapens the patient must have another surgery. The other method of obtaining tissue for an ACL surgery is harvesting a tendon out of your own body and placing it in your knee. I have heard that there are also artificial fibers that are sometimes used.
Location of Surgery: North Austin Medical Center
Doctor: Scott A. Smith MD (Texas Orthopedics)
Surgery Time: 1.5 hours in surgery - 6 hours total in the hospital
Type of Anesthesia: Nerve Block + Intravenous - the Intravenous anesthesia puts you to sleep, and the Nerve Block injection is applied on your thigh. After the nerve block, you may not be able to feel your leg for up to 36 hours. When you touch your leg with your hand, it will not feel like the leg is part of your body.
Time Till Recovery: 10 days on crutches + 5-6 months of rehab. Full recovery really depends on how well your rehab goes and how much effort you put into it. It took me 1-1.5 years before I felt completely normal again and regained all of my flexibility. I was a bit lazy after 8-9 months though, so I'm sure that it could be done more quickly.
go to my website to read more - http://acl.supertsai.com
