It has been 2 years since my ACI surgery.
Here are the things I’m able to do:
Running (walk/jog 10 min/mile for 3 miles)
Walking (no limitations or pain)
Hiking (no limitations; minimal pain on steep terrain)
Yoga (any posture; no limitations on knee bending)
Walk up and down stairs with no issues ( I don’t even think about my knee going up and down stairs anymore. For over a year I used to think about each step and concentrate of flexing my quad and making sure my leg was stable before taking a stair)
Things I can’t do:
On leg squat (on bad leg; this causes pain in my injury site and I feel unstable)
Hop on one leg
Let me explain a little more about running. I started running in June (about 22 months post op). By running I mean very slowly jog for about a minute at a time with walking in between. I really noticed the weakness in my leg when I did this even though I work it out regularly. My gait also feels different. I feel like I run differently on my left leg. It’s almost like I have a slight limp. I feel a sharp pain if my knee bends a certain degree and I push off with it so I have compensated. I’m not sure this is the best for me because I worry that I am not running correctly. Nonetheless, I have been experimenting and slowly upping the distance and the pace. Currently I can run about 2 miles non-stop at 10 minute/mile pace with minimal pain. When I run/walk I have gone 3.5 miles as my longest distance.
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| No problems sitting like this! |
I am not sure I will keep running. For the last 30 days I have not run at all. The reason for this is I have been in India at a yoga teacher training course to get my 200-hr yoga teacher certification. I have class about 12 hours a day and do physical yoga for about 3-4 hours a day. So this program doesn’t leave much time for running. I have found yoga extremely helpful in my recovery. Especially balancing on my bad leg. This has helped me tremendously to build back the strength and flexibility that I lost during the recovery. I have no limitations concerning yoga. My bad knee is just as flexible as my good knee. However, I do notice differences in strength and balance. It is much easier to balance on my good leg and my bad leg tires sooner. One of the benefits of yoga is that every pose is done on the left and right side so you are isolating parts of the body and staying balanced. So for poses on the left side I am not able to “cheat” with my right leg by helping like I many subconsciously do during squats.
Even after 2 years I am still working on building back strength. There is still a difference in quad size between my left and right leg. It’s probably not noticeable to other people when they look at me but I can feel the difference in definition when I place my hand on my quads.
After my course I may experiment once again with running. I think one of the most important things to know about ACI is that recovery continues for years after the surgery. I have heard the graft continues to harden for a five year period after surgery.
Wow, the fact that you can do yoga comfortably makes me very hopeful. Are you able to do the Virasana/ Vajrasana? I have an area of medial femoral condyle grade III wear on my knee. I would love to be able to do yoga again one day if I choose to get ACI on it.
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely. Vajrasasana is no problem! When I was working on getting my range of motion back that was one of the poses I did every day. It took several months to get that range back but now I don't notice any discomfort. My lesion was also (is also) on my medial femoral condyle but a grade IV.
Deletecongratulations on the program! Congratulations on beginning to run! It only gets better from here. It has been a long road but you stuck with it and that's the key. I hope others find your blog as they are preparing to or already going through their recovery because I know it has helped me. It is very easy to hate this journey and it probably the least fun thing I have ever had to do, but it has been a comfort to share the recovery trail. A recovery like this needs a solid support system and family and friends help but hearing the experiences of someone who has lived it has been even more necessary. Thank you and best of luck to you.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike! Your kind words are motivating!
DeleteThanks for posting more updates! Glad to hear you're better than last time I checked in!
ReplyDeleteI just found this blog. I had the same surgery on my left knee around 5 years ago. I was extremely active, in my early 40's and a navy pilot. My experience and frustrations were almost identical to yours. Around the 2 year point, I felt strongly there was more wrong with my knee. I almost was at a point is was worse than presurgery. The MRI found I grew too much cartliage which was causing pain when I extended my leg. I had another surgery which trimmed the excessive cartliage. It felt better for quite a while but still not where I felt it should be. I gave it another year or so of working out and trying to strengthen but it wasn't responding. I felt doomed! I wanted another MRI because I still felt extremely limited and had lots of pain and stiffness. The MRI showed I still had excessive cartliage but also I had micro fractures on my femur. My surgeon felt confident he could fix it. I had another surgery which cleaned up the excessive cartliage and gave me injections of calcium phosphate in the bone to seal up the micro fractures. I am now pain free and my strength is finally getting back to where it used to be. I still have some instability and running is still a challenge but I'm getting closer every day. I work out about 4-5 days a week and am very active. I'm hoping within the next year, I will be back to close where I was when this all started. Stay strong with your rehab and if you are having pain, there may be more going on. Don't be afraid to get a second or third opinion. I'm lucky I live near Andrews institute in Florida which have some of the best orthopedic surgeons in the country. Good luck
ReplyDeleteWow, thank you so much for this comment and sharing your story. Your situation sounds exactly like mine. After 2 1/2 years I don't feel like the surgery has done much. I think I'm ready to get a second opinion. Since my surgeon didn't see anything wrong with my post-op MRI. He said the graft looked fine but I never understood why I didn't have better results. I have always felt like something else was wrong with my knee. And hearing about the micro fractures in your femur makes me wonder if I don't have something else going on. It's good to hear you are getting back to where you want to be finally and you're pain free! That's inspiring!
DeleteI had this same surgery in addition to the breaking, twisting and screwing my lower leg back together and I am miserable! Surgery was 4 yrs ago and I'm in pain every day. 2nd opinion dr was useless as I found out he trained with my original surgeon. Actively searching a 3rd opinion. Good luck to you all!
ReplyDeleteHi Megan, I had ACI done 4 weeks ago on my right knee. Whenever I flex my knee after keeping it straight for some time and in the morning i have a kind of a pulling pain under my incision although my skin has healed. Also knee gets stiff quickly if I dont keep moving it every 5 mins. Did you experience the same thing?
ReplyDeleteYes, I battled stiffness for about 4-5 months. Getting out of bed in the morning was the worst. Eventually all my stiffness went away though. It took a long time for the skin around my incision to feel normal as well. I had random aches and pains for months around the incision and different places in my knee. Sometimes the pain would move from one place to another. One thing I found that helped was to rub out the scar tissue. I started doing this around week 6 to 3 months. I think it helped a lot.
DeleteThank you so much for your blog! I am have been through phase 1 of ACI. I am having it on my Patella (kneecap). I have a blog started on my experience as well.
ReplyDeletehttps://my-aci-experience.blogspot.com
John
Good luck John! Keep me posted how it goes.
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