Turning Pain into Progress: How an ACL Tear Inspired a Lifestyle of Wellness
It was a white-hot instant flash of searing pain; I knew I had torn something in my knee. Like many stories I’ve heard since (because once you are injured, everyone shares their experience!), my ACL tear wasn’t caused by anything dramatic or sensational. It was a knee injury skiing. I stopped on a patch of ice. My leg slipped a tiny bit, and I pulled the ski back, and that was the moment.
What is an ACL tear? (In layman’s terms)
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) provides support and stability for lateral movement of the knee. You can have a partial tear or a complete tear. My ACL tear was a complete tear, meaning it was severed. An ACL tear hurts like hell. Yet, once I had iced my knee and recovered from the initial shock, I was able to walk (albeit painfully). Unlike a bone break, the ACL tear didn’t seem to be aggravated by putting weight on my leg. I was very swollen, and the pain around my knee increased over a few days before I realized that I needed to consult an orthopedic surgeon.
My orthopedic surgeon recommended surgery and presented some options in terms of timing the surgery to fit into my life, and we discussed how I could lead a perfectly fine life without repairing the tear in the ACL if I were willing to give up skiing, playing soccer, and running. While I was still deciding on when to do the surgery, I started physical therapy with Tammy at Bull Dawg. The goal, she said, was to gain as much strength overall in my body ahead of surgery, which would help me in recovery, and if I didn’t go ahead with surgery, then I was doing the important work to strengthen the surrounding muscles which would have to take up the job of supporting my now useless torn ACL.
Looking at 50, with a celebratory ski trip only nine months away, and unwilling to be done with the activities that bring me joy, I opted to have surgery a few weeks after I tore my ACL. I also had meniscus damage that was repaired at the same time as a full ACL reconstruction using my own hamstring tendon.
How long does an ACL tear take to heal?
It takes a lot longer than you would think. For me, my journey from surgery to return to sports was about nine months, which is right what my surgeon had predicted. (You see professional athletes and teenagers returning to play much sooner, probably due to a combination of physical fitness, age, and level of intensity of their PT following surgery.)
About 10 days following my surgery, I was back in physical therapy at Bull Dawg. I had never had orthopedic surgery before and had no idea what to expect and how to assess what was normal. I was surprised by the level of pain I experienced in the first few weeks. Much of PT was simply gaining movement in my knee joint and massaging the surgical sites. At times, Tammy would hand me a towel to squeeze — it was that hard. She’d measure the angle that I could bend my knee. She’d measure how straight I could get my leg. Tammy would find something to mark my progress and leave me with a message of hope if I was feeling down.
In the early weeks and months, the focus of my rehab was on mobility. My home exercises were “simple” — using a strap to push my heel out and then pulling my knee in. Leg raises. Pelvic tilts. If a movement became easy, we moved to a harder strap and upped my reps. Tammy was dogmatic about my home exercise routine — always checking in with my progress there too. I spent, on average, 45 minutes/day doing my home program, which Tammy credits for what she said was a faster-than-typical recovery.
As my body healed, PT progressed from mobility to strengthening. Early on, my home exercises included standing on a single leg, side leg raises, front raises, and back raises. Later I was doing banded squats and lunges and sliding movements and using a balance board. And so many clam shells and hip bridges and other abdominal strengthening exercises. Tammy was wonderful in the nearly daily evaluation of my progress, ensuring that we weren’t wasting time in our sessions and that I was using my home program to get stronger.
My advice to anyone facing surgical recovery from a torn ACL: make time to do your home program! I hear from so many people that they do it half-heartedly or that they “don’t have time,” but it is critical. If you are going to invest in PT — your time, your money, your health — it is a waste if you aren’t doing the homework. There is only so much strength or mobility you can gain in 45 minutes; you have to put in the time. I found ways to make the home exercises enjoyable — watching silly videos while I did them or a tv show — and I treated them like I did my pre-injury exercise routine. Eventually, my home program morphed into my “regularly scheduled” exercising, with even more emphasis on strength training than I had pre-injury. Because Bull Dawg specializes in sports training, physical therapy went beyond post-surgical rehabilitation and became a vehicle for me to return to the physical activities that I enjoy.
I never thought of PT as being so hands-on and personalized. My previous experiences were in a much more “factory” setting — with tables all lined up and a PT who barely knew my name directing me to do exercises. At Bull Dawg, every single session has involved significant “table time” — where tight muscles are attended to through massage, dry needling, and stretching/mobility exercises. Every session started with “How are things feeling today? What’s tight or sore? What movement have you done since I last saw you, and how have you felt?” It is almost magical how my saying “my hamstrings feel tight” leads her to know that my calves need to be stretched out, and we have to unlock my hips with some mobility drills.
What Bull Dawg has taught me is that everything in my body is connected — my knee recovery required me to think more holistically about my whole body and how everything I do or do not do could impact my knee. Tammy evaluated my shoes, the height of my walking cane when I got off of the crutches, and the straps on the brace following surgery. She discussed core strength and taught me why that is such a critical element in protecting my aging joints and muscles.
My PT didn’t end with recovering from the torn ACL surgery — it has morphed into an approach to wellness that I will benefit from for the rest of my life. The personalized care I received at Bull Dawg has been nothing short of amazing.
