In my couple of days of research on this thing, I've found that some of the best resources in terms of the "what to expect" department have been personal diaries of folks experiences with a torn ACL and the recovery process. To that end, I thought I'd keep up my own journal, both as a way to possibly help out other folks down the road, as well as in support of my own relentless egotism. So on with the show!

The accident-
5-27-06
"How'd it happen?" How indeed. I've offered a lot of variations on this question over the last couple of weeks, mostly because it's both a little embarassing and with a level head could have probably been avoided. Here's the clinical version- on Saturday May 27th, following a show with my band, I got in a scuffle with our now former drummer. We were clinched up hockey style and wrestling around when my left knee gave out and I went down; predictable considering he had a good 60 pounds and 4 inches on me. It gave out again about 20 minutes later while I was carrying out our equipment, and I knew something was really wrong. The next day I was in serious pain. It hadn't swollen much, but it was impossible to bend, and the slightest weight had me barking out in pain. The good news was it was Sunday on a holiday weekend, and as it turned out I wasn't able to get to a see a doctor until Wednesday.

The early prognosis-
5-31-06
I got in to see the orthopedist early on Wednesday the 31st. The first bit of good news was my insurance would cover a lot of the treatment. The bad news was that since I hadn't even touched the $1,000 deductable on my policy, I was looking at some solid out of pocket. Great. After dealing on the paperwork, it was a short wait in the exam room and the doc came in to check me out. After a cursory exam he wanted to see an x-ray, so they took me down the hall and draped on the lead coat for a couple of snaps of the knee, from the front and side. 20 minutes later me and the doc were looking at the x-rays. He said that he didn't see any broken bones or anything which was good, although there was a lot of fluid buildup which indicated something was wrong. I would have to get an MRI to see what was going on. I got a prescription for vicodin and a set of crutches.

Luckily I was able to come back in the next day for the MRI. That took about an hour in all, it was an interesting process. I was a little dismayed when I was laid back on the table, leg locked in place. "Okay, now don't move for 50 minutes." Of course, I felt like I had to move immediately. I got over that, and half dozed through the rest of it.

It was a full week before I had a follow up appointment to go over the results of the MRI. I was a little concerned about the long timeframe, (hey, where's the urgency here, this is my knee!) but as I later learned, it didn't really make a difference in terms of the treatment. After two days I decided I hated the vicodin, it made me logy and nauseated. A few days after that I decided that I hated the crutches, but they came in handy for long distances. With my newly broken knee, the definition of 'long distance' now includes the walk across an average parking lot.

The real prognosis-

6-8-06
So a week later, I sat down with my doctor to go over the MRI. He had a nifty little knee model that helped as he talked me through the report. The knee model lost it's charm quickly when I heard the words I had been dreading- "you've torn the ACL." That wasn't all though, I also had a partial tear of the meniscus, which is the cartiledge between the tibia and fibula. I had three options for treatment, none of which I liked. I could go for straight rehab, which runs the chance of ongoing problems down the road as well as early arthritis. Option 2- they could take a section of the patella tendon (the one that holds the kneecap in place) and use that to rebuild the ACL, but the downside to that is a more painful recovery. Option 3- they could use a tendon from a donor (read cadaver) and use that for the reconstruction. Creep out factor notwithstanding, this was the recommended treatment, and after much tossing and turning over it, I decided to go that route. My main concern is to get back to as full a range of flexiblity as I can, as soon as I can. After I was done meeting with the doc, I sat for a minute with the woman who does the surgery scheduling. She took down my information and gave me hers, and I told her I would call to set up a date for the surgery after talking it over with the wife.

Physical Therapy
6-15
Went in for my first physical therapy appointment today. After 30 minutes of phone calls to verify my insurance, I met with the therapist. He walked me through a range of stretching and lifting exercises, most of them weren't bad but a couple hurt like mad, especially trying to pull my leg back for a thigh stretch. Ow. When that was done, he stuck some electrodes from a TENS unit around my knee and wrapped it in icebags for 15 minutes. The voltage from the TENS was kicking pretty good, and I had to raise and lower the bottom part of my leg to work the knee. This part was excruciating, and for the first time I had a vision of what post-surgery is going to be like. I almost tossed my cookies right there, but I got myself under control. I made myself ill the day before too, reading up on ACL surgery and recovery. As Kris told me, in my case a little information is really dangerous. I'll be doing PT three times a week until my surgery, scheduled for July 7th. We've got gigs scheduled for the 15th and 16th which may be massively overreaching, but I am reluctant to cancel unless there's no other option. My next followup with the doctor is next week, unless there's a real development I won't update this diary until then.