Flash back exactly four months back - Mid Dec 2007

On that fateful sports event day on my office, I was in high in my energy. Any smart person like you would've guessed that my adrenalin levels didn't match my age and the strength levels of my knees. Though I pride myself with having a fairly strong quads and hamstrings due to recent exercises and aerobics sessions, the strength of my knee ligament was no match for the level of strain they felt when I twisted my knees sideways trying to throw a shotput. Yes, a logical person would say that the knee joint allows movement in 2D for forward and backward. I happened to twist it sideways and it immediately buckled. I could get back to my balance only by the strength of my other leg.

I managed to get back my balance on my left knee and I felt smart that I could sense that specific movement that causes buckling of my knees then on. But so smart I am, I didn't bother to check for swelling and I didn't bother to return home immediately and apply ice. Instead, I let my pride stay up and played for some more time before decided to go home 2 kms away on my motorbike.

Too many mistakes and I didn't bother to take care of my knees for a few weeks from then. A vacation trip to heavenly Andaman (I'll refrain from digressing there right now) and a trip outside the country ensured that I didn't visit the doctor for full 6 weeks from the day I was injured.

6 weeks from then, I realized that I could drive around, walk around, climb stairs, but there was always this big discomfort and the occasional buckling of my knees.

A few doctor visits and an MRI scan confirmed that my ACL is completely torn. They say I should've felt a pop sound when I got myself injured. May be it was, may be I didn't. But what scared me was the 6 weeks rest that the doctors adviced me to take. But worried me was that I had to undergo an arthroscopic surgery and be at bed rest for a while, which was unimaginable for me.

So what is this ACL reconstruction surgery is about, in Chennai condition? Will talk about that next.

Rehabilitation in India after ACL Reconstruction

Today, the 20th March 2008
It is the 7th week of my recuperation after an ACL reconstruction arthroscopic surgery in Chennai and I wanted to share some of my experiences that are more India specific here.

As they say in statistics, this is among the most successful surgery on knee with less than 0.1% chances of failure. There are quite a few useful ACL surgery and post-surgery related contents in the web that are mainly US/Europe centric. Here is something that I feel is more India-ish, if one could say that.

I am neither a doctor, nor a physiotherapist. I'm no authorized medical person. I have been a patient who underwent this and would like to share some of the good and bad things as I went through this ACL reconstruction procedure

What is this ACL
If you have not heard of ACL so far, consider that it is for good. Ligament, as Wikipedia puts it, is a fibrous semi-elastic tissue that connects one bone to another bone, typically around a joint. The anterior cruciate ligament (or ACL) is one of the four major ligaments of the knee. It connects from the back side of the bottom part of the thigh bone with the upper part of one of the leg bone below the knee. You can google and find out more on this if you want. I'll capture only some details related to some of my experience that I feel others can relate and learn if they are unfortunate to get to tear off their ACL.

Flash back exactly four months back - Mid Dec 2007

... more on it later.