Knee pain - 1 year post acl reconstruction

Good question- I have had 2 full ACL surgeries. I work out as well, but I don’t run. It is too hard on my knee. Even with that said, my knee still swells up and is bruised very easily with the lightest workouts. I just recently moved and noticed that after a day moving, I was sore and swelled up. I'm not sure if this is just how it is after knee surgery and we are committed to a life long struggle...or if this actually something that need medicals attention. Good luck in the Sheriff's Academy -wish I had a better answer...but know you’re not alone in this.

I had the same surgery that you two had and I'm a year and five months ago, I haven't had any serious problems until lately when I've seriously started a work out schedule. The pain on the inside of my knee feels normal and I can live with that, but the pain that has begun on the outside ligaments has begun and it really is quite annoying. This pain inhibits my movements and I still don't have full extension. I'm seeing the same man for my back right now that I saw at first for my knee and I'm going to ask him to look into it. I'm just hoping I won't have to get another surgery.

I'm in the same situation. I had my acl surgery a year ago but once i started walking fine i retore my acl and have been walking on it since, while more like limping. My knee is in constant pain but when I try to run or even walk up a few steps the pain is unbearable. It cracks, pops and locks on me alot. I was working at my university's police station and just resigned a day ago due to my knee. My ortho wants to redo the surgery since the acl is once again torn but my medical doctor is giving me such a hard time with paper work. This has greatly affected my life since i have been playing basketball since I was 7, I am now 20 and cannot dare try to jump or even lay up the ball.

I have had 2 reconstructions on my left knee and 1 on my right. With my experience (14 knee surgeries all together) pain in the front of my knee and/or in the back of it tells me I have either cartilage damage or my arthritis is flaring. If you ever experience a locking of your knee where you move it one way it pops and you cannot move it you definately have cartilage damage. It can be very painful.

I am 48 and I had a ACL surgeries on December 5, 2011 and I just re turn it 2 weeks ago around 4/1/2012. My Dr. wants me to hold out until July. I want to have the ACL fixed now . Any advice. 

With my second ACL tear, I held out for a bit. I was in high school and tried playing basketball with it torn. Of course I wore a knee brace but I still had a lot of issues with it giving out on me. I decided to go ahead and have the surgery done. There's no immediate need to get it done but if you wait, just be careful with side to side movement, going up/down stairs, or stopping suddenly while walking. It can and probably will give out on you but it really isn't painful. It can however, cause further miniscus damage which is something you DON'T want.

It definately won't hurt to wait. Maybe your doc wants to see if you have any other issues with it between now and then. If you had the ACL reconstruction in December and another one 4 month later, there might be an underlying cause to why it tore again. They may have to use a cadaver ACL this time if they used your patella tendon last time. There could be multiple reasons for your doc to wait. If you want it done now, let him know that and be honest with him. If you have it done and it tears again....I suggest going to another orthopedic.

I had left knee reconstruction. LCL cadaver replacement, ACL cadaver replacement, bone/cartilage damage, meniscus damage and lots of fluid in the knee, but only due to re-agitating it from playing 5-6 games of softball. It went unstable and swelled really bad. The damage was done in Sept. 2008 and was confirmed from MRI. I, however wasn't in any kind of pain, just couldn't stand or walk on it. It felt as if my knew was going to jut off the side/front or back when walking. Hadmy Surgery the 16th of Nov. 2011. Just got back to work 2-15-2012. Physical Therapy was a horror story, but only because I wasn't allowed to put any kind of pressure on my knee for 6-8 weeks because of the cartilage/bone damage. Had holes drilled into my bones to make them bleed and create more cartilage so to speak. Only real pain I suffered was coming out of nerve blocker, fronts that moved in during time I was off and physically bending my knee to break thru the scar tissue caused from sitting for so long. I am not allowed to do any of what you all has said your doing except for light weight and strength training and of course stretches. I am not allowed to be on eliptacle(sp) or tread mill, just a stationary bike and what they had me doing in PT. I have pain every now and again, but have noticed recently that I have been having sharp pains close to one of my incisions on the inside top one. It hurts so much that it actually is bothersome. Just posting this to see if I should mention it to my doc or PT. I don't go to PT any more, but still visit just to say hi. Made wonderful friends there.

Sounds similar to my situation. I tore my ACL off the bone completely my senior year of high school. I missed most of my ice hockey season and all of lacrosse. I had been paying ice hockey for ten years and was the captain of my team. Now a year out from surgery, after eight months of physical therapy, I can't even keep up in an intramural league. I have horrible pain kneeling, walking up stairs, and attempting to run or skate. I also have nerve damage from my ankle to the incision. It's humiliating to be seen skating because as a woman on a mens team I am expected to be good or quit. No one knows that I used to be good. They think I suck when in reality I just hurt.

Been having some problems and wondering if I am the only one. I got hurt back in Feb/2012 and ended up tearing ACL, MCL and Meniscus. Had the cadaver ACL reconstruction in April and was not allowed to put any weight on it for 8weeks. With that being said of course I had problems from the get go with bending. By the end of July I was barely at 60 degrees so the doc decided to go in and do a manipultion the beginning of August. I wasnt able to go back to work til the beginning of October and that is only light duty. Here we are now in November and I still cant bend past 100 degrees and that is forced in therapy, on my own I am lucky to get to 90. The doc has had me going to what he calls "aggressive" therapy but nothing seems to be working, there are times where I will have 6 people on me to try and bend my knee and it wont go and I end up kicking them all off of me. We even tried doing another nerve block a couple weeks after the manipulation to see if we could break down the scar tissue and it only ended up taking for the first 2hrs that I had it even though it was supposed to be good for like 4 days and I had the best doc put it in. My knee is in constant pain across the front and now behind my leg too in the hamstring area. No one can seem to tell me though why I am having pain in the back, I had a cadaver graft so the hamstring graft theory is shot. I just got told by the doc that we are going to try the "Do Nothing" approach of no therapy just live life for 2 weeks and see what that does and he wants to put a gel in to cool down the joint since he said I am damaging it. I am frustrated since it seems like my quad still doesnt want to strengthen up the way its supposed to so my knee is constantly giving out but on the other hand my new ACL is stronger than my good leg now. I was supposed to get ready to start the police academy right before I got hurt at work in which I already work for a department part-time but now I dont even know if that will even happen with all these little hickups. I just want to get back to what I used to do, the part that is killing me right now is the fact that its hunting season and I cant do anything I would normally do. Has anyone had any of these problems or have any advice?

yes yes yes. I went exactly through the same pains you have been going through. same injuries same procedures, everything post surgery was going well until for some reason going through therapy everything turned upside down. all of a sudden i started getting pain from the back of my knee, through my hamstrings to my lower back area. i couldnt bend my knee more than 45 degrees without hurting badly, (the week prior i was already at close to 80 degrees). after long studies and medical exams it turned out to be an irritated sciatic nerve right where it branches of into two behind the knee area. i have the same nerve block done at my sciatic nerve and this relieved the pain for a day or so. AFter taking medication (gabapentin) for about 1 month. i started feeling much much better as to where i was able to start to bend my leg and exercise it the way i had been doing it. Thanks to this treatment i was able to get strength on my knee, quad, hamstrings and calfs. i returned to playing soccer exactly at 1 year post surgery. in a matter of 3 months after taking this Nerve treatment i was ready to play. I am not saying that this is your issue, but i had exactly the same symptoms you have described here.

with the pain on the outside of your knee, it may be that the patella is not aligned properly and that is where you have to focus on strengthening the medial parts of your quadriceps to help the realignment. I had sharp pain there and was taping my patella more in line and that immensely helped with the pain. Been doing squats with feet position with toes facing out to help strength the inner quads and that has worked a treat. Been working out without the tape and my patella is more in line and not hurting the outside of my knee. I am 12 months on and the only pain i experience is hamstring or back of the knee pain. I am not exactly sure why but i think hamstring tightness has something to do with it so I will be focusing on that but the problem with stretching is that it usually masks the pain of something wrong so be careful all. Patience and determination will help you all through this. 

I had an ACL tear in feb 2009 while playing in a shuttle badminton match. My family doc told me that it wasn't a complete tear and put me on a knee immobilizer for 3 months with some mild stretching exercises. I consulted a gym trainer who had experience dealing with knee injuries after 4 months and he told me to start slow with stretching and then advised me to do some mild weights on a knee curl machine - keeping the quad flexed when moving up and down so as to prevent further damage. i did the routine till aug 2009 after which I had to leave for university abroad. A combination of cold climates, pressure and sheer laziness worked to reduce my workouts to a sporadic schedule. I had 3-4 times when my knee gave out while turning suddenly or due to losing my balance. After coming back home in feb 2012, slowly started doing some half squats and cycling. Noted that there was mild momentary pain when climbing stairs two-at-a-time (why? even though ACL tears should not give problems for straight line motion). Decided to consult a doctor who practiced yoga and prescribed yoga exercises for ppl with injuries and other problems. Was asked to take a new MRI to check the knee condition and, lo and behold, Buddy you've torn your ACL completely. He prescribed some light stretching to start with and then some cycling. Slowly I was asked to do some very mild weights on the knee curl machine again and told not to run on hard surfaces. Asked him if it was ok to run on sand and was told light jogging a t the beach was ok. But I started noticing that even after doing a warmup, when I begin to run, my affected knee is slightly stiff and experiences slight pain which subsides after a few minutes. Is this a warning that I'm injuring my meniscus? or is it to be expected? 

ive also had acl replacement back in 2009. I was 16 when i tore my acl while practicing with my soccer team. I remember i jumped and when i landed my knee gave out hearing a crack i got up and try to run again my knee gave up and i fell. It got swollen in matter of minutes. I iced it as soon as possible and stoped playing for a month, began playing again, but every once in a while i would feel it crack and i would feel it locked and wouldnt be able to bend it. I stayed like that for two years, till finnally i had surgery. I began playing again after two year and have now been playing for two years until now i began suffering pain and swelling but im able to bend my knee. Im scared to find out i probably tore it again. 

since this post was 4 months ago - I am curious how you are doing - this exactly explains everything I am going through now - I tore my ACL, MCL and Menisucs at xmas 2012 - my surgery was 4 weeks ago - but you exactly explained all that I am going through - I am deciding about the manipulation now - so I would love an update on how you are doing