You cant “e.g.” the North Shore!!!
Adk,
Glad to hear things went we with the op and by the sounds of things you dont have many limitations. I will reiterate how important it is for you to keep yourself in good condition to ensure you dont have too many problems in the future. The Doc is right about 30% of people who have had ACL reconstructions do need an artificially knee later. Unfortuntely about 60-70% of people who have had a reconstruction will have cartilage problems later in life. Balance exercises (standing on a ball or using an Indo board) are particularly good for your knee.
I'm not trying to get you down with this post, its just worth asking yourself if its worth it next time you are thinking of dropping into a 30ft kicker on your snowboard. Its not as good as it used to be and having a revision (the same operation again) is 3x as messy as the first one.
All the best
i don’t have any menicus catrtilage in either knee joint due to some bad decisions and too much tennis competitions on asphalt courts.
now i have osteoathritis in both knees and was forced to realize how bad it is when i tried some light jogging last wednesday and haven’t been able to walk since then. The bone on bone hammering just causes your knees to painfully swell up and freeze themselves to prevent further injury. Contemplating complete knee replacement surgery like a couple people i know have gotten but since since i’m in an HMO its a no go for me unless i can get into a better program like Straub.
I guess I should stick to surfing and swimming instead of trying to jog or walk but sometimes the waves just don’t cooperate
personally I’d rather have an ACL problem than having no cartiliage
hah! true. i just remember saying to myself in solid, overhead surf there “hell I guess my knee is fixed if I can do this”
NoPainNoGain— you are totally right. keeping this knee healthy through, controlled safe excercise is key for me. generally i’m from a family with osteoarthritis and musculo-skeletal problems, so i have to make a hard concious effort. for me, activities like running, hiting jumps on my snowboard, or any other high impact potential sport is out. My 34th birthday is coming up, so I’m a bit young to be so conservative, but I believe in the end this will payoff.
For fitness I choose swimming and yoga. Cycling is great, but for me too much cycling leads to tight hamstrings and hip muscles which can throw things out of alignment. Surfing is my passion (duh) so i make room for that, but I feel that I can surf safely by knowing my limits and by respecting my body.
Here’s to hoping I can keep fit and injury free!
good luck adk! - hang in there. I’d chime in along with NPNG, and say keep up with training. I hit 44 last year & had torn one acl at 18, and my other at 39. I mostly now feel the pain of arthritis which runs in my family, but my knees actually are o.k., and I’m moving forward. You know what’s killing me these last few years? I gained 10 lbs of middle-aged fat!!! It really is hard on the knees. My kind advice is to be forwarned as you get older, and try to stay skinny.
The other thing that helps me is just plain stretching daily - everything tries to get tighter on me, as my brain and body tries to avoid pain!
NPNG, or anyone else with knee issues - do you have any stretching tips?
I’ve also had acl surgery (in 1971, uh safe to say there are many advances since then!). I expect to have a meeting with a surgeon soon to see how my rickity knee is, maybe needs rebuilt.
I was having trouble standing up on my board quick enough after a lay off. Started doing a new exercise for it that is helping quite a bit. Maybe someone else can benefit from it. I can’t do anything with much impact or pivoting (missed that whole hacky sack era…maybe that’s ok!), hope to be able to do some beach running again.
In a pool, on my back, kicking using fins. The deal is to sink the butt so your in a recumbent position and make full circles with your legs, like on a bike. I break the water surface with the fins and knees slightly. Bring the knees close to chest, bent as far as they comfortably can. Go slow and keep it smooth until you get the rhythm to pick up some speed. Can choose to accentuate the pull up or down or both.
Really smoothed out my knees bending. Standing up quicker now.
Just throwing it out there since it’s helping me.
Don
HI.
I just had a 70% lateral menisus removal, jsut wondering if there is someone out there who has done something similar and is back surfing. At the moment it feels like my life is pretty fuck as one of my jobs carreer involves heavy work, and the second one is surfing.. so, dont know really if i will be able to do it again, i dondt mind if i have to wait months for rehablitation and therapy, but if i can go back to surf i can even wait years..
didnt have insurance and used the NHS (uk) pretty shit.. they made me wait 2 months for MRI, and everybody knew what i had, I went to the surgeosn appt and he told me , we have to remove it because u have been waiting to long, why u didnt come after u had the injury? grrrr.... why ? we pay taxes, we work for the goverment to have what they want, and they jsut play with the health service of many people who really need it..
any advice guys out there....? comment? about my injury cse uf there is ome one with a similar case?
, ....
i have no meniscus is my left knee and about 25% in my right and painfull accumulating arthritis in both
stationary bicycling water jogging and losing as much weight as possible are some of the solutions
a good brace helps as well
i tried to lightly jog about 50 yards three weeks ago at the park and still can’t walk without my braces.
i waited and played on mine a year after popping it in tennis match. My knees used to balloon up after matches and i’d just ice them. But one day I slipped while hiking and blew the knee out. It took 6 months to get back in the water and i was on crutches for months while people who had surgery the same day were walking in after surgery. The doc said it all based on the individual and i had already developed bone on bone wear and the beginning of osteoarthritis by time they went in.
I popped the right knee after getting the force of a 6 foot wave right on my back trying to make it around the corner on the backside and not making it. At that time the first surgeon who looked at me said no more stand up surfing and i said f-that. But my regular ortho said just joint lossening exercise and significant weight loss would help if any. He said braces were a waste of time unless they were those expensive custom types which of course the HMO would never prescribe.
The only hope is complete knee replacement surgery but they only last 10-15 years so you need to time the replacement well.
i know at least half a dozen who’ve had both knees done and everyone is extremely happy with the results. But of course the best hospitals that do this aren’t HMOs.
Boogie boarding or mats are another answer as well when standup is not an option any more.
Riding prone is another call
I recently dislocated my kneecap playing a field sport, how will this affect my surfing??i’m still wearing an immbolization brace. after rehab will have to wear a brace or is it unlikely i’ll dislocate my kneecap while surfing, i’m only 17 years old and love progressive surfing, will this injury prevent my from performing progressive new school airs and the like?? and how about heavy waves and big waves is it going to be dangerious difficult??