Yes Knee Can: ACL Surgery Recovery » ACL PT

ACL PT: Russian Stimulation

yeskneecan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:51:37 +0000

At the end of every PT session, I get to do something called, “Russian.” Unlike regular muscle stimulation, this stuff hurts. The idea is to get my “mushy” quad to “fire” once again. My therapist cranks up the machine until I can’t stand it. I usually stop at a 20 and I think the highest you can go is 50. Trust me, getting past 20 will be tough. Despite the pain, this has been very helpful with getting my muscle back.

This is from the Downtown STL Chiro:

“Russian Stimulation uses a stronger electrical current to cause a muscle group to contract and then relax by placing electrodes on the skin over the weak muscle. The current will elicit a gentle contraction, which will increase the strength of the muscle.”

The Early Experiments http://ptjournal.highwire.org/cgi/content/abstract/82/10/1019

ACL Surgery: 3 Weeks Post-Op

yeskneecan — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:53:42 +0000

Three weeks post-op.

I was told by this point, things would be getting back to normal–crutches would disappear, swelling would fade and mobility would miraculously come back, full swing. I feel as though I’m on a slight delay because not only was my ACL repaired, but so was the lateral meniscus. Anyway, my recovery is just taking a little longer than I thought. I’ve planned a successful-recovery trip to New Zealand in September, so I just hope that I’ll be better by then.

At 3 Weeks, here’s the knee stats:

-Bending at 106 degrees

-Still swollen, but starting to see a bit of my old kneecap

-Still scarred, but using Mederma 4x/day for the next 5 weeks (Use for 8 weeks for new scars)

-Still in the locked brace ( I take it off at work and while watching TV so I can “breathe” and stretch the leg out

-PT 2x/week. might start going to the gym to supplement for less than stellar insurance, which only technically covers 10 PT visits…seriously? seriously lame.

-Still on crutches, but I use one crutch around the office and apt.

-Currently swimming in a sea of hosiptal bills, dr. bills and PT bills (Most people have a file, I have a box!)

Picture of the Stitches Inside My Knee

yeskneecan — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:16:27 +0000

Happy Friday, everyone!

I slipped out during my lunch hour to get tortured at PT. During wall slides, I could bend at 99 degrees and on the bike I could finally do full revolutions. This is all increasing my pain a little bit. My therapist told me I should start using the vicodin with PT. I’m currently taking Motrin.

Other than that, life is good and I am down to walking around on one crutch around the office, my apt. and while at PT.

It’s been a long-time coming, but check out some of Dr. Nuber’s handy work on stitching up my lateral meniscus. My orginally surgery was ACL reconstruction, but while they were in, they found a this tear and repaired it. Northwestern Orthopaedics Instititute is the best!