Now we’ve reached the point where your ACL surgery is over. The anesthesia has worn off.
I ended my last post by saying that the surgery itself is one of the easier parts of the process. Now the real challenge begins.
You’ll definitely be prescribed strong painkillers, because you will feel pain, likely for weeks. Of course it’s worse at first, and gradually, maybe even after the first week, you might not need painkillers anymore (individual factors and your pain threshold definitely play a role here too). You should also expect that for a while (maybe even weeks), a normal night’s sleep won’t really be a thing.
But for this surgery and all this suffering to actually be worth it, you should start your own active recovery right away. As a first step, I can warmly recommend something like a cold compression machine. These are also available for rent in Estonia. One of the best that I know of right now is the GameReady machine. There are quite a few providers (if you don’t want to search yourself, I recommend a good place to rent a cold compression machine).
If you weren’t already working with one before the surgery, now would be the right time to find yourself a competent physiotherapist. That means someone who’s definitely dealt with this kind of injury before. You were most likely also sent home from the hospital with some basic exercises to start doing. And you should start doing them RIGHT AWAY, with real dedication. There isn’t much else to do at home in bed anyway, besides doing your exercises and killing time.
As for getting around on crutches, I’d recommend being as careful as possible. Avoid slippery surfaces and take your time. Because at the start, when everything is so tender, even the smallest slip — where you most likely didn’t actually hurt your knee at all — can trigger such fast-rising paranoia that it feels like everything’s broken and ruined again.
The following months are essentially spent doing exercises, working to get yourself back into shape. And that really is the most important part. Keep in mind that, unless you’re an elite athlete, returning to sports involving lateral movement within the next year would be quite unwise (since the risk of a new tear is still very high within that year).
Full recovery from the surgery actually only happens after two years. But I can promise you that the moment you get to run again for the first time, all those dull and not-so-dull hours of exercise will have paid off many times over. That feeling is something worth working toward!
