I am apparently precisely the highest risk demographic- women in their 40s who are athletic- because our biomechanics are different and the tissue is just starting to change.
So ...play nice. If I can have two major surgeries in my " hot flashes, you say??" 50s...be 50 lbs over weight and still wow the Drs? You GOT this, girl.
Sorry for the delayed reply. My phone has been blocking senders for 2 days and I just found out. (Lots of senders. All from Substack.) --- You can go home same day?! That's awesome! I'll be thinking about you! If I forget to tell you again before then, "God bless you, best wishes, and good luck!" 😉😊😋
I had hernia surgery (my second. I’m symmetrical now) last December. They told me to be sure to get on my feet and walk around, so I fired up the snowblower and cleared the snow off the driveway the next day. I was really proud of myself until later that night. Ow. Maybe they just meant, “get off your ass every four hours to take your Vicodin.” Hope you heal up quickly and well.
I'm pretty sure my dad did something like this to himself. He had a knee injury of some sort when I was a little kid and steadfastly refused to consider surgery of any kind and is now dealing with this in a big way at 82. It causes him some degree of almost constant pain.
Don't'cha love it?! --- Not that I can say much, I keep putting off knee surgery. 🙄 Of course, at this point, I am truly scared to death to be anywhere near the hospital or Dr.s office. I don't want anything shot into me that I don't know what it is.
I really envy you your ability to take it or leave it with tobacco. I quit smoking cigarettts in 2004, and I'm pretty sure I would be in the situation your dad describes: one cigarette would become a couple packs a day in no time. I had a buddy that could smoke for a day or two and then quit for months. That's a real superpower that I wish I had! All these years later, and there are definitely times I feel like a cigarette would hit the spot.
I want to say a lot of it is probably behavioral training.
My dad was an alcoholic. like 75% of our friends were drug addicts and some of them died. Most of the people I worked with in public mental health were addicts.
I am probably blessed with a lot of self-control but I have had a lot of object lessons on giving yourself over to addiction.
I'd say you're smart enough not to need unsolicited medical advice from strangers not in the medical field--but don't believe everything they tell you. Remember when they said things like "nerves can't regenerate; severed spinal cords are broke for good" etc. etc. etc.?
Don't stop looking into it before you go under the knife.
(PS: Just the weirdest deja vu feeling about this post. Like really.)
The MRI showed my menisci are already grinding (thankfully not often) and the ligament is completely separated.
I don't HAVE to have surgery, but I am basically looking at needing to be careful to never stress it again, and as the menisci continue to contact, I am more likely to have osteoarthritis when I am elderly.
The result of the surgery is, quote, "it will be good as new and you can safely go back to everything." My age apparently makes me still a good candidate for an allograft which is most likely to (eventually) give me full recovery.
A long period of physical therapy and bracing would be prescribed whether I did the therapy or not.
But I really got to thinking about this after posting my first comment and then reading up extremely micro-briefly on what this is anyway. And just wondering if I'm the only person who ever asked these questions:
"No blood supply to the ligaments so they can't heal on their own."
So what makes it living tissue then? How do ligaments get oxygen? They don't need oxygen after forming in-utero?
I know, silly obsessive thinking perhaps illustrating dumbfounding ignorance of how the body works.
Anyway be of good heart. It's always awful to be told news like this and you seem to usually pack 72 hours into each day so the thought of being out of commission for any length of time must be making you frantic. If you feel confident inside to go ahead as they advise, you'll know it's the right choice.
The body is far more regenerative than anyone truly understands.
And you might perhaps suspect that there's a remarkable amount of good energy out there glad and ready to envision your entire and complete recuperation.
Like SCA, said there's lots of us out here willing to send good thoughts your direction. Before and/or after surgery, no matter what you decide, my good thoughts and prayers are with you.
I have/had tendonosis (not tendinitis). You are correct about no blood supply, but PT is designed to push some into the area. Seems to have mostly worked
Yeah, the club where I probably first sustained the injury has unequivocally encouraged me to get it done and start rehab asap, and many of them are former paramedics and nurses (who for some reason have all congregated in Viking Fight Club?).
I asked about that as I was aware they can be pulled from the hamstring and a few other options. Ortho said as I was over 40 an allo was the better choice as there was no reason to weaken my tissue if donor tissue was available and the tear was active.
Isn't rejection an issue? Or is that an outdated concern?
I did some reading. Apparently there are a LOT of anti-rejection measures these days.
It's actually kind of heartening to see how far a lot of this stuff has advanced since I last heard about a guy friend getting surgery for football and so forth.
Nah, you're not a bummer. Being playfully horrible is just part of the ouevre here.
What you need to know is that in the horrible, funhouse mirror world of the Gutter where we are all surly adolescents, everyone's mom- especially yours- is a gigantic, embarrassing slut. Especially the ones that aren't.
The only effective defense against a "your mom" joke is a more cutting "your mom" joke. Every other response is a sign of weakness, and you risk having your Pokemon cards stolen with your lunch money.
It's too late to work on the fence tonight. Brothermouth and I got a ton done today before my doctor's appointment since it was a stunningly beautiful day and things were light at his job.
Funny incident: For the short time I lived in Florida, 30 years ago, I roomed with a guy from New York and a girl from Kentucky. The guy and I were conversing, I have no idea about what, and the girl was all "I can't stand it; will you please stop fighting?". Guy and I look at each other in confusion. She just didn't get that insulting each other was normal and showing affection.
I'll second SCA's notion of not giving unsolicited medical advice.
Now, I do hope the surgeon knows his stuff, but have you considered buying a parrot just in case? A norwegian blue perhaps?
And a hook. Could be useful herding cows. "Yarrr ye ole cunty-ballacks, ye Bessie ye, c'm ere or eye'll rip oot yer ear an polish me peg doon yer 'ead 'ole! Yarrr!"
Sorry to hear that GM. Provided the surgeon is competent, and you take the rehab seriously, you will almost always be satisfied with the results. But NOTHING at your age happens quickly with healing. So assume it will be a year before you feel "OK". No one ever wants to hear that, but I have been doing this a long time and that is about how it comes out.
Happy to provide more local color/info if you want/need it. Just ask here or email.
This gives new meaning to the phrase "being kicked to the gutter". I'm pretty sure you will gut it out just fine. You'll be back doing your Lagertha warrior queen thing in no time. Sorry about the puns. Seriously, you will get through this just fine. All the Gutterballs are pulling for you.
I took care of an ex boyfriend after ACL surgery. The most painful part was his hamstring graft. So get dat cadaver bit just make sure it’s not from a vaxxie
You know in your gut what you need to do. While we may question medical advice, especially considering how we’ve been let down by the medical community after Covid and the jab, if you trust what is being shown to you, put your head down and do it. Short term downtime is nothing to sneeze at but you are young and have a hell of a lot of living to do, and you don’t want to do it in pain or be debilitated. After having both knees replaced (with no ability to take painkillers), I can tell you it’s worth it to be able to do what I could do at 40 without hobbling in pain. I gritted my teeth , did the PT and recovered quickly. While I’m no wuss, you appear to be Viking like, so this should be a walk in the park. Just make sure you can vote.😜 We’ll have you in our good thoughts. Wish I lived closer. I’d offer to help wrangle errant livestock.
Just my take, go get a 2nd and a 3rd opinion if you can. There is no rush here so you have time to investigate, take a breath and evaluate what the next move is. Don't let anyone rush you. Pretty certain you are a really tough gutterbitch and will come through this process stronger cuz it ain't going to kill you. Take more than a little ligament damage to do that.
You must repair it. You must listen to your physical therapist. You must RICE it; Rest. Ice. Compression. Elevation. You must get on your feet asap.
And send me your pain pills for tips with pain management..............
On the "you must get on your feet ASAP," they felt so strongly about this they scheduled my first physical therapy like TWO DAYS after the surgery.
My dad had a similar surgery years ago. I learned new swear words that I never knew existed when I took him to physical therapy.
I am apparently precisely the highest risk demographic- women in their 40s who are athletic- because our biomechanics are different and the tissue is just starting to change.
So ...play nice. If I can have two major surgeries in my " hot flashes, you say??" 50s...be 50 lbs over weight and still wow the Drs? You GOT this, girl.
Lmao. So true
Have a hip or knee replacement! You're up and walking before all the anesthesia has completely worn off. It's pretty daunting.
I am kind of shocked that this surgery apparently takes like an hour and change and I can hobble out.
It's the day before election day and I'll be damned if I was going to laid up while there's a war on.
Sorry for the delayed reply. My phone has been blocking senders for 2 days and I just found out. (Lots of senders. All from Substack.) --- You can go home same day?! That's awesome! I'll be thinking about you! If I forget to tell you again before then, "God bless you, best wishes, and good luck!" 😉😊😋
I have a biology degree, a PT degree and an MBA.
most valuable degree was PT....never used it professionally though.
I had hernia surgery (my second. I’m symmetrical now) last December. They told me to be sure to get on my feet and walk around, so I fired up the snowblower and cleared the snow off the driveway the next day. I was really proud of myself until later that night. Ow. Maybe they just meant, “get off your ass every four hours to take your Vicodin.” Hope you heal up quickly and well.
You might want to pick up some bolt cutters if you take too much vicodin.
I learned that the hard way when I had an inguinal hernia repair when I was a young man.
I know. They're bad news. I weaned myself off of them long before I ran out.
Most of the opioids make me sick (like puking, dizzy sick). I HAVE to be able to go to sleep after taking one, so I'm not more miserable.
Seriously. Get it fixed right away. You're too young to be hobbled.
Eventually you'll start grinding down the bones in your femur head articulation and the the opposite legs tibia/femur articulation.
An ACL is much easier to recover from than a TKR or a THR.
THR's are one of the leading causes of death for females over 70.
This was the reason the ortho told me to rush the surgery. Every day spent grinding bones is time I will pay for in 30 years.
He's not lying. The grinding gets worse every year.
I'm pretty sure my dad did something like this to himself. He had a knee injury of some sort when I was a little kid and steadfastly refused to consider surgery of any kind and is now dealing with this in a big way at 82. It causes him some degree of almost constant pain.
Don't'cha love it?! --- Not that I can say much, I keep putting off knee surgery. 🙄 Of course, at this point, I am truly scared to death to be anywhere near the hospital or Dr.s office. I don't want anything shot into me that I don't know what it is.
Exactly
Such a giver! 😂
Godspeed, my friend!
“May the road rise up to meet you!”
Hope your surgery and recovery go smoothly!
I really envy you your ability to take it or leave it with tobacco. I quit smoking cigarettts in 2004, and I'm pretty sure I would be in the situation your dad describes: one cigarette would become a couple packs a day in no time. I had a buddy that could smoke for a day or two and then quit for months. That's a real superpower that I wish I had! All these years later, and there are definitely times I feel like a cigarette would hit the spot.
I want to say a lot of it is probably behavioral training.
My dad was an alcoholic. like 75% of our friends were drug addicts and some of them died. Most of the people I worked with in public mental health were addicts.
I am probably blessed with a lot of self-control but I have had a lot of object lessons on giving yourself over to addiction.
I'd say you're smart enough not to need unsolicited medical advice from strangers not in the medical field--but don't believe everything they tell you. Remember when they said things like "nerves can't regenerate; severed spinal cords are broke for good" etc. etc. etc.?
Don't stop looking into it before you go under the knife.
(PS: Just the weirdest deja vu feeling about this post. Like really.)
The MRI showed my menisci are already grinding (thankfully not often) and the ligament is completely separated.
I don't HAVE to have surgery, but I am basically looking at needing to be careful to never stress it again, and as the menisci continue to contact, I am more likely to have osteoarthritis when I am elderly.
The result of the surgery is, quote, "it will be good as new and you can safely go back to everything." My age apparently makes me still a good candidate for an allograft which is most likely to (eventually) give me full recovery.
A long period of physical therapy and bracing would be prescribed whether I did the therapy or not.
Sure. I'm not saying they're wrong.
But I really got to thinking about this after posting my first comment and then reading up extremely micro-briefly on what this is anyway. And just wondering if I'm the only person who ever asked these questions:
"No blood supply to the ligaments so they can't heal on their own."
So what makes it living tissue then? How do ligaments get oxygen? They don't need oxygen after forming in-utero?
I know, silly obsessive thinking perhaps illustrating dumbfounding ignorance of how the body works.
Anyway be of good heart. It's always awful to be told news like this and you seem to usually pack 72 hours into each day so the thought of being out of commission for any length of time must be making you frantic. If you feel confident inside to go ahead as they advise, you'll know it's the right choice.
The idea of being crippled scares the hell out of me, yes.
The body is far more regenerative than anyone truly understands.
And you might perhaps suspect that there's a remarkable amount of good energy out there glad and ready to envision your entire and complete recuperation.
Like SCA, said there's lots of us out here willing to send good thoughts your direction. Before and/or after surgery, no matter what you decide, my good thoughts and prayers are with you.
I have/had tendonosis (not tendinitis). You are correct about no blood supply, but PT is designed to push some into the area. Seems to have mostly worked
So sorry you've been injured in this way, Gutter, but if you don't get the surgery you will almost certainly be sorry later, when it's too late.
Trust me, I know this from hard lessons.
Yeah, the club where I probably first sustained the injury has unequivocally encouraged me to get it done and start rehab asap, and many of them are former paramedics and nurses (who for some reason have all congregated in Viking Fight Club?).
🖖🏼🪓🥷
😁
You can get a graft from yourself. Worked in many cases as surg RN, mostly ortho. You've got this 💞💞
I asked about that as I was aware they can be pulled from the hamstring and a few other options. Ortho said as I was over 40 an allo was the better choice as there was no reason to weaken my tissue if donor tissue was available and the tear was active.
Isn't rejection an issue? Or is that an outdated concern?
They say it's not a concern...
Unfortunately, I don't see outcomes. ACL revisions are not common, so that's good. Total hip and knee revisions - rather common
I did some reading. Apparently there are a LOT of anti-rejection measures these days.
It's actually kind of heartening to see how far a lot of this stuff has advanced since I last heard about a guy friend getting surgery for football and so forth.
I'm sorry, that sucks.
Big time. It sucks so bad it constantly reminds me of your mom. :)
At 85, she still kicks ass.
Please attend my annual seminar about how "your mom" works.
It's great. We have a cheese platter and we all dunk on the guy that ruins "your mom" jokes by saying "my mom is dead."
You really are brilliant, and I enjoy your humor (Deadpool is one of my favorite movies). However I'm not clever in that way. Sorry to be a bummer.
But doesn't your lazy ass have some electric fence to fix or something? "OH, no, I have a torn ACL". ; - )
Nah, you're not a bummer. Being playfully horrible is just part of the ouevre here.
What you need to know is that in the horrible, funhouse mirror world of the Gutter where we are all surly adolescents, everyone's mom- especially yours- is a gigantic, embarrassing slut. Especially the ones that aren't.
The only effective defense against a "your mom" joke is a more cutting "your mom" joke. Every other response is a sign of weakness, and you risk having your Pokemon cards stolen with your lunch money.
It's too late to work on the fence tonight. Brothermouth and I got a ton done today before my doctor's appointment since it was a stunningly beautiful day and things were light at his job.
Thanks, I know how to play, just not any good.
Funny incident: For the short time I lived in Florida, 30 years ago, I roomed with a guy from New York and a girl from Kentucky. The guy and I were conversing, I have no idea about what, and the girl was all "I can't stand it; will you please stop fighting?". Guy and I look at each other in confusion. She just didn't get that insulting each other was normal and showing affection.
I'll second SCA's notion of not giving unsolicited medical advice.
Now, I do hope the surgeon knows his stuff, but have you considered buying a parrot just in case? A norwegian blue perhaps?
And a hook. Could be useful herding cows. "Yarrr ye ole cunty-ballacks, ye Bessie ye, c'm ere or eye'll rip oot yer ear an polish me peg doon yer 'ead 'ole! Yarrr!"
Sorry to hear that GM. Provided the surgeon is competent, and you take the rehab seriously, you will almost always be satisfied with the results. But NOTHING at your age happens quickly with healing. So assume it will be a year before you feel "OK". No one ever wants to hear that, but I have been doing this a long time and that is about how it comes out.
Happy to provide more local color/info if you want/need it. Just ask here or email.
This gives new meaning to the phrase "being kicked to the gutter". I'm pretty sure you will gut it out just fine. You'll be back doing your Lagertha warrior queen thing in no time. Sorry about the puns. Seriously, you will get through this just fine. All the Gutterballs are pulling for you.
Good luck, Guttermouth. Hang in there.
I took care of an ex boyfriend after ACL surgery. The most painful part was his hamstring graft. So get dat cadaver bit just make sure it’s not from a vaxxie
You know in your gut what you need to do. While we may question medical advice, especially considering how we’ve been let down by the medical community after Covid and the jab, if you trust what is being shown to you, put your head down and do it. Short term downtime is nothing to sneeze at but you are young and have a hell of a lot of living to do, and you don’t want to do it in pain or be debilitated. After having both knees replaced (with no ability to take painkillers), I can tell you it’s worth it to be able to do what I could do at 40 without hobbling in pain. I gritted my teeth , did the PT and recovered quickly. While I’m no wuss, you appear to be Viking like, so this should be a walk in the park. Just make sure you can vote.😜 We’ll have you in our good thoughts. Wish I lived closer. I’d offer to help wrangle errant livestock.
I'm so sorry, GM. Totally sucks.
Take any help offered. And you have a whining allotment coming. A big one.
Go Fathermouth!
Hey, I've got cadaver tissues in me. I've yet to wonder if all these thoughts are really mine...
Just my take, go get a 2nd and a 3rd opinion if you can. There is no rush here so you have time to investigate, take a breath and evaluate what the next move is. Don't let anyone rush you. Pretty certain you are a really tough gutterbitch and will come through this process stronger cuz it ain't going to kill you. Take more than a little ligament damage to do that.