Surgery on the DW

[avolnek]

Well guys my wife injured her knee a few months ago at kick boxing. Initially when she came limping home after telling me she had to jump over an ankle high bag to kick a suspended bag I was like ...

Now that she is still hurting she has been in and out of the doctors office.


After of course several visits to the doctors they have found that she tore her ACL just below the knee. The doctors gave her 3 options. 1. do nothing. 2. scope the fluid and deal with the pain and risk tearing again. or 3. full on surgery to re construct the ACL.

Needless to say I am now ....


To give a little background on her. She is 25 years old and very active. We have been playing softball on summer. She is an avid water skier and a wake board tryer... So this really tells us that we need to do the surgery to repair the ACL... She has that scheduled for October 3rd as my little sisters wedding is the 21st of this month...

She has been told that she will be on crutches for at least 2 weeks. no driving for 6-8 weeks more and full recovery in 6 months.


Do any of you have any suggestions as to what we can still do camping wise? We both love camping nearly as much as some of you guys do and don't want to kill the rest of this year or next (possibly).

Really it is about the right time to do the surgery as the recovery time falls on most of the months that would be too cold for us anyways. Which as long as we can safely get the camper in and out cold generally isn't an issue.


Any thoughts?

[mrmurph]

My 17 Y/O son completely ruptured his ACL (along with a lot of other damage) playing football. The regiment they had him on had him at physical therapy two days post-op and off crutches in about a week. The driving part seems right but full recovery seems short to me.
The moral of the story is that we camped all during this time and he enjoyed his time and was able to contribute at a fairly high level. A word of caution though, even though my son has a very high pain tolerance, he was in incredible pain for the first week. The surgery is not trivial.

Best of luck to you and your DW.

[Terier]

Originally Posted by mrmurph

My 17 Y/O son completely ruptured his ACL (along with a lot of other damage) playing football. The regiment they had him on had him at physical therapy two days post-op and off crutches in about a week. The driving part seems right but full recovery seems short to me.
The moral of the story is that we camped all during this time and he enjoyed his time and was able to contribute at a fairly high level. A word of caution though, even though my son has a very high pain tolerance, he was in incredible pain for the first week. The surgery is not trivial.

Best of luck to you and your DW.

I agree about the time period looking on the short side. I would recommend taking a wheelchair with you. I know that she wouldn't be able to use it inside the RV but it could make a big difference in getting around in general.

[Barney1]

A camping friend of ours just had a knee replacement 6 weeks ago. (End result of an old car accident injury)
Anyway it has not stop his camping activities.
His wife and son(16) do all the driving.
He has rented a wheel chair and a walker.
Ok he is not playing football on the beach but he is still in charge of the camp fires

[turnerpa]

Best wishes to your wife and yourself! I feel for her meaning I have been threw four knee surgeries two acl reconstructs and two cartilage removals. Needless to say once it hurts it will always hurt its a pain but after awhile she will learn how to cope with it and what her limitations are. It's a long process but in the end I have always been lucky enough to recover fully!! But again best wishes and u will be in my thoughts and prayers!!

[bikendan]

well, i just had my 7th knee surgery, 4th on the left and 3 on the right.
and one of the 4 on the left knee was an ACL reconstruction.

first question, you stated that she tore her ACL, not ruptured. there's a big difference. a torn ACL shouldn't need reconstruction, just cleaning up. a ruptured one(meaning complete break in the ligament) may or may not need reconstruction.

i completely ruptured the ACL in my right knee, 30 years ago and have never had it reconstructed.
and i continued to do all the things i had been doing, snowboarding, competitive volleyball, surfing, mtn. biking, road biking, hiking and climbing.
but i was born with big quad and hamstring muscles that help hold the knee together. i had two more meniscus surgeries on that knee.
then, due to favoring my right knee and putting a lot of pressure on left one, i ended up rupturing its ACL along with meniscus tears.
that one was reconstructed using a graft from my patellar tendon. i then had three more surgeries, with this 7th one in May as the latest.

so, need to know whether it's a torn ACL or ruptured ACL. a torn one would walking normally in a day or two. a reconstructed ruptured ACL would take longer with rehab being extremely important if she wants to continue being as active as before.
by the rehab time, i'm guessing she ruptured it, not just tore it.

[avolnek]

Originally Posted by bikendan

so, need to know whether it's a torn ACL or ruptured ACL. a torn one would walking normally in a day or two. a reconstructed ruptured ACL would take longer with rehab being extremely important if she wants to continue being as active as before.
by the rehab time, i'm guessing she ruptured it, not just tore it.

She was told that it is only torn. But the doctor is also ad emit about reconstruction vs "cleaned up"... Not sure what the difference there would be..

[Brother Les]

Originally Posted by avolnek

Any thoughts?

Treat her as the Queen that she is.... because if you don't........ it WILL come back to haunt you.

Praying for the best of health and a fast recovery.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by Brother Les

Treat her as the Queen that she is.... because if you don't........ it WILL come back to haunt you.

Too right! 8 months ago, my sister broke her ankle. Her boyfriend was fantastic about it. Just last month, he broke a bone near his shoulder...

[rattleNsmoke]

Just have her take it easy and careful climbing stairs. You'll be on KP and double duty cleaning the trailer but hey, it's worth it if you can still get away. If not, don't force the issue and let her heal up comfortably at home. There's always next season.

[QCCowboy]

Surgery is never fun, especially when the recovery period can be that long. My advice would be to look at the things you normally do while camping as individual goals for her to accomplish one by one throughout her recovery process. Start with the simple ones and gradually progress towards the ones that will take more of a complete recovery for her to complete. You can also utilize time in and out of the camper to focus on the PT (pain and torture) exercises that she will need to work on.

These little things will give her a feeling of moving forward and accomplishment and she will begin to see the difference and progression.

This is what helped me get through the surgery that has now graced me with a titanium rod through the center of my femur attached by six wonderful screws. Broke my femur six weeks before my wedding and by following this was able to walk down the aisle without crutches or a cane, which was my main goal to accomplish