I am not fully cleared from ACL rehab yet, but I plan to be this year (2021). It is totally possible. I still have much to check off, but it will happen this year. I feel confident enough that I bought a ski pass for next winter (winter 2021-2022) because I wanted to take advantage of the pre-season sale. I haven't had a resort pass in probably 12 years, but I am guessing I'm going to be doing 1-2 runs here and there to get my knee used to turning demands.
This is not because all of a sudden my knee is feeling great to give me this confidence - it's because I'm slowly chipping away at all the stages - despite the anterior knee pain. This was the last weekend to take advantage of the closed park road at Grand Teton National Park. Each April, they stop ski grooming operations, snowplow the road 15 mile inner park road, and allow bikes, rollerblades, skateboards, strollers, dogs on leashes to utilize the road for one month before opening it to cars (Yellowstone does a similar thing, but much longer distances, also on my list!). I've wanted to do this for many years after seeing several foot high snow banks along the road with people wearing T-shirts while riding bikes - bliss! It wasn't quite like that this year (not as much snow). Here has been the hold up:
Finally this was the year! I am back on a mountain bike after a 2 year wrist hiatus and I've done many long rides just to make sure I am able to do this ride (which turned out to be a pretty easy ride). Temps were great, still had to bundle up, but overall such a fun experience! We were able to hike to a few of the lakes too. We even did a ski tour the day prior. Just had to watch out for grizzly bears! They were coming out of hibernation (we did not see any, but had our bear spray on us).
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I am doing a new thing! Neurological physical therapy! It's done remotely. I was shipped a direct current device. I also Zoom with a neuro PT 3x a week at home. This is designed not only for post surgical care from ACL surgery, but a range of other things included neurological deficiencies, muscle deficiencies like atrophy and more. I have always suspected something was deeply missing/wrong with my ACL leg. Recently this paper by Lindsey Lepley et al. came out about effects of atrophy after ACL surgery.
Muscle Atrophy After ACL Injury: Implications for Clinical Practice. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1941738120944256 There are several hidden atrophy-induced factors that follow ACL injury. It's not just disuse, there are cellular signaling cascades, neural alterations and various levels of dysregulation among others that make regaining muscle mass in the post-traumatic knee especially difficult. I feel like this is me 100%. The neuro therapy is can help with this. "Unlike concentric exercise, progressive overloading achieved via high-load eccentric exercise provides the muscle with the necessary mechanical stimuli that are needed to promote muscle hypertrophy and improve neural activity (two critical components of muscle function that are negatively altered after injury)." https://southcoastseminars.com/blog/grooms-lepley-acl?fbclid=IwAR3lrnecErZrZJSKGyWQZljC5A1oHF-nvg-wGL1uMOZw5IGFDANVnDsHUxE This therapy is a supplement to my existing therapy, so yes, just when I thought my plate could not get any fuller, I piled this on! I'm only 30 days in, and I have another 30 days to go. I think the root of my constant nagging plantar heel pain and posterior tibial tendon issues have to do with some deep muscular/neurological deficits. The mapping process with this current device already show the majority of my hot spots have been all on my lower leg. I'm sure the moths I spent in a moon boot also did not help. Hopefully this will make a difference in some way and help overall with breaking the cycle and with reducing knee pain! |
AuthorA 45 year old active female who tore her ACL in January 2017 (at the age of 40). Reconstructive surgery in February 2017 with bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft. Archives
November 2022
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