# riding after knee injury



## gmore10

was in a pretty serious car accident couple weeks ago hit a tree head on at 50. Anyway doctor says i should be able to ride again. I basiclly exploded my knee and have another 2 surgeries till im all good again prolly be walking again in febuary. Anyway wondering if anyone else rides with a previous knee injury and weather it bothers them alot when they ride. Heres a current shot of the knee but the nurses were hot.


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## BigmountainVMD

I've been riding with a torn medial meniscus since I was 15... but that is nothing compared to what you have endured. I think this spring I will finally get the surgery on it (I'm off my parents insurance next July). I actually have more issues running, hiking and biking than snowboarding.


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## DirtyD27

Tore my left ACL twice playing basketball. second time I tore it I waited two years before I had it repaired in doing so I developed grade IV, (severe) arthritis of the weight bearing condyles. Therefore had to have whats called a microfracture procedure performed. Where the surgeon drills small holes into the bone to promote bleeding which then fills in the leison "damaged" tissue, cartilage to make a "patch" if you will not as good as real cartilage but I have not had a problem since. Was on crutches non weight bearing for 12 weeks. then an additional 1 year of personal physical therapy before I felt stable and strong enough to return to sports.


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## gmore10

hoping to ride again next season but well see ive already had my patella reattached and monsicuss fixed but every tendon and ligament in my knee is pretty much torn. happy to be alive considering my truck was trashed. heres some pics of the truck.


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## BarrettDSP

Rode 5 months after ACL reconstruction for a week without any problem this past march. I told my physical therapist to really push me during rehab as well which helped. Just do what your doctors tell you to do. Dont skip any of the at home PT as minor as it may seem every excercise they tell you to do helps. Hope you make a full recovery.


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## gjsnowboarder

gmore10 said:


> hoping to ride again next season but well see ive already had my patella reattached and monsicuss fixed but every tendon and ligament in my knee is pretty much torn. happy to be alive considering my truck was trashed. heres some pics of the truck.


It should be more than possible. Rehab, rehab, and follow the doctor and physical therapist suggestions for when to start rengaging in sport activities. Heck, I have been back on a board after 4-5 month from my surgery date but that was with just the ACL and on my other knee which was ACL and minscus within six months. With you having some much damage it is more likely that it will take longer and require much more time rehabing. It can be done. Good Luck and best wishes.

P.S. Look-up Willis McGahee of the Denver Broncos if you need some inspiration for coming back from a catastrophic knee injury.


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## Dysantic

^^ McGahee only tore all the ligaments in his knee, by the looks of the stitches in that picture it looks like he did alot more than just tear some ligaments. But yes, to see someone come back from an awful injury is still inspirational. 

OP, what did you actually do to your knee in the accident? I'm gonna assume you broke a few bones based on that picture. But like everyone said, stick to what your doc's say and don't get brave like so many snowboarders do and think your good to try before your cleared to. Also, make sure you take extra special care of those stitches and the healing of it. I've seen people with similar incisions and they didn't take care of it and they got infected. That is bad news...


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## gmore10

only thing that was broken was a few small ships off the tip of my femur but basically what happened was a complex dislocation when i went into shock trauma my patella was halfway up my thigh


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## onel0wcubn

I've yet ( hopefully never do) have a serious knee injury.. I tore my MCL in both knees 2 years ago and had surgery on both knees. and was riding probably a few months after. My surgeon dont me that i couldnt damage anything she had done so to go at my own pace and push myself. So I was skating like a month after and riding a few months.

Your injury looks way worse than mine. Just follow your therapist workouts and you'll be fine.


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## Donutz

You people with your knee injury stories are making me cringe. Mine gets sore once in a while.


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## KnoxBoarderX

I tore my acl about 6 years back in the summer and was riding that winter. 

My wife has had three knee surgeries, one acl, one mcl, and another one was patella and mcl and acl all at once. 

We both ride to this day without any problems. Keep your head up, you'll be back.


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## gmore10

update had operation couple weeks ago to remove previous imboilized in bledsoe brace now. I have regained about 40 degrees of movement, have another surgery in febuary to repair ligaments and tendons.


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## mdmike

I replied to one of your other post but anyway, 2 years ago I broke my knee(not the cap but one of the joint bones) had a stage 3 tear in my meniscous and a slight tear of the acl. the acl healed itself as it was not bad just through staying off of it along with the bone. The meniscous on the other hand required surgery. I originally hurt my knee in December on the first day out of the season(snowboarding), after trying to rehad and quartazone shots etc. I ended up having surgery in july. Now I was able to board that following year but the knee was still and still a little sore and weak from not being able to exercise. Well anyway I ended up getting pneumonia last year and missing the whole season but this year my knee feels better than it ever has. basically as long as you take your time and rehab like you are supposed to and not try to get back to early you should be good


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## Jdboard42

Tore MCL twice, didnt have surgery and couldn't agree more with everyone else about the importance of following up with PT; it's the only way to stregthen the supporting infrastructure around the joint and avoid re-injury... Even surgery alone doesnt always correc things 100% alone... Follow doc's orders!


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## karkis

Ouch!!! 
+++vibes buddy keep your chin up and dont stop hittin on the nurses!
i dislocated my knee ummm.... 7 or 8 years ago, hit a tree too but on my board not truck, my patella went around the side, that shit does hurt!
it took me a while for the surgery, our healthcare is subsidized here in canuckistan but the wait times are brutal, esp if you live in the middle of nowhere...
long story short the surgeon repaired my acl, mcl and pcl, took about 6 more months to start getting active in dynamic sports and it was a full year after surgery before i was about 90%
a couple of years later i think i got to say 97% and probly around there still. my range of motion (flexion) is reduced by about 10-15 deg and sometimes when my leg is straight, just standing up, i'll move some way and feel a really weird laxity like my femur is just sliding around on my tibia. im sure thats not good for the meniscus (which was undamaged, for the most part, luckily) but it doenst happen often. when im riding my knees are bent so its never been an issue, althogth the lack of full flexion, and slight weakness at my full flexion, is a bit tuff sometimes. alot of rehab will go a long way.
be patient, enjoy the other things life has to offer and baby steps will get you back in the game.


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## gmore10

Hey guys, thought id give an update for anyone that cares had my third and final surgery 4 weeks ago. I lucked out in that my mcl repaired itself but had to have my lcl, pcl, and acl repaired. Unfortunately I found out ill be out another 18 months so no boarding next winter. Thanks for the advice on pt I did all my exercises at home twice a day on top of my regular pt and my knee has healed remarkably. So for someone who had 4 tears in there monsicus, ruptured kneecap, and 4 torn ligament im doing pretty well.


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## AntipodeanSam

gmore10 said:


> Hey guys, thought id give an update for anyone that cares had my third and final surgery 4 weeks ago. I lucked out in that my mcl repaired itself but had to have my lcl, pcl, and acl repaired. Unfortunately I found out ill be out another 18 months so no boarding next winter. Thanks for the advice on pt I did all my exercises at home twice a day on top of my regular pt and my knee has healed remarkably. So for someone who had 4 tears in there monsicus, ruptured kneecap, and 4 torn ligament im doing pretty well.


Good work. I have had four operations on my right knee, first couple were for a bad dislocation and relocation tearing my ACL and medials, damaging the bone heads and tearing my cartilage. The latter were for more cartilage trims and to clean out excess scar tissue. I had 18 months rehab and played semi pro soccer for 6 more years. I recently retired as my ACL repair has weakened and have started to get some arthritis, I'm 29 now.

However the good news is snowboard quite happily still, I wear a knee support with a knee pad over the top. I do about 30 days a season, charge pretty hard but don't hit too many big jumps. I am even going to try ducking my stance a little this season and see how it holds up...

You will be up and sliding in a couple of seasons I am sure!!


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## AntipodeanSam

One leg knee squats when you progress from two, these will be your saviour!!


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## Jason

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Best of luck, dude.


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## Epic

Find a kick ass physical therapist that will really push you. American healthcare sucks at preventative medicine but for surgery it's the best in the world. Athletes come back from nasty shit all the time, it's just a matter of wanting to endure the pain of physical therapy. When you do start riding again get a good knee brace.


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## Argo

gmore10 said:


> Hey guys, thought id give an update for anyone that cares had my third and final surgery 4 weeks ago. I lucked out in that my mcl repaired itself but had to have my lcl, pcl, and acl repaired. Unfortunately I found out ill be out another 18 months so no boarding next winter. Thanks for the advice on pt I did all my exercises at home twice a day on top of my regular pt and my knee has healed remarkably. So for someone who had 4 tears in there monsicus, ruptured kneecap, and 4 torn ligament im doing pretty well.


If all the surgeries are complete you should be back riding in 6-9 months with proper PT.... See it all the time.


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## gmore10

Argo said:


> If all the surgeries are complete you should be back riding in 6-9 months with proper PT.... See it all the time.


yea this is what I was thinking buti would hate to mess up a 70,000 dollars worth of surgery.


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## gmore10

Epic said:


> Find a kick ass physical therapist that will really push you. American healthcare sucks at preventative medicine but for surgery it's the best in the world. Athletes come back from nasty shit all the time, it's just a matter of wanting to endure the pain of physical therapy. When you do start riding again get a good knee brace.


Yea luckily I have established a pretty high tolerance for pain from years of playing rugby and riding dirtbikes.


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## BarrettDSP

Argo said:


> If all the surgeries are complete you should be back riding in 6-9 months with proper PT.... See it all the time.


exactly, I was cleared by my doctor 5 1/2 months post surgery. I did bust my butt in PT and I was 29 when I had my surgery in relative good shape(play alot of basketball and lift) so not a young buck by any means. I did use my Don Joy brace for my snowboard trip right after being cleared but I had no issues and havent had any the past 2 years except for the occasional stiffness which probably means I'm just getting old as well, lol.

Good Luck with your recovery.


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## Epic

gmore10 said:


> yea this is what I was thinking buti would hate to mess up a 70,000 dollars worth of surgery.


God damn our medical costs are so out of whack in the US. The hospital billed $50k for each of my relatively minor ankle surgeries but accepted $25k each from my insurance. For the same the of surgery medicare would reimburse less than $10k and the hospitals accept it. I really think they just pull a number put of their ass and hope some dumb schmuck pays the whole thing. I can't comprehend what it must be like to need something major done without insurance.


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## gmore10

Epic said:


> God damn our medical costs are so out of whack in the US. The hospital billed $50k for each of my relatively minor ankle surgeries but accepted $25k each from my insurance. For the same the of surgery medicare would reimburse less than $10k and the hospitals accept it. I really think they just pull a number put of their ass and hope some dumb schmuck pays the whole thing. I can't comprehend what it must be like to need something major done without insurance.


Insurance is a pretty whacked out system luckily the first 40 was covered under auto, the bad part is after the first 40 im now on my parents geha insurance and will probably wind up with 8 to 10 thousand in deductibles. But you cant put a price on living or being able to walk again so in the big picture 8 to 10 isnt horrible.


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## gmore10

Got a good to go on riding a couple times this doc wants me to take it slow, especially after I saw time last with a nice gouge in my knee from dirtbike vs tree :dunno: (fuck these things). But anyway I should be all good to go just gotta loose some weight I gained. Doc said if I can climb 30 feet up in a tree stand then I can ride so stoked to shred again


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## Logan14

That looks nasty man! But fortunate that you're still with us! I screwed up my ACL when I was away for the weekend with my brothers on skis (stupid things) in a park. Couldn't straighten it for about 5/6 months and it still clicks when I move it, and ocassionally aches.

Thankfully, because I decided it was a good idea to carry on skiing on it, there was absolutely no pain if I put weight on it whilst my knee was bent in the position that I was skiing in, which meant that when I went boarding 2 months after the incident, it didn't hurt unless I fell.

Hope it goes well for you bro.


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## mdmike

I feel yam. I am taking this season off after a free soloing fall on march 11th. I could prolly go boarding but I would be in some pain so to me it is better to take the year off rehab and get out stronger next year instead of possibly re injuring my knee because I couldn't wait. But I have seriously thought about quitting until the cold weather started coming around and I got the itch. I was doing serious rehab for several months and my leg is a lot better but it is not perfect so I have to keep trying to do rehab on my own since I am no longer going to the physical therapist.


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## BigmountainVMD

mdmike said:


> I feel yam. *I am taking this season off after a free soloing fall on march 11th*. I could prolly go boarding but I would be in some pain so to me it is better to take the year off rehab and get out stronger next year instead of possibly re injuring my knee because I couldn't wait. But I have seriously thought about quitting until the cold weather started coming around and I got the itch. I was doing serious rehab for several months and my leg is a lot better but it is not perfect so I have to keep trying to do rehab on my own since I am no longer going to the physical therapist.


Am I right that this is without ropes? Not trying to be callous here, but after wasting an entire season with surgery and rehab, will you still continue to climb without ropes? Really just curious here.


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## mdmike

Yes that is without ropes. The wall I was on can really be considered high bouldering. Heinsight is always 20/20 but. I dont see it at losing a snowboarding season as much as learning a lesson. I made a lot of mistakes before I went climbing that day. It really made me take a step back and look at the situations I am going into more thuroughly and think about how my choices affect others not just myself. I used to just charge head strong into every situation then figure things out when they happen. I have had afew close calls in the past but tgis one could have ended very bad had my luck not been good that day. I wont be able to climb without ropes again, if I do and fall on my leg I have basically been told I probably wont walk again. So that being said I wouldnt climb again without ropes if I could. Would I boulder if I could yes but I also would not take the situation away because of What I have learned


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## mdmike

Also I will keep climbing once I am able to.


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