Hello Renrenspeakers! Happy Wednesday! Today marks 6 whole weeks and one day post my ACL surgery. This is a huge milestone for me because this means that my brace comes off and a little more of my independence is restored, whoohoo! I had my follow up appointment today, and so far everything is healing well according to my surgeon. I did not have a long appointment, but overall the surgeon assessed my range of motion, reviewed my scars, and gave me the green light to no longer wear my ACL brace.

6 weeks have flown by, to be quite honest with yall. I remember not being able to flex my knee at all to now having 115 degrees of active flexion at my last PT session. I am super close to restoring functional flexion ROM, and I can tell that a lot of progress has been made based on my ability to sit comfortably in a chair or complete rotations with my under the desk mini bike. I even have some hyperextension back! Swelling in my knee is so much more calm and I can see very slight knee definition returning (though my knee is oddly pointy, lol). I even went to the gym for the first time yesterday since my surgery and never have I been grateful for the ability to gym, haha.

I also want to share that I am now able to DRIVE again! It is funny because I typically am not the most excited about driving myself in general, but when the ability to drive is taken away, it makes me much more appreciative and grateful for that skill. I started with driving small distances around my neighborhood and to my local store earlier this week, but today was the official day in which I drove on the freeway for a long distance in order to make it to my appointment. It felt really freeing to drive, as a huge part of my independence was returned. Of course, I am so thankful for the support of my wonderful community who has assisted me with driving around to the store, PT, etc. However, knowing that my capability has been restored is so nice, I must admit.

Another milestone I have achieved by this time is that I can actually use the recumbent bike – mind you, very slowly and with very minimal to no resistance, but still. To be quite honest, I was never a huge cycler, but cycling in general has been paramount in assisting me with my ROM and breaking up scar tissue. I feel a huge difference in mobility when I start off my day pedaling for a few minutes on the bike since I’ve been waking up with my right knee naturally more stiff. Who knows, I might become a biker at this rate, lol.

Though I am super grateful that recovery has been a pretty positive experience thus far, I do want to share that I am constantly reminded that this is a LONGGGGG journey. I felt it before, but though my knee feels much better than it did before, I still cannot do a lot of activities and movements that I am used to executing such as dancing, kneeling, criss crossing, and jumping. My quad is still significantly weak and atrophied compared to my left leg, and without the brace, my knee feels like it is so fragile and exposed. I will probably wear my brace outside of my home for comfort at least for a little while until I get used to the feeling of walking without it again completely. The healing process is a bit deceptive actually because the 6-12 week stage of ACL recovery actually tends to be the most dangerous time due to the graft being at its weakest point since it is undergoing ligamentization, which is the process in which my new ACL (part of my quad tendon) starts to turn into a ligament. Thus, retear rates can be higher during this stage because the false sense of physical confidence in the knee makes people attempt activities the knee and overall leg is just not ready for yet. Therefore, it is a little discouraging to realize that even if I am pain free, I cannot run nor jump just yet. Again, I only want to do this surgery once and never again so it is soooo crucial I am careful, maybe even more careful than I was before. As an occupational therapist who is now on the patient side of care, this has been a very eye-opening experience.

In this next phase of recovery, I am excited to start building my quad strength back, continue to reduce swelling, normalize my gait, and overcome any mental barriers that might make recovery challenging at some points! Cheers to 6 weeks post ACL recovery!

Peace and love,

Irene