ACL Reconstruction:-Time line back to sking.

Andy,

Interesting suggestions on ACL brace.

I did some literature analysis on the use of such braces. There are two distinct "camps". The pro surgeons recommend this as a secondary prevention with exercise.
The "nays" suggest it is more of a psychological "support".

I had one for 10 years and can recommend them,,,,,,with lots of exercise.

The side effects? Black and blue band across thigh. Too many stares,,so I finally placed brace under pants.

Just my point of vire.

I was in the pro brace group until saw the price . Small fortune for the top end ones.

Knee is going really good . Back to squats today, just bum to chair but anyway all felt strong. 20 with 2 legs followed by 20 of the same on one as per Dave's instructions (good leg only). Cannot imagine doing a few hundred though, must give a nice ache afterwards.

I "tweaked" my knee back in the spring, between skiing trips - digging the potatoe bed would you believe.

Skied on it a week later with a brace, no real pain, just tired and a bit swollen after, although I wasn't skiing hard (for me).

Didn't see a Doctor with it but had some medical advice I trust and the upshot was whether it was a ligament issue (stretched or even partly torn) or a miniscus problem the best thing for me was to wait and be patient.

I bought two Shock Doctor braces from http://www.firstaid4sport.co.uk/

The first one was a knee stabiliser, which is infinately better than a plain old neoprene tube but I didn't feel I had enough torsional support. One of my biggest problems was climbing a spiral staircase at home which really but some stress on the knee unless I was ultra careful.

I phoned up and had a chat with the boss and got the Ultra hinged knee support on his recomendation. I am really impressed with this one. Stable and above all comfortable if a little bulky under clothes.

On the injury all is going according to plan. My personal physician (Sister!!) said it would take six weeks and rather irritatingly the pain completely went after exactly 6 weeks.

Now it is simply weak and I am working on that. Back to golf, 18 holes is no problem (but with the brace on) and will start cycling soon.

Jury is out on whether I will wear the brace for skiing next season - just wait and see. I did wear a brace for a couple of seasons after doing something similar nearly 30 years ago. It took a couple of seasons of skiing almost daily with a brace until I felt confident that I no longer needed that extra support. No further problems until those b***** potatoes needed planting !!

The moral of this story is ........
Go to Waitrose.