Team REHAB thread - People with and recovering from injuries AKA The Walking Wounded

[prostaffer]

I have posted in here before and in other injury threads and wanted to start one dedicated to those of us coming off of injuries.

This thread is not meant to take the place of advice you should be taking from your physician! I just want it to be a reference point for those of us going through rehab and those of us that might be looking for advice, motivation from others who have suffered the same.

I tore my ACL in Feb '13. Delayed surgery until 8/13. I was getting married and my doc I wanted to get a second opinion from was not available until May. It was the same Doc that did D. Rose. I spoke to a few guys that had delayed their surgery too and felt they were better for it. Right now I'm not sure if I did the right thing.

Either way I am about 4 months out of surgery and my annual basketball tournament is coming up. In fact it is on the same date that I tore the ACL last year. Same tournament also. I am motivated to get back, but it would be at 5 1/2 months out of surgery.

I did the graft where they use the middle third of your own patella. Right now I'm working on building this quad up, but I have hit a lull. After my checkup this week I should be cleared for jump training.

I"m not aiming at playing in the tournament as 100% the way I was. However I would be happy with just making it onto the court within a year and playing a few minutes.

How are all of you doing with what ails you?

 

[sea manup]

not as serious of an injury but does anyone have advice on how to deal with shin splints? somedays i feel fine and some days i cant touch the bottom of the backboard or even squat

 

[prostaffer]

^

I battled those the last few years. The deal with shin splints is that rest is really the only thing that helps them.

In the past my answer was always to try different insoles and see if that helps. I noticed over time that certain shoes would aggravate the injury more than others. Also noticed that I can't wear any barefoot or free type shoes at all.

This insole helped me a lot...

https://sofsole.com/product/Airr_Orthotic

This and some of the my insoles that I took from old Lunar Eclipse shoes really helped as well.

 

[ice city fc]

Tore my ACL, MCL, LCL and meniscus. Delayed surgery for eight weeks to allow my MCL to heal on its own and had the same graft done as you OP.  Just so happens I returned to unrestricted practice exactly 5 1/2 months after surgery. 

OP my biggest regret is not continuing to build up the muscles in my leg after I was cleared to play. I really recommend keeping up with a modified version of your rehab regime for an entire year after surgery regardless of when you're cleared to play.  After I was cleared I was too focused on playing and should of focused more on getting stronger and stronger. My quads weren't as strong as I thought and I developed patella tendonitis in my "good" knee which led to hamstring and back problems. Over multiple years the tendonitis and hamstring/lower back issues took longer to resolve than the torn ligaments. 

Playing again is crucial though. Once you're cleared, as long as you ease your way back and avoid overworking your knee I definitely recommend starting to play ASAP to get the mental and coordination process going. Only three to four months after I returned I felt I was at about 85% but I definitely plateaued there and it really took me a FULL 24 months post surgery to get to what I'd estimate as 98%. 

 

 

[GreenNGold89]

not as serious of an injury but does anyone have advice on how to deal with shin splints? somedays i feel fine and some days i cant touch the bottom of the backboard or even squat

Rest.

I had horrible shin splits in high school during track and tried to suck up the pain and run through it, and it caused me a great deal of pain. My shins continued to get worse until I finally rested for weeks.

 

[Coupé It]

This thread is a great idea. Feel for ya OP.

I've never had a serious ligament injury like that (just broken/fractured bones) but I have flat feet. My whole god damn life, and it sucks

I too get the shin splints because of it

 

[prostaffer]

I have semi flat feet. The only insoles that I find work for me are the fit sole out of lunar ecslipses or the lunar sole from the first lunar control golf shoe. I always stop at outlets to see if I can get cheap older models. I wear them for awhile then use the insoles. They seem to help just as much as some of these $25+ insoles.