Ruptured Quadriceps Tendon

[John42]

Hi Scott

Welcome to KneeGuru

Suggest you read some of the previous posts on the Ruptured Patella/Qudriceps/surgery thread - lots of buddies out there to give you advice - Ask questions.    Where do you live?

Take care
JohnK/ Manchester UK

p.s. would be wise to read the undermentioned thread.

https://www.facebook.com/QuadricepsPatellarTendonRupture

[Scott53]

Thanks John,

I will check out that link. I actually live in the US, in Dallas, Texas.

Scott

[davkt]

10 weeks post knee op (7weeks 6 days post ankle op) today and some good progress to mark it. The surgeons at the hospital have discharged me to the care of the recovery and rehabilitation specialists, my knee brace is now at 120 deg and as with each increase in allowed flex my knee has bent to the limit each time and I am also allowed full weight bearing (or as much as I can building up) on my ankle. And keeps getting better, it is time to start weaning myself off the the knee brace, doctors advice was at first wear it when up and about and take it off while static, am just about to go out for a walks and then let my leg be brace free for an hour or two when I get home for the first time since Jan 24th! I have also managed to walk across my living room without my crutches, slow and unsteady but I made it which feels like a huge win! Time to very careful I don't overdo things but this finally feels like I've made the transition from being injured to being in recovery, hopefully another 3 or 4 weeks I should be able to drive again and get back to work.

[TurboCoder3000]

I'm at 8 months post op. Bending my knee at 75 degrees, still in a brace. But, I have made a major transition from crutches to a walker quite successfully. As soon as my surgery wound from 9/21 healed on 3/24 I gave up the crutches for good. Unfortunately, my wound had to take my full FMLA leave to heal. So I will be doing most of my recovery at work now. I will still be attending Physical Therapy early in the morning (like 7:00 a.m.) while going to work.

So I am going back to work Tuesday. I will be in a brace and walking in a walker to work. We did a dry run of me walking AT work earlier today (Sunday). I started off doing well but by the end of returning to the car on the walk way I was feeble as all hell and walking like I was 80 years old (no offense intended but still, even 80 year olds can walk better than me).

If my surgery wound would have taken only 2-3 weeks to heal I wouldn't be in this mess. I wouldn't have had necrotic skin. I wouldn't have had to keep my knee straight and sit for 7 months. I wouldn't have so much scar tissue to break through. I would be all done with PT and all back to work without issue.

But, alas, it seems the universe just wants to pick on me. Not sure what I've ever done to deserve it working out this way.

 

[Barrjoe]

Kind of feeling the same way Turbo. Not much has gone right for me since last November. Tried to ride my bike last week and I couldn't get on it. Was hoping to be able to do that. My left knee hurt 10 times worse than my right  (surgical) knee right now too. Going to be talking to Mayo in a couple of hours and probably be going there by the end of the month.

I'm usually an optimistic type, but this whole ordeal is been very trying to say the least

[davkt]

Well I survived the physiotherapy session, home with a resistance band and lots of exercises to do and the instructions are if my eyes are popping out of my head and I'm swigging the Jack Daniels to cope I'm pushing too hard but pretty much anything else goes. Exercises are focused on improving the flex in my knee and beginning the long process of rebuilding my quads and calf with supported squats. Also supported heal raises to start on strengthening my ankle which should also help the swelling in there go down.

Physio was amazed with the flex in my leg, got to around 140 or 150 degrees today out of the brace, he said that that was noting short of astonishing for 11 weeks post op, well until I showed him the flex in my other leg which easily fold all the way back on itself so my heel touches my buttocks and he decided I am on a different baseline to most folks, I've always been double jointed enough to do things most people thing are unnatural and disgusting and that seems to be helping big time with this.

I am getting around the house mostly without crutches now, still use one crutch on the stairs as a bit of a safety blanket, agreed with the physio today that I will use one crutch for short trips out and about but stick to two for my longer hops. On the hopping 1.2 miles from bus stop to physio done at 24:38 min/mile which was a new crutch hop PB, then on the way back 0.8 miles as I went to a closer bus stop and didn't take a wrong turn which I did at 21:03 min/mile so am certainly getting quicker!

[Scott53]

I am now 11 weeks post op. I was not able to pedal a circle on a stationary bike in March, I could only go halfway with alot of pain, but now in April I can pedal at a high cadence for 45 minutes with medium resistance. I am really happy to be able to finally get my heart rate up in Zone 3(130-150 HR). I go hard on the stationary bike 3 days a week, I am really spent afterwards, but the cardio conditioning is coming back quickly. The bike doesn't cause me pain, but the recent heavy scar and patella manipulation from my PT causes some residual soreness, that is for sure! He is determined to get my ROM back!(currently at 110) Tomorrow I am going to my first cycling class (spin class) this year. We shall see how it goes. I don't plan on coming out of the saddle too much, just want to keep a moderate load with high cadence. I think it will be May before I can ride outside again, looking forward to that day. I'm not patient, but I know we all have to be to recover properly and as fully as we can.

[davkt]

12 weeks post op today but only 4wks since I could put any weight on it thanks to the broken ankle. No crutches round the house, no brace at night and am doing without it for a few hours a day round the house. I did try a short trip into town minus the brace yesterday but that was scary, didn't realise just how much of the weight through my foot the brace bypasses my knee with. Felt like straight after the accident with a useless and totally unstable knee so time to focus on all the strength exercises the physio has given me and learn to walk again!

[TurboCoder3000]

Kind of feeling the same way Turbo. Not much has gone right for me since last November. Tried to ride my bike last week and I couldn't get on it. Was hoping to be able to do that. My left knee hurt 10 times worse than my right  (surgical) knee right now too. Going to be talking to Mayo in a couple of hours and probably be going there by the end of the month.

I'm usually an optimistic type, but this whole ordeal is been very trying to say the least

I am sorry to hear barrjoe! That's exactly how I feel about this whole deal. I feel like I have been through every complication known to man other than death throughout this ordeal. I am also a very optimistic person but having to go through this for so long with so many complications has almost bested my resolve. I do, however, feel very fortunate to have amazing co-workers, friends, and family who are willing to help out when the need arises.

Sad note: my step grandma passed away about a week ago. I am still not quite where I need to be to be brace free or walker free and my walking needs a lot of improvement. As a result, I couldn't even attend her funeral this weekend - because of extremely slow improvement in my ROM I can't even bend my knee enough to get pants on, among other things. So my wardrobe is limited to flexible gym shorts and t-shirts until I can bend my knee further. Of course, driving is limited as well. ;(

[TurboCoder3000]

Well I am finally here: I am 8 mos post op: I have been walking to and from my office at work every day with my walker and it has been going well for the most part. The hardest part has been working on my endurance and bending my knee but my knee bending is getting easier and less painful every day (mostly it is just stiff now). My surgeon has given me the OK to wean myself out of my brace so long as I feel comfortable and I have my walker. And that it's just there for my support. I probably should not do any deep squats  until I get a bit better ROM.

Well I guess my big question is: how do I do it?

Do I throw the brace away? Do I go cold turkey? What is the best way to wean out of it?

After the past few weeks of my brace constantly digging into my foot no matter what I do, I am just about ready to say screw it and go cold turkey.

[TurboCoder3000]

Well I did it!!!!! For the first time in approximately 9 months I am finally walking around without my brace.

I don't feel any weakness, any issues with my knee yet. It feels so much better than having the brace on I don't think I will need it much.

Not much is worse than having that God awful brace shifting down and digging into my foot for hours upon hours at a time. I never could get it to stay or fit right very well.

[Barrjoe]

Good for you a Turbo. Know what you mean about the brace. My first tear I could never get one to fit right either.

I'm goin to Mayos Monday. Getting both knees looked at and hopefully fixed. Had a horrible night last nite but it was my own fault. Way overdid it yesterday. Trying to get a few things done before I leave and it was close to 60 here for the first time since last fall. Thought I was gonna die but I managed to avoid the opiate pain pill, which I think I was starting to like a little too much.

I wouldn't wish a quad tear on anyone, but after Tony Parker got hurt last night, there seems to be a public query, for lack of a better term, about quad tears. I'm sick of getting compared to a f'ing menicus tear. I had to flat out tell someone you ain't got a f'ing clue what I' m going thru. Think my fellow quad tearers will agree. Congrats again Turbo!

[davkt]

13 weeks last Friday post op for me, much to my physios amazement my knee now bends so my heel is within half a handspan of my buttocks and goes a little further each day. My knee is still very weak and unstable but the physio has figured out that is down to my vastus medialis muscle being atrophied and the leg bends, lifts and squats so far haven't used it so have a load of new exercises to do now to get that back functioning and luckily apparently it is one of the quickest muscles to rebuild. Am down to 2 out of 3 of 2 crutches and the brace pretty much all the time and can manage a few steps without either as long as there is something to grab if (or rather when) my knee decides it has enough. Yesterday I managed 7 miles on one crutch and the brace https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1719881327 though it did take the best part of 4 hours to do a route that would normally take me around 2! And today was the first session of the rehab in the gym, easiest gym session ever, 20 min (2x10) on the static bike at lowest resistance and 15 reps each of leg press, curl and extension on the lowest weigth but easily the toughest time I've had in the gym ever!
Am hoping to finally ditch the brace in the next 3 or 4 weeks even if I still need a crutch or two.

[TurboCoder3000]

Good for you a Turbo. Know what you mean about the brace. My first tear I could never get one to fit right either.

I'm goin to Mayos Monday. Getting both knees looked at and hopefully fixed. Had a horrible night last nite but it was my own fault. Way overdid it yesterday. Trying to get a few things done before I leave and it was close to 60 here for the first time since last fall. Thought I was gonna die but I managed to avoid the opiate pain pill, which I think I was starting to like a little too much.

I wouldn't wish a quad tear on anyone, but after Tony Parker got hurt last night, there seems to be a public query, for lack of a better term, about quad tears. I'm sick of getting compared to a f'ing menicus tear. I had to flat out tell someone you ain't got a f'ing clue what I' m going thru. Think my fellow quad tearers will agree. Congrats again Turbo!

I'm sorry to hear barrjoe!!! Glad you got through it at least. Yeah no kidding...getting compared to a meniscus tear is kind of infuriating isn't it?

Thanks again barrjoe! Keep getting better. It's a rough journey indeed isn't it?

[TurboCoder3000]

I have some major major progress happening just the past few days. And it feels oh so good.

First off, Tuesday May 2nd the brace came OFF. My surgeon emailed and said I can start weaning myself off the brace but I decided to just leave it behind and haven't worn it since. The problems became far too much and I was surprised how much it hindered me rather than helped.

Thursday, 5/11 I finally mastered heel > toe on my right foot using my walker. It was a bitch to get down and required a lot of work to get my foot to WANT to do heel first. Once I did, however, everything started happening fast.

That morning after: early early early morning, Friday 5/12, I finally finally FINALLY FINALLY walked like a real person with my walker. Meaning step-step-step-step instead of step-pause-step-pause-step-pause. Not only that my walker never stopped moving once. I was overjoyed. What happened next was too incredible for me to believe after everything I have been through for the past 9 months:

At work, my travelling time has decreased incredibly. What took me 51 minutes to do on Monday 5/1 in my brace (going from the car outside to my desk at work upstairs) I've been able to get down to approximately 8 minutes. My best time so far is 2 minutes from the car to the chairs in the lobby (so I can take a break) and 6 minutes from the chairs up to my desk. The improvement is nothing short of astounding. I got to the curb so fast I was mock-joking-looking-at-my-wrist-as-if-it-had-a-watch-on as my mom got in the car to pull it forward to pick me up.

It feels oh so good to be back walking like a normal person again. I have waited through 9 months of awful recovery with every complication possible for this. I can't believe I am finally walking like a real person again.

There IS light at the end of this long dark tunnel!!!!!! I finally feel like I am really in recovery.