Well,
I found this site today actully due to my tibia plateau fracture on my left knee which happened a year ago. That's not a great story so not the usccess for this part of the site.
BUT I had a patella tendon graft ACL reconstruction 9 years ago on my right knee. I still have the screws in and the staple, and am still good.
I was lucky enough (after a first OS who did nothing) to find out the name of the guy who did Paul Gascogne (old England Player)'s knee after he blew it out. He did my recon a year after I tore it skiing and a year after that I was skiing again. He sent me to rehab at a sports therapy place who had a cybex machine which forced muscle bulk in a short perid, and it really helped. I live in the USA now, but if I'd done my latest injury last year in the UK, I would have gone straight back to him.
Believe me, at first I had all the traditional problems with pain swelling, clicking, soreness, night pain, hardware pain, but now I'm OK... so it DOES get better.