Ruptured Patellar Tendon Surgery

[Kneetoknee]

Thanks John, for the welcome. Good to know that the UK uses plaster casts too. I will have it off in 3 weeks.

I drive an old 1980 Range Rover on mountainous roads so it will be some time before I drive.

I haven't figured the site out yet but I would like to respond to Kerri since we both had surgery around the same time. I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Also can people respond to me personally? I realize my questions concerning pool exercises are probably best answered by those down under. I have a lap pool and want to use it for my recovery. Would love to hear from others when they started to swim and how much.

Also I can bear weight without pain and would like to know how much walking others do in a cast at 3 weeks.

I will try to find 'the under mentioned thread'...where do I find it? Thanks again.

[John42]

Hi Kneetoknee

Just click on the undermentioned thread - if you dont mnage to open this webpage, then let me have your e-mail address and I will send you the documents as an attachment to an e-mail.

I am summing that you are walking around on crutches - the plastercast will be removed after 6/8 weeks, and then you will have a ROM range of movement between 35/45 deg.  The the PT will commence to stretch the healing tendon, the first milestone is 90ROM within 10/12 weeks.   Lots of hard work involved.

You are able to PM persons on this website after 20 postings, otherwise keep posting.

JohnK/ Manchester UK
p.s. remember, you are about 6/8 hours behind the U K


https://www.facebook.com/QuadricepsPatellarTendonRupture

[Dan]

On Monday I hit the 9 week mark and started PT, will be going 3 times a week, plus home work.
The initial evaluation noted very limited ROM, she was only able to measure 33 degrees.
But, with the work we did in the first visit, plus she showed me a way to do heel slides at home, I made a little progress from Monday to Wednesday.

Her plan has ROM goals of 90 degrees after 4 weeks of PT, then 120 degrees 2 weeks later.

[John42]

Hi Dan

The first milestone of 90 should be achieved at week 12/14, however it will take a lot longer than 2 weeks to reach 120, so listen to your knee and don`t push it.

Have your good knee measured, which should be between 135/145 - and remember to ask your PT, has she/he ever had to deal with this type of injury before.

Take care and keep posting

JohnK/ Manchester UK

[darrellb85]

Hi all, yesterday marked 3 weeks post surgery and today was my 2nd PT appointment. After warming up the knee and doing some massaging, the PT was able to get my knee to about 28 degrees. He kept it at that position of 28 degrees for about 5 minutes (putting a foam roller underneath my knee and a towel to prop it up), then we rested and did that 2 more times. Then we did some other light exercises on the table (quad sets, heel slides, etc) and then he had me walking around with my brace locked in 0 position.

So far I feel pretty good about PT (going 3 times a week), and I'm doing a few things at home. I'll keep you guys posted with how it goes next week.

[Dan]

John:
Agreed, I don't want to push it too far. And, since I am a little apprehensive, I might be in more danger of under-doing it rather than over-doing it.
I did ask my PT. She has worked with my Dr for 18 years, and has seen an average of 5 patellar tendons per year.

Darrell:
I also started PT this week (though I had 6 more weeks of post op waiting).
Looks like they have us on similar routines.

They also had me doing what might be called a step up lunge. I put the foot of the bad leg on a step, then slowly push forward, bending the knee. I managed 40 degrees yesterday.

[carkeltom]

Hello to all the new rupturees and my friends from the past.  I has been a long time since I posted.  Double RPT in July 2013.  I would like to say I am back to my old self, but it would not be true.  However, I am getting there.  I continue to use my elliptical on a daily basis, sometimes twice per day if I do not have an activity scheduled in the evening.  I still have a ton of creaking and popping in both knees and tightness after activities, but nothing like during the first year.  I have conquered going down steps forward, while holding the rails of course and being vigilent of each step.  I am not back to a full run, but I can take off on a slight jog.  I have found that being in the water, whenever I can get into a pool is the greatest therapy and exercise.  No load and no fear.  Jumping, running, squatting, lunging and just plain standing on one leg.  Any double RPTers know what I am feeling.  I have regained almost all previous proprioception and knee awareness, but still took lots of baby steps during the St Louis winter weather.  Thank goodness we did not have too many snow or ice storms.  I was actually able to dig myself and my considerable driveway out of about 12 inches of snow and ice without any issues, other than my knees really "feeling" the cold.  And most importantly, I have resumed my pitching and hitting lessons with the girls and being able to push off of the mound and complete the softball pitching motion has been a blessing and being able to teach the girls has been awesome.  I was not able to do that last year and having to depend on the girls to display proper techniques was not the most desirable teaching method.  I hope not to make my absences from the post so far and in between, but good luck to all and keep on plugging away.  Tom

[JC55]

Hey all...Jerry here.  Missed posting on my 18 month anniversary (March 9th) since was in the midst of post-season basketball.  My girls won district and region but lost first game of state. Glad to hear Tom is back at coaching near full strength. Nothing like doing something you love!  Anyway, I'm doing well. I've had no complications, setbacks or re injury...I feel very fortunate and I wish the best for all of you, whether you are new RPTers or veterans still on the mend. Do the best you can with what you have...what other option do we have?  Good luck to all!

[aggie_ks]

Hello all, I am now three and a half weeks post op and seem to be doing OK. I have been on a CPM machine to about 30 degrees until this past Thursday where I was allowed to increase about 5 degrees per day or as tolerated. I am at about 50 degrees currently. I am still on crutches but have been cleared to bear weight as tolerated. I can stand without crutches, but can't really walk without them at this point. I still also have my sutures in and the Dr seemed concerned about a blister that had formed between the main incision and a smaller one. I start PT tomorrow and will report on my progress.

Kerri

[nmacseven50]

Hello all. I had posted here a while back, and I wanted to give an update on my situation, ask a couple questions, and also give a bit of advice and encouragement based on my experience.

I'm going to start off by saying that my tear was no a full rupture, but partial tear of 3/4 of the patellar tendon. A lot of people have the quick onset of injury with the complete rupture, whereas my situation was more of a longer term chronic type of issue. In October of 2014 I started noticing a difference in my right knee compared to the left. I didn't think much of it. It continued to get worse to the point of severe pain, cramping, and stiffness. I went in for an MRI in December where I was diagnosed with a huge partial tear of the knee. I basically caught it just in type to prevent from a full tear. Being that I am 19 years old, 7 feet tall, and a basketball player my surgeon believed that surgery would be a better long term option over the conservative treatment. I had surgery 12/04/15.

I am now 16 weeks post op and doing pretty well. I am on an elliptical, doing tough strength stuff, and a bit of light jumping and jogging. I still have a bit of swelling in the knee, and I am not to where I want to be with range of motion. I can't quite do a hamstring stretch on my repaired leg. From my experience, I would tell everybody that is going through this situation to make small goals and take things 1 day at a time. As humans we like to see the big picture and look towards the end goal. But when we do this it really makes things worse because we see how far we still have to go. It sounds cliché but you have to take this 1 day at a time. What I mean by this is to have a goal of being better today than you were yesterday. When you have a small goal and you accomplish it, it will give you a sense of confidence in what you're doing.

The first 2 weeks are going to be tough. In my opinion the 4-7 week stage is the hardest. This is the time where you will start to really work on PT and you get tested physically and mentally. I became very depressed during this time because it is easy to doubt yourself and question if you can get back to where you were.  It's a bit of a hopeless feeling. But I can tell you that it IS temporary. It can be a devastating injury. But that's only if you let it. Try to find a positive from it. When it's all said and done you will be stronger in a bunch of ways, and you will also have a greater deal of appreciation for little things, and it's a good time to learn more about your body and health to prevent or help with these type of things in the future. Patience is a key to recovery. Listen to your body and don't rush anything. If you aren't comfortable with something, tell your PT. Only you know how you feel.

Now I do a couple questions, and If anybody that is reading this can answer them I would really appreciate it!

Is it common to be swollen and have some range of motion limit at 16 weeks?

Has anybody else had a feeling of a 'cramping pain' or stiffness during or after exercise? Sometime when I am doing PT exercises my knee will feel like it has a cramp in the knee and I have to move it to loosen it up. It's hard to explain but maybe somebody can relate.

Lastly, how can I stretch my quads and hamstrings on my repaired knee-leg when I have limited range of motion. By limited I mean about 120 degrees. This isn't enough to pull my leg up for a hammy stretch, or to lay on my back and pull my knee to my chest. I am having back pain from tight leg muscles.

Stay positive everyone and feel free to ask me anything you may need help on! I might not be able to relate to full ruptures, but I can definitely help with the mental or spiritual side of the injury! I am studying phycology in College to become a sports psychologist later on. I enjoy this stuff. Good luck!

[aggie_ks]

I had my first physical therapy appointment today. It was a lot of talking about my mechanism of injury and my goals, with some basic exercises to start. I was a little disappointed to only be able to bend my knee to 33 degrees, but it's a start. There is still a lot of swelling and scar tissue forming, so they are starting me out at three visits per week. Otherwise I'm in good spirits and in very little pain. The only downer this week is that I was supposed to leave for Las Vegas on Thursday. Knowing Vegas as I do, that would have been a bad idea and I had to cancel my trip. My friends will have to have fun without me.

Kerri

[BustedWheel]

47 yo male.  Completely RPT, right knee, clean injury.  Four months post-surgery.  Surgeon has stopped PT, says I am ahead of the curve, can keep working out on my own, doing fine with it. Says at the 5 month mark I can start trying a light jog on treadmill.

For now, I hit the elliptical pretty hard.  Am continuing strength training.  Gym workout 3 times a week.

Not too many problems walking, every once in a while if I put my weight on right leg, it feels like it's about to give out, have to catch myself.  Surgeon says that is probably a quad strength issue, not a repair issue.  She says at this point, the repair is the repair, it might get a little stronger over time, but it pretty much is what it is.  Says it felt "meaty," which is good, indicates a strong repair.

My recovery seemed to track on or maybe a little bit ahead of the University of Wisconsin rehab protocol for ruptured patella tendon, so I would recommend anyone going through this injury to print out a copy (you can find it pretty easy on the internet), it was a useful week-to-week milestone guide.  Probably my biggest "ahead of the curve" was being done with crutches, cane and, ultimately, brace/immobilizer earlier than expected.

There is no doubt in my mind that if you know your way around a gym and have exercised regularly prior to the injury that your recovery will go that much better. 

[Jase810]

Hello everyone.

RPT 2.0.  I rupture my patellar tendon in my left knee skiing in NH on 3/8/15 here in the states.  Had surgery to repair the injury on 3/12/15.  I am now at 2 weeks post op and got to 56 degrees today in PT.  I'm in a brace that's lock at 0 degrees.  I'm able to bear full weight and walk with one crutch.  The stitches will be removed on 3/30.

I'm goin to do the same thing i did my right knee to get to where that is today, work hard in PT.  My right knee has full ROM and back to full strength.

[alexws]

Week 11 coming up on monday for me.  Feels good, I stopped going to pt, (the pt gave me a book of exercises practically to do on my own) will go back if anything comes up but after this being my 4th knee surgery and being an athletic person I know when and how to listen to my body.  My ROM is already almost there, going on hikes up to 4 miles (as long as it is flat its fine, going down hills is still a bit tricky) Pt had me starting straight leg dead lifts with moderate weight and box squats with light weight.  On the bike half an hour a day, tried the elliptical with both the os and pt okay but its hurting a bit to much just yet going to give that to week 12.

Daily routine in the gym for my core/legs:
30min spinning
10 minutes stretching both legs
box squats low weight 3 sets 15 reps
stright leg dead lift medium weight 3 sets 15 reps
Stright leg cable kick outs low weight 3 sets 15 each way forward sideways backwards
one leg squats (effective leg is squatting the other one kicks out stright at different angles forward sideways backwards)
Calf raises medium weight 3 sets 15 reps
10 minutes row
Core:
Plank till failure x2
plank roll out on swiss ball 15 reps 2 set
oblique v ups both sides 15 reps 2 set
swiss ball situps 25 rep 2 set
medicine ball twist 25 rep 2 set
situp 50 rep

This^ is my normal routine in the gym almost every day, i have additional thins but that is the basics of what i do that was given to me by my pt.  Thought sharing it may help other people. (and yes I am lucky enough to be able to spend about 1-2 hrs at the gym daily.)

This forum is amazing some great info and has helped me out a lot, thank you all so much.  I do want to say that yes this is a serious and not very common injury patience is required and there will be some great days and some bad days. 
Everyone will go at a different rate, if you are reading here getting discouraged because it seems like you will never heal up, from my experiences the initial injury and surgery are far worse than that of an acl but after about 6 weeks it switches.  I feel like my day to day life is back to normal already at this point, i just cant do the fun things and will not even try for another few months. but if normal mobility is your goal work as hard as you can in the gym push it and listen to your body, and you will be there before you know it. There is a difference between pain and injury, Work though the pain but stop before injury and you will be doing great.....(I also had no wire in my knee that had to get removed and was a clean tear so based on different practices/ how it happened I wouldn't follow my timeline for yourself we're all different)

[Dan]

I had my first physical therapy appointment today. It was a lot of talking about my mechanism of injury and my goals, with some basic exercises to start. I was a little disappointed to only be able to bend my knee to 33 degrees, but it's a start. There is still a lot of swelling and scar tissue forming, so they are starting me out at three visits per week. Otherwise I'm in good spirits and in very little pain. The only downer this week is that I was supposed to leave for Las Vegas on Thursday. Knowing Vegas as I do, that would have been a bad idea and I had to cancel my trip. My friends will have to have fun without me.

Kerri

Kerri
That was pretty much my first PT visit as well (except for the Vegas part).
Two weeks in and they got me to 58 yesterday.

Have they given exercises to do at home? I have so many it's like a full time job.