This is my after action review of my patellar tendon rupture that happened 2.3 years ago in hope that it might help anyone out there who suffered from this injury.
About me26 years old at the time of injury. My profession is in the armed forces so I’m physically very active. Never had knee problems of any sort before this. I’m from Sweden.
The injuryI was securing my climbing partner when he took a fall and I was thrown in to the cliff in front of me with a moderate force. My left leg hit a very sharp rock witch cut up a 20-25cm long wound at lower part of the knee/upper calf. Looking down at my knee I thought “s**t, I’m not going to run for quite a while”. There wasn’t much of a bleeding but we got the wound wrapped up in gauze bandage to lower the risk of infection. Then we manage to move me about 50 meter down to the car and drove to the hospital. I was sheduled for surgery the day after the injury.
During the night there was a lot of pain.
Picture of the injury at the hospital before starting the medical care:https://goo.gl/ajMR9w1st surgery - the day after the injury
I hit the surgery with the knowledge that a tendon might be ruptured. At the surgery they found out that my patellar tendon was both ruptured and cut in half. They sutured it together and fixed it with titanium anchors and reinforcing it with a wire around the knee cap to keep it down. I get fixed with a brace at 0*.
1 week post 1 surgery
The pain after the surgery was even worse then that of the injury. I found myself not wanting to move at all because of a the pain.
Day 2: I managed to get on the crutches 3 times just to get moving.
Day 4: I got home from the hospital. Still in lot of pain. Trying to move my foot in circles to get the blood circulation in my leg but even that is painful.
2 weeks post 1 surgery
The worst pain is gone while staying still. Still a lot of pain as soon as I get on the crutches. Feels like a burning feeling below the knee cap. Trying to move as much as a possibly can while enduring the pain.
3 weeks post 1 surgery
Feeling less pain and getting stronger by the day. Two steps forward, one step back. At my first check post injury they find out that the have put my knee cap to low so they have to correct it with a 2nd surgery. They do this 20 days after the first surgery.
2nd surgeryI have no idea what they are going to do when entering this surgery. All I know is that the doctor doing this surgery is a lot more experienced then the doctor doing the first one.
He redo the whole 1st surgery. Removing the titanium and the wire. Instead he uses poly suture to fix the patella tendon to the bone using holes drilled in the bone(tibia) as anchor. He reinforces the surgery with a poly suture around the knee cap that anchors in the tibia.
Xray of the first and the second surgery:https://goo.gl/UxG9Jj1 weeks post 2 surgery
A lot of pain again. Looking back at the injury now the 1-2 weeks after the surgery is the worst part. It’s a lot of pain and not much to be done. My advice is just move! Try move a lot to get blood circulating and to lose as little strength as possible. You will need it.
2 weeks post 2 surgery
I meet my PT. She gives me a program witch I try to follow strict as I can. Doesn’t do anything to my brace. PT says that full range motion is the most important task ahead.
A lot of the swelling around the knee disappears.
3 weeks post 2 surgery
PT: Tests my mobility and I can move to about 65*. She unlocks it to 50*. Adds scaled squats and stand on toe to my program. Working on my walking pattern with crutches to mimic my normal walking pattern.
Still swollen.
Managed to walk 3 km on crutches.
4 weeks post 2 surgery
PT: Mobility test hitting 70*. Moving the brace to 60*.
I working my program pretty strict. Trying to do a lot of scaled squats as they help me gain mobility and strength.
5 weeks post 2 surgery
PT: Locks up the brace to 70*.The rehab works well and I can mimic normal walk for about 1 km with the help of crutches and the brace on. PT says I can experiment walking without the brace at shorter distances.
The exercises sometimes causes swelling and pain when hitting the limit.
6 weeks post 2 surgery
PT: Will meet for a program update about 1/month. Says I can use common sense to add up exercises as long as I listen to the pain.
Starting to sleep without the brace. I can walk for about 1-2 km with crutches and without the brace.
90* mobility now.
8 weeks post 2 surgery
I manage without crutches and brace now. Doing lighter exercises now on stationary bikes, running in water, scaled squats and walking down hill is my main program by this time.
Reaching 125-130* mobility.
10 weeks post 2 surgery
130-135* mobility
Working a lot on mobility with foam rollers.
Adding light kettlebell deadlifts to gain strength.
12 weeks post 2 surgery
Knee swelled up a lot this week. But the pain didn’t increase at least.
12-14 weeks post 2 surgery
Bad weeks. Almost no gains.
15-16 weeks post 2 surgery
Good weeks with rehab almost all days of the week.
Leg extensions, box squats, lunges, swimming, stationary bikes, cross trainer etc
Went walking for 4 hours but got really tired in my leg after that.
Walking down stairs and sitting down for long hours is still a problem.
22 weeks post 2 surgery
Taking the bike to work everyday, 2.3 km one way. Doing rehab about 6 times each week now. Working on one legged squats to chair now but its wiggling.
11 months post 2 surgery
Hiked 105 km on 4 days with a 10 kg backpack.
I can run ok for 2-5 km.
Can do 7 pistols on the injured leg now.
22 months post 2 surgery
Hiked 200 km on 6 days with a 20 kg backpack.
I have hiked in mountains and climbed 2000 meters of altitude in one day.
Can run 5-7 km in pretty good pace now.
Doing a lot of strength training even thou it’s no way near where I was it feels good.
Where Im at today 2.3 years after the injuryI’m doing a lot of strength training and living an active life. The complications of the injury is less limiting for each month passing. Even thou I’m FAR form where I was before the injury I feel I can get back to almost full physical capacity if I work hard at it for 2 more years. Mentally there are some dips at times but 95% of the time I’m really happy and enjoying life as it is right now. Every progress a moment of victory. I still work in the armed forces and it’s only the most heavy and enduring stuff that’s limiting me right now.
Lessons learned- How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
- The progress will not be linear. For me it is two steps forward and one step back. Just keep moving.
- Keep a journal so that you can see your progress! Otherwise it can be hard to notice any at all.
- I can’t recommend
http://www.mobilitywod.com enough. Saved my life and helped me get full mobility back.
- If you get stuck somewhere a long the way, try new things, ask another PT, youtube exercises and try them out.
- As soon as you can do exercises that mimic normal leg function do them(Squats, lunges etc)
- When you get of the pain meds add Omega-3 and Vitamin D supplementary.
- Try acupuncture if you feel knee pain. It helped me.
- I get worse if I don’t workout. My left leg gets weaker and my right leg compensates even thou it’s 2.3 years after the 2nd surgery.
- Don’t be afraid of strength training.
Thanks everyone on this forum. It helped me a lot reading about people in a similar situation and removing a little bit of the uncertainty of the injury. I hope this helps someone.
