KDXRIDER.NET

Who's "been there, done that"?

As I posted earlier in the "Injuries" section I hyper-extended my left knee this past April and confirmed in May that I had a "nearly complete tear" of my ACL. Because it wasn't a life-or-death situation and I was actually getting around OK (but wearing a brace, constantly, for stability) I delayed the inevitable because of some major projects at work . . . and because I wanted to ride!!

Anyway, that's coming to an end on Thursday, at least for a while. 'Scheduled for a 6am arrival at Jewish East in Louisville, surgery at 7:30. General anesthesia is the game plan.

'Gonna get somebody else's ligament - somebody that doesn't need it anymore .

Though I understand that this surgery is often an outpatient exercise, my surgeon likes to keep his victims overnight to monitor recovery and for pain management. He seems very concerned about comfort in general; the hospital I'll be in only offers overnight monitoring but provides solely private rooms and they're actually pretty nice. I'll get to see the West Virginia Mountaineers pound Maryland Thursday night in the comfort of an adjustable bed and serious pain medication.

Two weeks totally out of work followed by four weeks of "stay in your office and go home if it gets rough". He claims that I could be back to riding in four months if I take the PT seriously and nothing goes "wrong"; 6 months for a full recovery (like sports that involve "cutting" movements like basketball) . . .

which means that I won't be riding again 'till February. Well . . . riding "full tilt". I'll be fiddling with things - suspension, power valve actuation, probably check rings and lower bearing play and such.

And, of course, I'll have to sorta check things out along the way. Not serious riding, right?

THIS IS GOING TO BE HELL AND TORTURE - SOMEBODY WISH ME A SPEEDY RECOVERY ALREADY!!

I wish you a speedy recovery!

My mom tore here ACL a few years back playing volleyball and had it put back together. At the time the cadaver operation wasn't being used so her recovery time was long. I've had other friends who've done the same thing and opted for a new ACL but they weren't out near as long as your describing. Seems to me that they were in full condition in about 4 months or so.

One of my other riding friends had a nearly complete tear of his ACL back in January racing MX. But with him only being 16 at the time they said that they couldn't operate untill his growth plates were done growing. So instead he worked on strengthening his knee and started racing MX again, wearing knee braces and all sorts of stuff. Then last weekend at Monticello he stubbed his leg and tore everything apart again. This time he's even worse off than before and still nothing he can do about it!

You'll be fine and it'll feel good not having the pain to deal with after you're done. Last bit of advice...Enjoy those Meds!

Never been there, never done that, but I sure do wish you a speedy recovery! Figure it this way, December-February isn't good riding anyway, with the cold temps and frozen ground. So really, you'll only be out of actual riding for a couple months. Does that help any?? :)

^ December through February being cold months does "help". Even bigger, my youngest son turns 8 in February, and "8" is the magic number as far as momma is concerned - I'm getting him a ride for his birthday! So at least I'll be able to ride with him then . . .

and it's good to hear that 4 months recovery is not so uncommon!

Whaddaya thinkin for him? Another RM65?

No. He's got the heart for it - quite brave and aggressive - but not the maturity (he's on the wild side quite frankly). This will be his first bike . . .

so I'm thinkin' either a KTM mini or senior adventure (50cc water cooled, not too snappy). We'll see . . .

That's good. Those KTM 50's pack plenty of punch though - I once heard over 10 RWHP!

Good luck Jim. I am sure you will miss riding but it will all be worth it next year when you are back to 100%.

Best of luck in your recovery! Getting back fast is not the key, getting back WELL is. The bike will be waiting on you whenever you heal up.

As for your 8y.o. on a KTM50, I would pass on the Mini Adventure and get the Senior Adventure. I have a 7y.o. who has completed one year on the Mini Adventure, and I suspect he will be too big for the bike by his 8th birthday Lord willing. And I've heard the racier KTM mini bikes (50SX) require tons of maintenance on their clutches...go to KTMTalk for more on that.

I went to a hill climb and saw those ktm 50's. They really rip compared to little xr50's (what else would you expect from a 2t ). Heres to another irder in the family and a good recovery

Well . . . they did what they could be I still pulled through.

Got a nerve block that made the first night relatively pain free so no morphine was needed, they just kept feeding me Percasets (2 every 4 hours) and said I needed to keep them going 'cause when the block wore off I was going to know it.

Left the hospital yesterday about 11am, low and behold the block was wearing off. By mid-afternoon the agony made me want to go the emergency room for morphine or similar. Talked to the on-call doc and he suggested 600mg of ibuprofen with the Percs.

In time THAT did the trick, much more bearable.

So today has started off much better. I can support my weight on the "new" knee. It is very sore, not just the incision sites but the quad muscles as well for some reason.

Anyway things are lookin' good. PT starts Monday.

Oh yeah, the surgeon printed out some color digi snaps during surgery. My ACL was hanging by a thread, a the bulk of it was all balled up at the other end. The "new" ligament looks great. Meniscus looks really good.

Glad to see you pulled through ok Jim! I would have replied earlier, but we had to shoot a big fireworks display for the city tonight. Now I can walk around at work at work tomorrow and say HUUHH, WHAAAAAAT? Hope you make a full, and Quick recovery, so we can go riding!!!!

Glad it went well.... sounds like you really needed the surgery...

Good to hear you are alright. It will get better by the day. The PT may suck but they know what they are doing. You will be up riding and riding that beast in no time. Now you can go and let your son take over the riding duties for the fall/ winter.

I have "been there, done that" And you will recover. Its not fun though. Just make sure you work really hard on retaining your full range of motion. do your streching!

I had the graft taken from the front part of my knee, 1/3 of the ligament that connects my kneecap to the shin bone. After a few months the ACL graft felt great and is infact today, stonger that ever... it was where they took the graft from that hurt for almost 2 years. good luck with everything.

:)

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

PT went well today . . . we called a friend who's a physical therapist and he made a recommendation and we went with it. Married couple that are both therapists. I've always liked family-owned businesses.

Oh, I got 90 degrees bend today - that's an "A" for a first PT visit!!

Took a quick snap of my knees. Still a bit of swelling but looking better, still hard to actually see my knee. Two small incisions on the top for the orthoscopic stuff (covered by one piece of tape) and one about 1.5" long sort of inside of center to access the bone for drilling (!!).



Anyway, thrills and excitement . . .

That's a good look for you Jeb!

Are you going to shave the other leg and a half to match?

Tee-hee . . .