Diary of a knee injury

Fantastic news! Enjoy some TV and the cold peas on your knee and wish you speedy recovery.

So, end of season skiing was a big fib by the doctor in France. Just back from consultant appointment at hospital, I have good news and bad news.

Bad news is that I'm booked in for ACL reconstruction, it's wobbly and there's some damage which hasn't healed with the at home rehab I've been doing, however the mcl tear is almost fixed.

However, IF the physio over the coming months can fix the ACL damage then they will cancel the op. I'm also weening myself out of my brace, so not all bad.

If I have the surgery then skiing next winter is a definite no with 7 months of rehab.

All because I fell over getting off a chair lift.

Being positive 8)

Fingers crossed Nellster

Everything crossed (well nearly :oops: ) for you Nelly.

The body is an amazing thing and skiing, to a good standard, is possible after all sorts of problems. Even with a bad case scenario of mising next season there will be plenty more.

My sister has missed 2 of the last 5 years skiing due to...

1 - a back operation (bit of metal inserted somewhere or other) - but back skiing about 18 months later.

2 - Hip replacement - back to skiing after 15 months.

Her daughter says she is skiing better than ever, handling blacks at reasonable speed and, as she puts it - "controlled and elegant".

Which is better than the point straight down the hill and close her eyes approach she had when younger.

Thank you. I'm trying to be positive (the wine is helping), its good to know that people do ski again after worse injuries.

Fortunately the consultant I saw was a big fan of skiing and sympathised, so I'm hoping he's done me a favour by sticking me on the waiting list now rather than later. Next few months will be hard work but it'll be worth it if I get away without the surgery!

Best of luck Nelly :)

After my appointment on Tuesday I emailed the consultant because he overwhelmed me with information and totally threw me by suggesting I go on the waiting list for the ACL reconstruction, so I emailed him with more questions, one of which was 'if I don't have the surgery, will I have problems in the future', his answer was 'If you do not have the ACL reconstruction, there is a possibility of recurring instability and further damage to the knee with activities such as skiing. That is one of the main reasons to consider an ACL reconstruction'.

So I guess I need to make a decision, but I still want to see how the physio goes, but then I don't want to get to next winter and have anything else go wrong that could make it worse.

If I do have the surgery I'll miss one year of skiing, I guess that's better than completely knackering my knee and never skiing again.

Poo.

I hope you are not to uncomfortable and if you're like me you'll be very determined to get back on those skis as soon as possible. I know you've mentioned many times, toying with the idea of doing another season but if that wasn't planned for next year, then having an op will mean you miss one or two weeks of skiing...That sounds a little better than one year!

I know my injury is very different, but when I was in the hospital, my room mate had the same injury and op as me. She was on holiday and went back to the UK within a week. She was very quickly in the NHS system and I've kept in contact with her. She's told me that physio therapy is out of the question for her until she is weight bearing again but she is continuing with what the french physio advised her to do (she is a doctor herself). Here in France I've had a physiotherapist coming to my house three times a week and I am bending and stretching my leg, ankle and feet in all ways. In fact the only thing I'm not allowed to do is weight bear. The reason I've mentioned this is because my fingers are crossed for you, not to need an operation and get better by the power of physiotherapy!