Rolling 5 Months Post Op ACL Surgery

Quick rollsies at Judo class with a teammate.
5 months since my ACL surgery
 

Post ACL Reconstruction: Nearly 5 Months

Back in the first week of July, I had my knee reconstructed.
Initially, according to the MRI I had a complete ACL tear, Meniscus tear, and fracted my leg as well.
By the time I had surgery 9 months later (having competed and won in Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the meantime), the fracture and Meniscus tear had healed.
I had surgery on a Tuesday, and the following Saturday was the first time I left the house: to see Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen II.

That being said, I've been remiss about posting my post-op recovery timeline.

In short, at 3 months I was back working my escapes from knee mount, side control, basic movement, defending with  my back taken et cetera.

At 4 months I was beginning to work passing the guard partners with about 50% resistance or more. I can only pass to my left side and I would have to occasionally reset if my weaker leg gets put in half-guard, but did not feel comfortable taking the back nor mount.

At nearly 5 months, I can step into mount and take the back, but my weaker leg is just in position, applying no pressure and I'm often swept back to guard.

At 5 months, I still cannot lock my guard nor do I feel comfortable doing so, but with smart and same sized training partners I've done a surprising amount of Jiu-Jitsu over the past 2 months.

When I read online about all the horror stories regarding coming back from ACL reconstruction, I envisioned 6 months of no Jiu-Jitsu which was truly difficult to accept.

The truth, for me, was that at 3 months I began getting back on the mats in a very, very limited fashion. Now, at 5 months, by training smart, I'm getting about 20-30 min's of rolling in a day and working on positions I heretofore had not often address: namely Spiral or Reverse De La Riva guard.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Interestingly enough, my knee that had the surgery, overall feels better than my other knee.

If you've had a bad knee injury, or a nagging injury, you owe it to yourself and your long-term Jiu-Jitsu to get it looked at and diagnosed.

I went to several surgeons to find the one with the right experience, type of surgery, and bedside manner that best suited me.

I will be officially cleared for sport at the start of January. Based on how I'm feeling and my general recovery of strength and muscle in my leg, I think I will be back competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at about the 9 month mark. It will likely be a full year before I feel comfortable competing in Judo again.

Having read about other high level grapplers who came back to soon and had problems for years following, I am in no rush to compete again and take each day on the mats as a gift for which I am thankful.

There is Life after ACL Surgery: 3 Months Post-Op

Moved around on the mat for the first time since my surgery today.
Moved around with a very cool and very technical Black Belt from Evolution MMA in Wilmington, NC.
And then I rolled with a training partner of mine. Not really rolling so much as drilling and transitioning a bit.

I know I have a long way to go, but I felt a million times better emotionally than I have since my surgery.

And, the thoughts in my head, the transitions, the awareness of where I wanted to go next in the transitions was there as well.

My biggest fear was not so much that others would get better than me, but that I'd lose progress I'd made by spending countless hours on the mat.

If you're out there with an ACL injury and afraid of surgery as I admittedly was, have the surgery.

ACL Reconstruction: The 2 Most Important Articles I read Pre-Op

Autograft or Allograft...Apparently, that is the question

This article cites several studies comparing auto/allograft as replacement method for the ACL.
The bonus is it compares those who had their own tissue versus someone else's tissue as the basis for the reconstruction.
Allograft is the use of tissue from someone who is not your genetic identical match.
Autograft is the use of your own tissue for the procedure.
It also follows up at 1 and 2 year intervals for patients who are enrolled in military academies and likely participatory in a variety of high-stress, weight-bearing, pivoting athletic endeavors.
For those of us who are serious, competitive athletes, these are the types of studies that should interest us in selecting an ACL reconstruction method.
Most interestingly for consideration, the difference between your own tissue and someone else's:
"On the other hand, the failure rates were significantly different between autografts and allografts. Cadets who had an ACL reconstruction using an allograft prior to entering the USMA were 6.7 times more likely to suffer a recurrent ACL injury compared to those who had an autograft procedure. Even more remarkable were the one- and two-year findings.

The patellar tendon autograft (orange arrow) serves as the new ACL in this ACL reconstruction.

One year after entering the USMA, 33% of the cadets who had an allograft ACL before entering had experienced subsequent graft failure, compared with only 2% of those who had an autograft. At the 2-year follow-up point, more than half of those who entered the USMA with an allograft had experienced graft failure compared with only 6% of those who entered with an autograft."
AND

This article outlines the various methods for ACL reconstruction and the benefits/costs and risks associated with each. It is a good outline of the history of various ACL reconstruction.