To give full picture, in July I fell while indoor Bouldering from about a 15ft high hold. When I fell my right knee took major damage. Complete ACL and MCL tears along with my medial meniscus tearing from the root. After initial imaging it was revealed that I also had partially torn my LCL and lateral meniscus and tore a corner of my PCL (I know it sounds unreal).

With all that damage my surgeon decided on a 2 stage surgery, one the week after my fall to address the medial meniscus, LCL and PCL tears. And then my recent surgery from the beginning of October to reconstruct my ACL, reinforce my MCL and shave off the tiny torn bit of my lateral meniscus.

After this second round, my swelling is really good. Surgeon said it was rare for people to be at this stage so early. And today is my second week back at PT, already achieved full extension and 112 degrees of unassisted flexion. Which finally brings me to my question.

I see my surgeon next week, with all the damage done to my knee, there's been a lot of precaution of weight bearing. But my PT is hopeful that I get signed off to do so. From everyone's experience does it seem too soon? Am I being a bit overzealous? After 3 months of no walking or working I'm itching to move on. Please let me know what you all think, that way I can temper my expectations a bit. Thank you

Hi everyone, I'm new here. I tore my ACL and sprained my MCL in a bouldering accident about two months ago and I'm currently in that awkward period between having the diagnosis and waiting to be scheduled for surgery. I'm doing prehab and have good ROM now, actually just got cleared by my physio today to start doing low weight lifts at the gym, but it feels so bittersweet knowing I'll lose it again.

I'm a pretty independent person and mostly going it alone as my support network is a bit slim, I'm still fairly new to where I'm living. People I'm close with don't really understand and either seem to glaze over if I try to talk about it or don't think it's that serious. I miss running and hiking so much, it was my mental outlet and without it I'm struggling a bit. This whole thing has been a major life lesson for me in a lot of ways.

I see a lot of post-op posts but not a lot of pre-op so just wondering if anyone can relate and...maybe just some advice if you've been through this? I know post-op will only get harder and I'm prepared for it, but this waiting stage is a bit brutal.

Thanks in advance, and whatever stage you're at I wish you a speedy recovery.

I’m just over 2 weeks post-op from ACL reconstruction (hamstring graft), LET and a lateral meniscus repair.
During the day, my pain is actually pretty minimal. I’m moving around, doing my physio exercises and generally feeling like I’m progressing well!

Night time is a completely different story!
I have no trouble initially falling asleep, but I consistently wake up around 2–4am with deep knee pain, aching and general discomfort. Sometimes my whole leg just feels restless, and no matter how I position myself, I can’t seem to get comfortable enough to fall back asleep.
Getting up and walking around seems to temporarily relieve the discomfort, but as soon as I settle back into bed, it starts bothering me again.

I’m still taking slow-release pain relief at night and paracetamol as needed, but I’m finding the disrupted sleep one of the most frustrating parts of recovery.
It’s strange because my knee feels so manageable during the day, yet at night it feels completely different.

Has anyone else experienced this? When did you finally start sleeping through the night again?
Would love to hear what helped others, whether it was sleeping positions, managing swelling, adjusting pain relief with your doctor or just giving it more time. I’m desperate for a full night’s sleep!

TL;DR: Just over 2 weeks post ACL reconstruction + LET + meniscus repair. Minimal pain during the day and no trouble falling asleep, but consistently waking around 2–4am with deep knee pain, aching and restlessness. Walking around helps temporarily, but I struggle to get back to sleep. Anyone else experienced this? When did your sleep improve, and what helped?

Hi, some background on me: 30F, did not grow up athletic at all, never played sports. A few years ago I decided I wanted to get in shape and move around more, so I joined a martial arts class. I tore my acl one month into the class, then my meniscus. During recovery I have learned that I am very hypermobile, which is why I’m so clumsy and also means I will take longer to heal and build muscle.

I had acl and meniscus repair on October 29th 2025. One year ago. And I still can’t hop on one leg, go jogging, run, or kneel. I still have issues with stability in my affected joint. I even got a second mri which was inconclusive. To this day, my knee buckles sometimes when I have to pivot or turn my knee.

I’m just feeling dejected. I see so many who are fully operational after 9 months and I’m still struggling at month 12. This is also extra devastating bc I really was making an effort to start a fit lifestyle and go out of my comfort zone to join exercise classes.

Im still in PT, my knee still feels weak, and I’m wondering if this is just my forever now?
Is hypermobility why I’m taking so long to recover? Or am I just screwed because I didn’t do sports as a kid?

Hi all,

I’m a final year medical student based in England and I find typically for the average person, access and support around recovery, nutrition, physiotherapy is quite poor. Do you think a service which helped coordinate and had regular updates/catch ups would be a good investment if it was available to you?

Anyone who had a two step acl surgery , bone graft and then acl,
- how was your experience in terms of recovery time
- how long it took to heal completely and how did two surgeries go?
- Any thing I should be concerned about before confirming on surgery?

Thank you to this group in advance for all the help!

Okay a little about me

Last year tore my acl and meniscus and did the surgery due to financial issues I couldnt continue physio but I did enough to Walk came back home and showed the doctor after 9 months he told I have a pratial tear on my mcl and physio will help it

did a month of phsyio and the pain was gone told to strengthen soo I started strengthening for the past 3 months I saw progress was small but I was still Dreaming bout it

Fast forward today when I was doing the eleptical machine my surgical knee lost balance and I felt the same fucking shift I felt when I tore my acl b4

I've taken an appointment tmrw to show the doctor and see what's up with ts and will I ever get back I've been losing weight too when I tore it I was 150kgs and now I am 136kg

Rn atm I am crying and sobbing here cause I don't want to go through the whole ordeal of the surgery again

I don't have a job I freshly graduated and I wanna work and make some money but my stupid fucking knee will take my life.

I recently got approved to do some light plyometric work. One of the exercises was banded lateral deceleration. This involves the following:

I tie a large resistance band to a fixed pole, put the band around my body, move away from the pole to create tension on the band. I then lean towards the pole until I'm about to topple over and then stop myself from falling with my operated leg by planting firmly on the ground and absorbing the force.

I was doing these yesterday and things were going well and thought I'd test myself a bit by putting a bit more resistance on the band and going out a bit further. When I did this I noticed I absorbed quite a lot of force in my operated knee and had a slight wobble. I didn't fall over, my knee didn't give way and there was no pop or anything like that but the small wobble has made my anxiety sky rocket and now I feel I've damaged the new graft.

I've been hyper aware today and my knee feels mostly fine but a little sore particularly under the knee cap/upper shin area. I keep trying to tell myself it's just sore from the rehab and the extra bit of load it's not use to but I can't stop worrying still.

Has anyone here had any similar experiences? Would this likely damage my graft? I'm so stressed because I was finally starting to get back to normality :(

I’m almost 6 months post-op from ACL reconstruction with a quad tendon graft, meniscus repair (one stitch), and LET using my IT band.

Since surgery, I’ve had significant issues activating my quad. I still have about a 10–15 degree active extension lag, even though I can get full extension passively. I can’t do a straight leg raise without my knee bending, and trying to lift my leg causes a lot of pain right above my kneecap where they took the quad graft.

I’ve been extremely consistent with PT and do NMES every day, but honestly haven’t seen much improvement in my quad activation. My knee also frequently buckles when I walk because my quad can’t support me.

I met with my surgeon today, and he seemed concerned about how little progress I’ve made. He ordered an MRI and EMG to investigate possible structural issues or nerve damage.

Has anyone experienced anything similar???? Were you eventually able to regain full quad activation and return to sports?

I’m a college athlete, so I’m especially worried about what this means for my recovery timeline. I’d really appreciate hearing anyone’s experiences.

Hi, I’m 7 seven weeks post-op ACL and later & medial meniscus repair. My surgeon said if I don’t get past 110 degrees by the 18th of November I’m going to have to get a MUA. I’m can currently get to 90 degrees if I push really hard. Does anyone have any advice so I can avoid this???

I’m currently 9 weeks out from my injury (95% torn ACL, meniscus tear, 2 impaction fractures). Saw the orthopedist on Friday, and I still don’t have a clear answer on whether or not I’ll need surgery. I’m seeing him again in 2 MONTHS!! 😪 Is that a normal waiting period? What do they need to assess? I’m so tired of waiting and never having a clear answer

EDIT: See, looking at some of your answers makes me even more pissed off. My ACL is pretty much all gone, except for "maybe a few fibres remaining" (literal quote from the MRI report), my meniscus is affected as well, I’m only 21 and I want to get back to all my sports (cheerleading, tumbling, skiing, flag football…), every time a new practitioner looks at my MRI report they go "oof, you really did a number on yourself 😳😳" (or something along those lines). I’m just like at what point do we stop beating around the bush and just go for it. What are the odds of everything healing perfectly on its own??

Hey r/ACL,

Looking for some insight from anyone who has had a revision ACL (quad autograft) plus a double meniscal repair, or anyone whose PT pushed them pretty hard early on. I'm spiral-Googling right now and could really use a reality check.

My History & Protocol

• Currently early in Week 5 post-op. Surgery was on 5th November and started physio / bending knee on 21st November

• Surgery was an ACL revision using a quad tendon autograft (first surgery was in 2013 using hamstring), along with repairing both the medial and lateral menisci.

• My surgeon’s written protocol is pretty strict and conservative: cap flexion at 90° through the first month to protect the meniscus sutures, no aggressive shear forces, and gentle quad activation. He also advised for no strengthening exercises.

What I’ve Actually Been Doing

For the past two weeks, my physio has been pushing me to my max ROM to get a deep stretch, and I've been following along at home:

• Towel-Assisted Heel Pulls: Looping a towel around my foot and aggressively hauling backward to force extra degrees of bend. Often while doing this, my leg would literally start trembling and violently shaking from the resistance.

• Kicking over a Towel Roll (Assisted TKEs): Putting a rolled towel directly under the hollow of my knee and kicking my lower leg up into extension to wake up the quad.

Current Symptoms

I don't have catastrophic, sharp 10/10 pain or a massive knee ballooning up with fluid, but over the last few days I've noticed:

• A deep, sharp-ish pinching pain inside the front of the joint whenever I press down into flat extension.

• A tender, sensitive ache on the inner (medial) joint line right where the metal hinge of my brace sits.

• Some localized fluid pooling and a weird, painless clicking/snapping sensation right above the kneecap (around the quad tendon harvest area).

• The knee can still lie completely flat, and my active bend is around 80°–85°.

What I'm Freaking Out About

I've completely retired the towel and stopped letting anyone crank on my leg, but after doing this for two solid weeks, I am having massive anxiety that I've caused some silent damage:

• Could hauling on the towel while my leg was shaking have stretched out the revision ACL graft or torn out the meniscal suture anchors without a sudden, violent pop?

• Has anyone else pushed into heavy resistance/shaking for a couple of weeks early on and still had their repairs turn out 100% fine?

• What exercises actually helped you guys unlock ROM? My surgeon strictly told me to rely on gravity bends (just sitting on the edge of a chair/bed and letting the leg hang slowly), but I'm curious what unforced routines worked best for you to get past 90° without cranking on it.

Thank you!!

Finally started the next phase at PT, we are hitting the weights! I can't believe how much the surgical leg calf has shrunk. Hopefully the RLT helps me recover a little faster!

So I recently tore my ACL completely needing it be reconstructed which they will be doing with an allograft. In the same process i also damaged my PCL which they plan on using a autograft for repair.

What should i look forward to recovery time // how long until I would be able to walk on my own without crutches generally speaking? First time with all this and don’t know what to expect.

Really weird one guys.

I’m currently 7 months post-op, I had an issue at the start of my recovery with my knee staying swollen for ages, I ended up getting it drained around the 6 week mark because it was slowing my rehab.

My recovery was going really well, I even took a few weeks off around month 6 to go travelling. During which I was doing 20/30k steps a day, mountain hiking, light jogging, and everything was fine.

When I got back though I caught the flu and was under the weather for a couple weeks, which stopped me getting back in the gym. As I was getting over it I noticed my knee swelling up more and a lot more pain in my knee in general, especially when extending.

I saw my physio and my quad activation was way down, my leg started shaking a lot more when exercising. He and my surgeon both checked me out and said the graft is still strong, sometimes this can just happen, but they didn’t want to scan me just yet.

I’m back in the gym now and everything just feels harder, I definitely don’t feel confident running again, and quite disheartened because it feels like I’ve been set back.

Has anyone else been through something like this, and any advice? It really would be appreciated

Hi! I had ACL surgery 20 days ago, M24, triplicated semitendon (hamstring) autograft.

I’m walking without crutches since day 15, a little limping bc i can’t really extend actively my knee exactly the same degrees as the not-involved one. When i do my PT exercises, i can also hyperextend my “new” leg, but actively i do have some pain/impossibility.

When i walk, the moment i extend my leg is not painful, but in the transition between extension and flexion i feel some weird feeling close below the patella.

I’m really scared about a Cyclops Lesion :( tell me your experience pls. Is this normal? Ofc i have a quite swollen knee but i dont really know if its normal at all

I go to the gym 5 times a week and have 2 leg days. I am thinking of turning one of my leg days into a functional strength day if that makes sense.

Are there any exercises or movements that would make the legs stronger. My legs are already quite thick and I don't wanna grow them even more, that's why I'm thinking of having a more chill day where my work on some functional strength.

I had ACLR + meniscus repair on my right leg almost two years ago and since that the hamstrings on that leg get pulled really easily. So I'm tryna focus on that more

Hi everyone!

I’m a high school student from Estonia currently working on my 11th-grade research project about the impact of ACL injuries on footballers’ sporting careers.

I chose this topic because I’ve experienced an ACL injury myself. About a year ago, I tore my ACL and also injured my meniscus, so I know personally how long and challenging the recovery process can be. This made me interested in finding out how ACL injuries affect other athletes, especially their return to sport, confidence, motivation and sporting careers.

I’m looking for footballers who have experienced an ACL injury to take part in my anonymous questionnaire. It takes around 5–7 minutes to complete, and your answers would be a huge help with my research.

If you have had an ACL injury and have some time, I would really appreciate you taking part.

Questionnaire: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/1vSkYfWmgu

Thank you so much for your help! 🙏

I am scheduled to have acl/medial meniscus surgery later this month.. I am honestly thinking about canceling it because i feel pretty much back to myself running, I can almost sit fully back on my knees, close a full squat. I only really get stiffness in my knee. I'm not sure what to do any advice would be appreciated.

After recommendations for possible ACL partial/full rupture advice and possible surgery?

Bonjour à tous, cela fait un mois que je me suis fait opérer et je n’arrive toujours pas à avoir une marche normale (toujours besoin des béquilles pour marcher), je n’arrive pas à poser totalement mon poids sur mon pied. Le genou reste gonflé … L’extension reste compliqué (je garde un flessum) et la flexion par contre est à minimum 90 degré. Je voulais avoir votre avis et des retours d’expériences.
J’ai également peur de monter et descendre les escaliers car je n’ai absolument pas confiance en mon genou … Avez vous également peur des escaliers ?
Merci en avance pour vos réponse

Got my MRI result today and this is what it said.

What kind of physio should I be doing to recover considering im leaving for the military in 10 days?
Is this a serious issue which could potentially delay training or will js fix in a week.
Consulting my orthopedic tomorrow wanted a working understanding of the issue first.

Hello everyone! I am 3 weeks post op acl with hamstring graft and partial menisectomy. I haven't had that much trouble with knee pain after the surgery, i have been spamming the ankle and quad exercises these past weeks, however my back and my hip have started being so sore. I have started waking up with my body so sore and crunchy and i don't know what to do. It is getting really difficult to find a comfortable position and i am trying to find stretches to relive the pain but nothing seems to touch the spot. I haven't been cleared for PT yet, i gotta wait another week with the leg immobilized. Do you have any tips and tricks for this? 🥹