I blew my knee up last June, right after the Old Dominion ride. There is a great deal of irony to say that I can ride pretty aggressively at age 46 but blew my knee up playing soccer with a bunch of eight year old girls. It is also fair to say these are the State champion eight years but none the less....I bent the knee backwards at a dead run and decimated the ACL.
The orthopedist misdiagnosed it as a minor issue for six weeks because I did not have a lot of swelling or a lot of pain for most of the time. I would be fine most of the time but then would all of sudden pop that knee backwards and find myself on the floor in great pain. Had allograft reconstruction in September. This involves the use of a donor patella tendon to replace the ACL ligament. For my kind of injury, I recommend it highly. I learned a number of things in this experience that I hope may help your situation.
1.) Get the best PT you can find to help you and work every day. Meet with them before the surgery to know what you can do immediately following. (I could not see anyone until five days after and the mental and physical toll was too high.) Tell them if the exercises are too easy or too hard but be prepared for some pain in the process.
2.) Ask about a Constant motion machine. This is a brace system with a motor that you wear which ever so slowly moves your leg all the time. This significantly reduces the muscle wasting effect surgery has on the quad muscles and increases range and comfort.
3.) Ask about a chiller machine. This looks like a small beer cooler with tubes that delivers chilled water to a pad under your dressing. This was a great help and I am saving it for horse leg injuries that I hope to never have.
4.) I will not lie. They sent me home with a drug drip and percaset. It was not enough. The first three days were tougher than anything I've dealt with (and that includes four big babies, no drugs) The next two weeks were totally exhausting. But after that it got better everyday.
I am now seven months out of surgery. I can ride now though am still working on those abductor muscles. My legs are still somewhat asymmetrical and my "weak" leg gets tired quicker. Rode about forty miles two weeks ago and felt the effects much more from the rest of my body than the knee. I am working on the last ten degrees of flexion but the extension is fine. It was definitely the right thing to do.
