10 days before reconstruction

There are no data on ACL reconstruction preparation procedures. There are however some recovery procedures. With this set of posting, my wish is to make light of what I have done to prepare myself for a quick recovery and track the recovery. It is hoped that this will also help others who are in the same position and give some type of guidelines to any one who faces this type of surgery.

The ACL has been torn since December of last year.  A series of things has prevented either the proper diagnosis or the ability to deal with a quick remedy due to experiments, health insurance and a myriad of other things. This is the second one for me. The left leg was first in about 1999.  A long time ago in terms of where the state of the art for these surgeries are now.

At any rate the date is set and I go in for Pre-op meeting with the surgeon on Wednesday. 

How did it tear? Footy.  A Liberian guy made a foolish tackle on a ball that was already in my possession. Knee on knee, but he had all the momentum. I was stopped on the left side of the pitch and drawing the ball back. Oh well. That's the nature of the game. He came out OK, I knew immediately that the knee was in trouble. More at some other time.

In preparation for the surgery, I've increased the level of weight lifting, and cardiovascular preparedness according to recommendations received from others. As a member of coreperformance.com, I asked for specific recommendations from them, but there are no articles available. In a kindly email the responded that the best recommendation they could give would be to "put as much in the bank as you can".  1 hour/day weights, 20 mins runs and numerous flexibility and plyometric exercises will, with any luck, let me get back to playing ball and surfing as soon as possible. 

Data for myself at this point, is 52 years, 5'10", 178lbs., Thigh circumference 58 cm, Bicep circumference 38cm. I will keep a log of how the circumference will drop over time and increase as I recover.  We'll see if I maintain the motivation and discipline to return in short order to my beloved Eurotrash F. C. and to footy in general.