Tearing My Anterior Cruciate Ligament

I tore my anterior cruciate ligament (acl) when I fell off a wall in January 2002. I had surgery to reconstruct it in January 2004.

ACL is the most common knee ligament injury, especially in athletes like footballers. It is commonly caused by twisting the knee suddenly or sharply. There are 4 major ligaments in the human knee; anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and the lateral collateral ligament
and they criss cross each other. Patients normally undergo an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan) which shows up the injury. Strains can sometimes be fixed through physical therapy and muscle strengthening but tears almost always require surgery. Doctors usually use a patient's own tendons eg. part of their hamstring to construct a new acl.

When I injured my knee I was out hillwalking with a group in the Burren, Co. Clare. We were climbing over an old stone wall - (you know the Irish stone walls, there is no cement, the stones were just placed on top of each other many years ago) and the stone I was standing on rocked and I jumped down about 3 feet onto my left leg and I felt the knee twist and collapse under me.

The members of the group checked to see that I hadn't broken my leg and I was able to wiggle my toes and twist my ankle so it wasn't broken. The next day I went to the GP and he referred me to the hospital. They brought me by ambulance from University College Hospital Galway to Merlin Park Hospital Galway and put my leg in a cast. The next day they told me that they were not going to operate because there was so much swelling and bruising around the knee that it was not advisable. I stayed in for a few more days and the physiotherapist gave me exercises to do and I was told to come back to the outpatients department. I was on crutches for a few weeks and that was awkward. I did the exercises and my knee got a good bit better but it was still unstable and the doctors advised me that I would have to have surgery at some stage.

Then I got called for an exploratory procedure in September 2003. They looked at my knee under keyhole surgery and assessed the damage. I remember waking up in the recovery room and the anaesthatist was speaking Irish to one of the nurses.

Finally I got in for my final surgery which was in January 2004 (2 years after the original incident) - it was a long drawn out process and I had to get time off work. I went in for the operation and I stayed in hospital for 4 days. I remember being terribly sick after the anasthetic - that was very unpleasant. I was in a ward with 4 older women and they were in for knee replacement surgery. That is supposed to be an even bigger ordeal than hip replacement. I was determined to make a good recovery so I was up doing my exercises every day.

I wanted to get out of there and I did my physiotherapy exercises for a full 9 months after that - I had to buy some weights that I strapped onto my knee and raised my knee in repetition. It was a tough operation and the recovery was hard but I have had no problems with my knee since.