Two months ago from yesterday, I tore my ACL or as we say in German, "Ich habe mein Kreuzband gerissen." So far, pain only comes from not moving or on a rare moment when I find a shaky spot on cobble stone-like surfaces. From the beginning, I've been on the conservative track to getting my knee in working order. That means postponing surgery until I've worked through all non-surgical rehabilitation with the hope that just maybe I'll find that my knee feels secure enough to forgo going under the knife.

I just got back from Doktor K's. I've got the okay for more Belastung. I'm uping the dosage for more walking, biking, swimming (if warm enough), and hiking. Whohoo! The doc was really impressed with my knee flexibility but it was clear that my quadriceps in my left leg are much weaker than my right. Since I'll be relying on my muscles a lot more for stability, it's crucial that I get off my lazy ass and work it. I won't attempt running until middle of May, per doc's recommendation.

It's been really tough to decipher all the suggestions, i.e. getting surgery sooner as opposed to later, or when it comes time to getting surgery, should I replace my ACL with a ligament from my hamstring or from a cadaver. Ew. Gross. But it's an option, right? But for me, I wasn't so sure.

Follow up:

After talking with Doktor K, he really put my mind at easy, confirmed what I read and made sense with further explanations. He said donated ligaments are rarely used in Germany because there are not any around. If used, they are obtained from the 'black market' in Switzerland. There is a greater risk of infection when getting an allograft, such as, HIV or Hepatitis C even with screening. The donated ligaments obtained in Germany are usually frozen and if potentially exposed to radiation (just time out of the body can cause this) the cells are already damaged or weakened. With all that in mind, it's more expensive to get surgery using a donated ligament. Even still, grafting donated ligaments is more excepted in the US and can't be ruled out when people (such as athletes) have serious damage to more than one ligament or suffer from the same injury perhaps several times in a life time.

Over the past two months, I've talked to a good number of people who have torn their ACL or know someone who has and they all say in short, "get the surgery". In Munich alone, there were at least 4 expats last year who tore their ACL (plus other damage) and were in the O.R. five weeks after the incident. (Doc says that's fast) Reading the forum, where they posted their experiences, they all sounded happy to have had it done and at the same hospital. (shallow suggestion pond syndrome: Seems there's a limit to how adventures we expats are willing to be)

I talked with one of them who tore the ACL twice in the same knee. I told her my wish to go conservative and wait it out and she said that I must not be that active. :ponder: It's one thing to ignored the injury, act like no big deal happened, and later find yourself forced to get surgery. My thought is how could she (or the others) know what is a better option when she (they) rushed to get surgery. Not that it's bad to get it over with. But you can only experience one outcome out of all the infinite possibilities.

All I know is that everyone's experience and injury is individual. Find a doctor that matches your life philosophy and hope for the best. Even if what I'm doing isn't conventional, I believe, because I can make the time and I am fortunate not to have a job that demands having a kickin' stable knee, I can prepare myself for prevention instead a rush for a cure.