So, you have ruptured your Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL). Well… you are not alone. Thousands of people sustain this injury every year. You do get better, it does take time and it takes consistency in your approach to rehabilitation.
The most important thing is that you stay positive and focused on the process. It is easy to focus on the negatives when you first have a serious knee injury.
What to do? I can break down the way we work with patients with a rupture to the Anterior Cruciate and other serious knee injuries: For our Physiotherapy and Exercise Physiology professionals in Rockhampton and Yeppoon, our job is firstly to reassure you that we will be able to help you return to what you were doing previous to your injury.
- Step 1: Control Swelling. How? Use compression such as the Lumark Knee Compression devices that we have in stock at Vector Health. They are awesome. The insert goes in the fridge and the compression does the rest. There is no water leaking everyone like with ice brackets and our experience tells us the results are better than anything we have used before. Generally, trying to do this consistently 3-5 times per day for 20 minutes at a time is a good idea in the first week at least is good. The general rule is that swelling in a joint will generally cause pain with movement, so if we can reduce this, we can help get the joint moving quicker.
- Step 2: Return Range of Motion (ROM). Once swelling and pain is under control, we progress to returning your knee range of motion. We want it to flex past 90 degrees (bend) and straighten to match the non-injured leg (extend). This can take a few days or a few weeks depending on each person and the associate injury that is present with the rupture to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament.
- Step 3: Improve and Return of muscle activation. Muscle activation is different to strengthening. Basically, if a muscle does not work properly, you cannot strengthen it properly. It is essentially working to connect your brain and body parts again. Pain and dysfunction can affect how your muscles work together to move your joints.
These are the first three steps to getting back on the road to recovery. Exercise WORKS! In this context, the work you do away from us is really important! Consistency and frequency is the absolute bomb for knee injuries.
If you have an ACL injury or any other knee injury and you want a logical, well-explained way to get back to your pre-injury life, then please call us on 4927 8190. We can see you in either our Rockhamton or Yeppoon locations to get you started. If you want to return to sport as part of your overall rehabilitation, then Glenn Hansen, Head Performance Coach is the person to ask for, to do your initial assessment and help set your short and long-term goals. You can email reception@vectorhealth.com.au with your details to arrange a time with Glenn to get started.
Our job is to help define the problem and then to set a plan to rectify the problem. Your job is to follow the plan! We look forward to helping you get started!
