Don’t Waste Your First 2 Weeks After ACL Surgery

27 July

The first 2 weeks following ACL surgery are vitally important to set the foundation for a successful early phase rehab. Why 2 weeks? This is normally the time between your surgery and your check up with the surgeon and a lot of people what until AFTER this review to really get started in any serious way with their rehab.

I’m writing this post to help you avoid this error. The first two weeks are not a time to prepare for your upcoming rehab but rather the exact time to properly being your rehab. No one looks at a finished house and is blown away by the concrete slab…but without a concrete slab you don’t have a house! The first few weeks following surgery are all about building that foundation.

So what should you prioritise? Every injury and surgery is slightly different and therefore what you should be doing looks slightly different. However in general the goals of the first 2 weeks is to get the swelling down (Ice, Ice, Ice, elevate, elevate, elevate, compress, compress, compress), get as close to possible to 0 degrees of extension and maintain the 90 degrees of flexion you should have achieved in hospital (unless your locked in extension allowing the meniscus to heal for the first 2-6 weeks), and restoring a volitional quad contraction.

It is not uncommon for a patient to be referred to me following the 2 week surgical review and they have done very little up until that point. And I totally understand. You receive a sheet of exercises in hospital when your still not yourself on account of the anaesthetic. Before you know it you’re at home and trying to work out how to do the exercises. It makes sense to wait until the surgeon check up right? The care ACL patients in the immediate post op period is for another blog post..

The point here is that you need a solid plan before your surgery for the first few days post surgery. Start your physio as soon as possible! Don’t wait for the 2 week surgeon check up.

Of course it’s important to note that there are instances where we can’t be as aggressive in the first few weeks following surgery due to meniscal repairs or osetomoties for example.

If you are preparing for surgery we’d love to chat to you. Reach out for a free 15 minute phone consult with me. If you’re in the first 2 weeks post op and you feel lost please reach out!