ACL & Meniscuc Knee surgery advice

[JEAH]

Hi, my 17 yo son is having knee surgery in a weeks time, we were only given the date a few days ago. I’ve been looking at aftercare and expected mobility post surgery and don’t have much time to prepare. Like anything, there is so many varieties of things, so I’m hoping for some advice from anyone on here with experience please :)
recommended on-
raised toilet seats/stools to rest leg on
wedge or not wedged pillows
waterproof covers for showering
shower stools/chair
anything else I’ve not thought of.
thanks x

Hi, I can’t really comment on those products because I didn’t have any of them for my acl surgeries (yes, plural!). Instead, I used extra normal pillows in bed to rest my leg in a comfortable position, was able to go to the toilet no problem by just extending it forward, and (this one is admittedly quite tough) would wash by lying back in a shallow bath with my leg resting on the edge of the bath, elevated. Once the stitches were ok, I just sat down in the bath to shower. I would say more important is an endless stock of icepacks, water bottles with nozzles to be able to drink and take medication while lying down. And patience. First couple of months are very painful and tough. After that if all goes well it’s about sticking to physio and working through the exercises to full fitness. Good luck to both of you! Oh yes, one more thing. If I was man, I would definitely have been tempted to find an alternative to getting up to go the toilet in the first few days: a bottle? Some other solution?

Sorry one more thing. If he has meniscus suture at the same time (as oppposed to trimming) he would be able to touch his foot to the floor while walking. So carrying anything while on crutches is very hard: a small rucksack is useful. This way he can transport liquid in a sealed bottle. But you will have to be at his beck and call. Another idea is to set up places in rooms, one hop away where he can rest stuff like a plate and move it from station to station while he moves himself on crutches.

Hi Jeah. My son has his ACL surgery tomorrow. How did your son's Op go? I wondered if you had any top tips. I have got a cyro cuff fir him, plus plenty of paracetamol and ibuprofen. Anything else you recommend?

My son had an ACL reconstruction and meniscal repair in the summer. We hired a Game Ready ice machine for the first month - it wasn’t cheap but worked really well as it applied cold and pressure at the same time. We got through bags and bags of ice with it.

For pain relief he had paracetamol, ibuprofen and cocodamol (took cocodamol for nighttime for the first three weeks).

Showering, we had a waterproof cover as he had a bandage at first and was also wary of taking off his knee brace. I put a mat down in the shower so he didn’t slip and shampoo etc in a carrier bag hung up so he could reach it).

The first three weeks were pretty difficult and then it got much easier - end of week 1 he could hardly move 10 steps but by week 3 he was ok getting around at school (including stairs). It seemed to take ages for him to be able to bend his knee properly but now we are 6 months down the line his movement is completely normal (no twisting or contact sports yet but day to day he has no issues and no pain).

good luck!

Just to add, he was in the knee brace and on crutches for 6 weeks - his walking went back to normal very quickly once he was off crutches. He’s had a lot of physio (still is) and that’s made a lot of difference - it’s really important to do the exercises religiously.

My son had the same surgery at aged 18, I also highly recommend the Cyro cuff as you need to ice the area at regular intervals and it’s ideal. Take things easy and at a slow pace at recovery, he managed everything fine, stairs etc., he did have regular medication the first couple of weeks, but although he was in pain it was manageable and once leg was elevated, he was fine. We were recommended a sports physiotherapist, which was needed as we weren’t sure what he was expected to do.