Replying to My ACL experience: BEAR Trial & Return to ski?
During my first week of the season in November 2018 I made a rookie mistake. Started charging way too hard, way too fast. On my 5th day I was cruising around Vail CO and started throwing my first backys and 3's under the chairlift. By the end of the day my legs were so tired from that week and day of skiing I literally had to stop every few hundred feet to rest. Alas, I threw my last backflip and decided to call it a day, but not before stomping one last 3. I went for it, landed backseat, and my muscles completely failed to activate which essentially sent the entire load onto my ACL's, resulting in one strained (left), and one torn (right).
Having read about the drawbacks of ACL reconstruction, I searched for an alternative and found one, the BEAR trial. I also happened to go to college in Boston, so this worked out nicely and I enrolled myself. My surgery date was January 9th, and everything went seemingly well. Swelling went down very quickly and overall it looked like I was recovering at an astonishing rate. I continued rehab for the following months but still felt instability in the knee. I figured it was just a natural process of the BEAR method, and hoped it would mend itself. 7 months later in July, I figured this isn't going to get much better so I went to see an orthopedic surgeon at home in Austria. After 30 seconds of a pivot shift and lachman test, he told me that there is basically no functioning ACL in my knee. Long story short, the BEAR had not worked at all and on July 30th I had an ACL reconstruction with a patellar autograft and a double meniscal repair.
I know I won't be able to ski over Thanksgiving or Christmas break, but I have 10 days off for spring break in mid-March, which would be exactly 7.5 months out from my surgery date. I know my surgeon has said 9 months for returning to all sports, but from almost everything I've read on forums like these, people seem to return to skiing at around month 6. I'm hoping someone with a similar experience could shed some light on whether I'll be able to ski at 7.5 months, keeping in mind that I already am, and am going to continue attacking my rehab. Obviously, I won't be looking to charge hard yet, but wondering if I'd be able to cruise around the slopes of Aspen/Snowmass and maybe squeeze in a few highland bowl laps?
Sorry for the long thread but I wanted to accomplish 2 things with this: 1. Tell my experience of the BEAR method which, for me, seemed to do absolutely nothing 2. Get some info on when I could return to ski.
Thanks!
Tim
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