LARS ligament week 1

I will be doing some updates on my rehabilitation with my new knee. There is not a lot of information about the LARS ligament or how recovery is with it. I would like to give everyone an in-depth look into it for those interested in alternative knee reconstructions.

I arrived at the Duval clinic in Luval, Quebec, just 30min from Montreal at 6:30 am for surgery. I sat down with Dr. Duval and the anaesthetist to discuss surgery. I had a spinal tap. Its about as close as you can get to being paralyzed. From the waist down you go numb. Then you get your “cocktail” shot that is compared to a few bevies that make you feel a lil loose. Next thing you know you are seeing the inside of your knee on a screen beside your head. Dr. Duval went about his business in my knee, removing the meniscus, cleaning out the remainder of my ACL stubs and then applying the LARS ligament and wrapping a sliver of my Quad muscle tendon around it.

Surgery was a success and Dr. Duval was extremely happy with his work. He said he wished he had filmed it to have put on his website. If he’s stoked, so am I!

I was put back in my room to numb out. The spinal takes a while to wear off “numb out” so bring a good book to kill some time. The one downfall of the clinic is that you are not allowed to use your cellphone and there is no wireless internet. They have an ethernet cable, but I guess my Macbook air is too cool for that.

The nurses kept telling me I had to try and pee. Because you get numb from the waist down, EVERYTHING goes numb. So, my senses were thrown off. I had to pee, but couldn’t tell. I was given my piss jar and attempted to go at it. I couldn’t do it lying down in bed, so I thought sitting on the side of the bed, being a little taller, could help. I went to put my good leg on the ground for stability and completely slipped out, SMASHED my face on the serving table giving myself a cut on my cheek and a black eye (wish I had the pic) and fell back into the bed and proceeded to piss myself. Success.

I flew home the next afternoon, on a gruelling 4 hour flight with an hour connection to my parents place in Vernon. I highly suggest to take a few days to yourself after surg before flying. I was given blood thinning shots for flying to make sure i didn’t have any blood clots. My knee blew up to the size of a watermelon and I believe it put me back a few days in rehab.

Here is a run down of surgery and week 1:

Surgery:

4 inch Incision made above knee cap to recover a sliver of Quad tendon.

85% removal of medial meniscus

LARS ligament put in place. 2 titanium screws holding it in. 1 in femur, 1 in tibia.

Compared to previous ACL reconstructive surgeries (both hamstring grafts)

60% less pain after surgery

Able to weight bare day after surgery and even walk. With limp, due to swelling.

Swelling similar to Prior surgeries

Muscle feels active still and prominent surrounding knee, unlike hamstring surgery

Week 1 focus

Get the swelling down. Ice / Compression / Elevate

Keep the blood flowing and muscles alive. Small exercises: rotating foot, flexing calf, buttocks, and quads. Leg flat on ground and slowly dragging heel towards butt. Hamstrings are the first muscle’s to start working on.

This week I have started my Physiotherapy and have had massive gains in my rehab. I’ll have another update at the end of the week.

Any questions? E-mail me at info@tjschiller.com