ACL tear

[gymmom01]

I will preface to say that I am not seeking medical advice. My daughter (Level 9) injured her knee on a bad vault landing at her meet last weekend. We saw a sports medicine ortho this week and it is very likely that she tore her ACL and potentialy the meniscus and will need surgery. We have an MRI scheduled for next week. She has been wearing a knee brace and walking around fine on it without any pain.

My main concern is that she thinks it is fine because she can walk around without any pain, but I was lead to believe that ACL tears pretty much always warrant surgery.

Anyone that has gone through this... any advice on going through the long journey of recovery? We won't know the results or the full extent of the damage until the end of next week, but I am trying to prepare us both mentally for the worst case scenario.

Also, when the doctor says 9 months of recovery,did that mean not doing anything at the gym for 9 months, or were you/your gymnast doing some kind of conditioning at the gym in addition to PT before then?

 

[Gymgirl84]

I have an ACL tear, but I didn't make a recovery to go back to gymnastics (I didn't really try to).
Though, I think the 9 months are to go back to regular training, I think they could be doing something in the gym much earlier (like conditioning and bars over the pit). You could take a look at Jessica Gadirova's IG, she has shared a lot of her recovery journey, and even her, that was really slow in her recovery was at the gym earlier than 9 months post surgery doing bars and some basics (non-impact). Some others like Asia D'Amato and Ondine Achampong have been at the gym quite early. Ondine has been doing almost full beam and bars routines, except the dismounts. She injured almost in (almost) may and she was doing some skills at Cal in November.

 

[gymmom01]

Ugh, this sport is so brutal. I looked at Jessica Gadirova's IG. That is defintely eye-opening for sure We will take one day at a time.....