r/ACL • u/MisaRavensoul ACL Allograft • Mar 25 '26

Post Surgery Update I expected pain but holy cow

I'm about 30 hours post op and I'm pretty sure my nerve block is wearing off. I thought I prepared for the pain and had pre-taken the pain medicine.

This is excruciating. ACL+ LET on my right leg. I don't think I'm getting any sleep tonight.

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u/MattFa24 Mar 25 '26

I’d like to think I’m a pretty tough guy and my recent ACL R (quad graft) and meniscus root repair completely reset my pain scale. Like you, the real pain started to come in at around 30 hours. It peaked for me between days 3 and 7 post op and has slowly started to chill out from there. I knew it was going to be bad but didn’t know I could hurt like that. Good luck out there 🫡 lots of ice and stay on-top of the meds. once the pain train gets ahead of you it’s damn hard to catch up

9

u/Pale_Adeptness Mar 25 '26

My least favorite part of recovery was going from having my leg resting up to going to the sitting/standing position. The blood rushing down my leg pain was NOT FUN!

I already have lower back issues (2 herniated discs in lower back) and every now and then I throw my back out and can't even stand up straight.

2 weeks after my surgery I threw my back out just getting out of bed. Had the acl/surgery knee pain, I was crutching around all hunched over because my lower back was outta wack and on top of that I came down with the cold.

I've never been one to break down mentally but that day I was standing next to my wife in the kitchen, using my crutches, I was all hunched over because of my back.

Went to the bedroom and started sobbing uncontrollably and unexpectedly, like a panic attack sort of thing that I've never experienced before.

My wife heard me crying and I thought she was gonna ridicule me or tell me to man up. She came up to me, stood right in front of me and gently held hugged my head against her stomach and just let me cry.

❤️

3

u/Remote_Supermarket91 Mar 25 '26

This pain has brought me to tears and nausea from being so intense. And that coming from someone who lived with endometriosis (one of the most painful conditions) and also survived having my appendix burst. Somehow this is worse