ACL & PT

There's a good crew of ACL'rs around here so I'm looking for input. It's been 4 months and I think I'm ready to dump my PT, honestly, when I'm there the dude just watches me do my routine and tells me how good I'm doing. For 50 bucks a week I can live without the encouragement. The only thing I can't do at home are leg presses but I'd guess my bike rides are just as good.....legs sure feel the same when I'm done. Anyway, how long did you guys go for.

I'm just a hamstring, but I couldn't believe after a month they basically sent me on my way.

The PT never really paid any attention to what I was up to and seem to care less.

Same here Harv, I get the feeling at this point they're just stringing me along for the $$$$$...no wonder our health care system is all out of wack....Frs

My wife went for a broken ankle, same thing, found it to be useless. No different than going to a gym, at times they even left it up to her as to what she wants to do, gym would have been cheaper. She did a search on the net and found the same PT they were giving her. So not sure what service they actually provided. I think PT is important, just don't need to pay some bozo to do it.

I had a great PT and was "released" after 4 months. Our socialist health care does not cover this but my employer's group plan covered over half of it. Personally, I thought it was money well spent, and I found it harder to get motivated to do the exercises at home. Bike riding is great. I bought an old indoor bike in mint condition at a second-hand store for $15 and it was a bonus on foul-weather days. If you work in an office and have a chair on rollers and a floor with carpet, try scooting around in your chair, especially if you can "walk" a straight line, turn around and do few laps. This is a killer hammy exercise but will get you some strange looks from your co-workers.

I've done PT twice: once for a broken elbow and another time for a knee issue. Neither for an ACL, though. I found PT helpful when starting out on the recovery and absolutely vital when starting out with the break. I never would have gotten as much range of motion back doing it myself. But once I had range of motion and PT was just exercises that could be done at home, the cost can out weight the benefits. You need to do exercises at home any ways so I think the motivation factor is limited. If I was paying myself without insurance, in both cases I would have only done the first 2/3 of the PT and then finished it off myself with the exercises given. I found the decision making point on when to end PT was very vague and there certainly could be money making profit motives contributing. Though it is probably different for everyone depending on motivation to do the exercises at home.

thanks for the feedback...I agree that PT plays a VERY vital role in recovering from an injury, without it I wouldn't have known the proper excersises to do. My PT guy is great and I'd go back to him in a second....just a little disgusted with how it was being dragged out seemingly for just the all mighty dollar. I could be all wet but I don't think so.

sorry to hear about your PT experience. i'm a PT and i frequently hear stories like this. unfortunately, health care became a business years ago. IMHO, a good therapist front loads visits to ensure you are working out correctly, then reduces visits once the client demonstrates competence. both therapist and client should think about discharge when no further skilled instruction is needed. for long term rehab projects like ACL, it might be a good idea to have follow up visits at 4-8 week intervals to reassess and add complex workouts and discard older ones. also, a small practice of 2-4 therapists usually provides direct instruction, supervision, and feedback in comparison to large practices where you sign in and workout alone with a therapist occasionally glancing at you from across the room. like most thing in life, word of mouth is the best referral. at 30-50 bucks a co-pay, the therapist should be imparting some skilled service, not just reviewing the basics. remember, recovery from ACL is a 9-12 month rehab with increasingly more complex exercises added so you can return to skiing in 100% ski shape.

Good info. I have a follow up visit with my surgeon in a couple weeks and was planing on talking to him about it too.

Probably going to get guff for this but PT is 90% BS.    I am certain they play a role for some patients but for healthy active people just give us some instructions and let us go.    I went four times and did the rest myself.    Never did see the Dr after the operation.  Saw his assistant to pull some stiches out.  She went through the dog and pony show about how i needed to start putting weight on my knee.  After a couple minutes of speaking a mile a minute I interupted and asked if she knew my miniscus was repaired as well.   She told me to forget all of what she just said and to keep weight off of it. Gee thanks

 I did do a follow up with the Dr a year later for insurance and everything is AOK.  

As far as a squat maching.  Just do some knee bends.  The weight you carry is more than most machines go up to . :)))