5 weeks post op

[Gav1]

Hi.

I’m 5 weeks post surgery now and would just like some advice.
I had to go with the Hamstring graft as my insurance was coming to an end and the Surgeon said it would most likely take longer to get things sorted out for the donor Allograft. I then had the risk of having no insurance. In total I had the ACL reconstruction, he had to remove bits that were floating about, he had to trim parts of the medial and lateral Meniscus and also move one part of the Meniscus into it’s proper place as it was folded over and jammed between the joint. All in all, things are going good apart from an issue I’m having with my Hamstring.
I slightly pulled my Hamstring about 6 months ago sprinting and it’s never fully healed up. I didn’t know of the Bill Starr protocol then, but I didn’t stop training, so I hopefully haven’t caused problems.
When seeing the PT at the end of week 2 he started me on Glute/Hamstring raises. I lie on the floor with my legs raised on a chair, raise up on both legs and down on one.
He has explained to me about the piece of Hamstring that is left and it’s trying to attach itself to the remaining Hamstring, but it needs to attach higher up the leg because it will keep pulling away once stretched.
I’ve never really done any direct Hamstring exercises and thought that Squats and Dead’s were enough. It’s obviously a lot easier for me to do this new exercise on the un-injured leg, but I’m struggling on the inured one. On a few occasions over the last few weeks, I’ve felt a popping in my Hamstring about 4 or 5 inches up from the back of my knee. I’ve never severely pulled or torn either Hamstring, so don’t know what to compare this with, but it does feel pretty major.
It also feels in a similar place to where I tweaked it months ago, so I don’t think it’s anything to do with the piece he removed, from what he explained the pice that was left seemed higher up the leg.
He did say he wants me to start adding weight and doing Squats and Deadlifts from week 6 and I was thinking of doing the Starr rehab with Deadlifts.
Are these negative raises on one leg to much and would I be better starting the deadline rehab. Is there anything else I can do to help fix this.

Thanks.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Since you let the surgeon do what he wanted to your leg, I think you should just do what The Physio says about the rehab. Worry about your deadlift later.

[Gav1]

Catch 22 really Rip.
My knee has been declining rapidly over the last 5 years to the point where I’ve been losing money with time off work/having to pay people to do jobs I could do with a stable knee. I’m a self employed builder and it has been popping out more and more and causing slightly more damage each time.
The reason it’s taken so long for me to have it done is due to the recovery time after/loss of work. I didn’t want to have it done on the NHS as they are butchers and definitely do exactly what they want and don’t give a shit to what you say. I broke a finger skiing when I was 19 and because they didn’t see to it properly I ended up having it cut off.
After years of searching I managed to find an insurance company that covered pre-existing injuries as you only get this if you work for a corporate company.
They took me on and I had every thing planned to have it done in April 2018. Dec 2017 was the end of my first 6 months with them and I received a letter stating that they would be stopping my coverage at the end of the year. I only had about 8 weeks to get this sorted out and then the Surgeon said he couldn't guarantee he could get it done if he had to use a donor before the insurance ran out.
There is no way I could have afforded to pay the 10k for this surgery in the near future and couldn’t have carried on with it.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I understand. The NHS is an unfortunate side-effect of socialism, nothing either you or I can do about it, there or here. And the sad fact is that this surgery will result in problems for your leg. Since it's already done and whining won't alter that fact, work it as hard as you can and the outcome will be better.

[Gav1]

I understand. The NHS is an unfortunate side-effect of socialism, nothing either you or I can do about it, there or here. And the sad fact is that this surgery will result in problems for your leg. Since it's already done and whining won't alter that fact, work it as hard as you can and the outcome will be better.

Yeah, it’s a joke. I’ve contributed towards it all my adult life and the one and only time I ever used it, they fucked my hand up. I definitely won’t be whining about it and will surely be getting stuck into the rehab. I’ve had this injury for almost half my adult life, so maybe the negatives of the surgery will be compensated by the stability and being able to do some of the things I used to.

Cheers.