ACL Surgery Should we and how long is recovery?

My 14 year old son hurt his knee playing football for his school in May this year and an MRI showed he has a complete tear of the ACL and Medial Meniscal. So far surgery has been cancelled 3 times, yes we have no insurance and are going public. It is now rescheduled for late January 08 and he has spat the dummy and said that he won't have it done as he is worried about when he can return to bodyboarding and football. He wants to compete in bodyboard comps in early April. Can anyone help with any ideas re alternatives to surgery and if I make him have the op, how long he can expect to be housebound. Though his knee still aches a bit and swell up sometimes he can now at least fully bend his leg. We are thinking of just doing nothing. Thanks.

I will give you a recent experience in my life to help you answer your question. On july 3rd this year I injured my knee during a basketball game. I tore my LCL ligament and dislocated my kneecap. I just started playing recently a little more than 5 months later. On Dec. 12 was the game I returned and it seemed that i returned too early because to my horror and my team's horror, I got fouled going up for a layup and as I landed my knee twisted out. I re-injured my knee having dislocated my kneecap again and on top of that having a sprained ACL ligament. I am now out my whole senior year and I probably can't play for college and my team won't have its captain anymore. I urge your son not to do anything too early and if the doctor or surgeon recommends surgery then go for it. When I graduate this year I will have to get knee repair surgery for my kneecap, ACL, and LCL. Good luck.

Wow - it's better to have the surgery now and get it repaired, than try to use alternatives (they won't work) or have it heal on it's own (it can't). If he wants to compete in other sports, he'll need a repair.
I know it sucks, but that's the deal.
I would definitely go see another surgeon and get a second opinion. Why has surgery been cancelled 3 times so far? Have you cancelled it, or has the doctor?
But if the MRI shows a complete tear of the ACL and medial meniscal damage, then surgical repair is the way to go in my book.
Good luck.

If you elect not to have surgery, your son has a higher probability of injuring his knee in the future, especially if he is active in sports. Short-term needs might end up creating long-term consequences... like he won't be able to play sports at all. My close friend recently had ACL surgery and, yes it is a painful operation that will keep him fairly immobile for a while. Yet, like your son, he ignored this problem for a few years, but after a couple of more injuries, he had to get surgery anyways. As for the insurance aspect, I'm not sure what the costs are and if that is the main concern of canceling the operation. Perhaps you can look into government health programs like Healthy Kids. Yet, now that he has a documented injury that requires surgery, it may be difficult to find a low-cost insurance program.

It is imperative that your son goes into surgery cause the tear of the ACL was complete, it will not heal properly without the surgery. Plus the concomitant meniscal injury implies that the trauma was severe.

The surgery and the post surgical rehabilitation might take 6 mos and return to play/work may be immediately after that depending on the surgeons and rehab med.

Surgery is the best option so that return to work/function is asap