Well, I'm off work with a busted ACL, MCL and torn meniscus, so a lot of spare time on my hands....
I had the same damage occur 8 yrs ago, you can still work, it's just a bit sore and limits whatcha do. Went to the doctor a week after I had my lower right leg go 90* sideways (the way it's NOT supposed to go) and got the MRI and all that jazz, was'nt until they scoped it did they see the full extent of the injury so they stopped the scope and woke me up to tell me the great news and see what I wanted to do. I heard the down time of post surgery, at the time I was self employeed with my construction company and I was part of the 6 man crew in the feild, so doc told me I could function without surgery, would just be painful until the body adjusted and I would have to relearn how I allow my body to react as far as movement goes.
Got fitted with one of those fancy bionic braces so my leg could'nt flex sideways at the knee, and a month later was walking around without the brace and eating dirt once in awhile when I tried to change direction quickly without thinking about it LOL. It still bites me in the azz now and again when I try to zig too quickly, I can feel my knee shift sideways internally and then the pain hits...lasts the rest of the day and then it's back to business as usual. I did have to really lean on my guys that first month though, walking beams and headers up ladders just did'nt work anymore at that point, so they had to pick up my slack....but was'nt long and it was business as usual.
Once I got a "real job", first one in 20yrs, I finally got to use the home gym I built yrs ago but never had the time/energy after feild work and then bidding jobs and paperwork into the wee morning hours 6-7days a week...what a difference working out has made in leg stability. I really my hamstrings hard since they and my quads are what are not doing the work the missing tendons/ligaments used to do. Obviously not as good as a proper leg, but get by like i did before the injury. Fell off ladder and lower leg got caught in the rungs and it felt, and oddly i could hear the sounds-maybe just in my head, but it felt/sounded like ripping a chicken leg off...all that ripping/tearing/popping sound and feel.....that was almost worse than the inital pain LOL...I actually worked for another 4hrs after that but knew something was wrong since i could'nt stop shaking. Docs said that was shock, but we had a deadline and unless I'm dieing I try to avoid doctors like the plauge.
Shoulda seen my in the ER when I about cut my finger off with the sawzall in a freak accident.... gave them 60minutes of my patence, still nobody came in, rifled through their drawers, found enough stuff to mcgyver a fix to get my finger flopped back into position and split/badaged up and away I went....fricken doc caught me in the lobby and gave me the third degree after he seen what i'd done, I laughed and said i realize there are people here with worse problems than me you need to see, but after an hour of hearing from nobody and a job with a deadline to be completed, I did what needed to be done. I ended up with stitches inside and out to put it back together, no feeling it in to this day...just glad I dont pick my nose with that finger, dont know if it'd be possible with no feeling in it LOL.
