Hi all,

I was unfortunate enough to completely rupture my patella (kneecap) tendon on Xmas eve. I was walking my bike down a gnarly bit of single track when I slipped down a bank and went over on my left knee. The “pop” I felt from my knee let me know I had done something major:-(

Anyways, I have just had the surgical repair done, and am hopefully going to be going home tomorrow.

My question is has anyone had this happen to them, and how long was it until they were able to get back in the saddle? And how long was it until they got back to how they were riding before??

Any advice would be great, as this has really put a downer on things. I’ve only been MTBing for 5 months, and the thought of having to wait 3 months before I can do gentle exercise and 9 months before I should be back to how I was is a depressing thought :-((

Cheers, and best wishes to all for the new year.

Pete

I did mine in Feb this year just walking into my house (rad, I know). I’m afraid it’s a painful road back. For me it was a 3 month spell in a cricket pad splint followed by 3 months of gentle exercise and physio.it’s still not back to100% but I am back on the bike regularly now without any nasty side effects. I’m lucky enough to have access to decent physio through my work, otherwise I wouldn’t be at the stage I am now. (waiting list was 3 months AFTER my splint came off before they could fit me in for a course of treatment).

Don’t me tempted to rush things, the horror stories I’ve been told about further ruptures are not nice.

Good luck

Aye, it’ll be a while. You will get follow up physio which will more than likely take the form of supervised exercise classes. Give it 6 months and you’ll be grand all going well.

Not as severe but I had a second degree tear of my medial (inner side of the knee joint) a few years ago. 4 weeks on crutches, 12 weeks of physio, 8 weeks till I was (gently) back on the road bike, 3 months till I could do any kind of hard MTBing. A year or more before I could get the joint to full lock.

Because of all the limping and hobbling in the first few weeks I started to get back pain from the imbalance.

Seek out a decent phsyio. I found one at a local gym who was excellent and understood that I was an active chappy and wanting to get back training asap. Phsyio consisted of specific exercises, ultrasound, heat treatment, nauseating pushing of range of movement, massage, acupuncture.

+1 for don’t push it. Unless you want a second go at surgery.

Just out of interest, how did they repair it?

I did mine in ’97 , some dumb ass decided that turning right in front of me would be a good idea , my left knee shattered the rear passenger window when I hit the side of the car. I had a good idea what had happened when I stood up on the other side of the car and my leg bent the wrong way :cry:.

Th paramedic staff tried to cheer me up by telling me that what they could see of my cartlidge looked alright(big hole where kneecap had beeen). Once I got to hospital they checked me in and I was shot full of morphine (nice!).

The surgeon who fixed my knee used a couple of wires to anchor the 2 raggy ends of the tendon together and loads of supposedly self dissolving stitches .After 2 days in the hospital they got me up and walking on crutches and sent me home. It took me about 3 weeks before I was confident enough to get around under my own steam(on buses).

I started physio after about 4 weeks and I’m sorry to say this is where the real pain starts. The first few weeks were mainly massage and manipulation then the load bearing exercises started , all I can say is BLOODY ouch! you might be as hard as nails and cope well with it but I have the pain threshold of a 4 year old girl.

My self dissolving stitches didn’t dissolve quickly enough, became infected and oozed masses of foul smelling puss which I needed to take antibiotics for. After 6 months I returned to hospital for the op’ to get the wires removed , I’d been off crutches for about a month but was using a trekking pole for support.

At home I pushed myself quite hard when the physio felt I was able, sometimes to the point of tears but now have over 95% mobility in my injured knee which all things considered I’m happy with. I became a postman 12 months after the accident and feel that the regular exercise keeps my knee going , if I have more than 3 weeks without doing a walking duty I start to get an ache in the knee joint.

For my repair they sutured the torn ends of the tendon together. To avoid it tearing in the early healing stage, they passed a couple of wire loops through the quadriceps tendon (above the kneecap) and ran the wire down to the top of the shin bone and through a bone tunnel.

I’m 24 hours post op as I write this. I’m back at home, able to load my left leg and not in too much pain. Only very limited movement, which i have been given gentle excercises to try and increase. Ive heard horror stories about the impending Physio :-()!!

Thanks for everyone’s input, here’s to a long road to recovery.

Cheers
Pete