ACL TEAR - Knee Expert Of El Paso

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DID YOU SUFFER A TORN ACL AND HEAR YOU CAN HEAL WITHOUT SURGERY BUT DON’T KNOW HOW? DO DOCTORS KEEP PUSHING SURGERY ON YOU?

An ACL tear can feel like a devastating injury that absolutely needs surgery, especially when there’s so much pain and swelling that you can’t walk comfortably or even stand on your leg.

We’ve helped many people in this situation get back to feeling normal again, they are even confident enough to return to being active in sports with running, cutting and jumping, without surgery!

There are more and more cases all over the world of people healing and getting back to high level sport activity after tearing their ACL. You can do it too! We’ll show you how.

HOW DO PEOPLE OF EL PASO GET A TORN ACL?

An accident, either motor vehicle or sports or fluke, are the most common ways people end up with an ACL tear. Something causes the knee to shift or bend in a way it’s not supposed to. This causes a fully torn ACL, partial ACL tear, or sometimes an MCL tear.

Motor vehicle accidents including a fender bender, rollover, or head on collision can cause the knee to be forced into a bad motion. Often patients and healthcare workers are concerned with the most severe or life-threatening injuries at first and an ACL tear might take the back seat to a broken bone or bloody wound somewhere else.

Sporting accidents vary greatly from playing team sports like football, basketball, volleyball, and soccer to skiing to water sports such as wakeboarding. Another person may have crashed into the knee from the side or there was an uncontrolled fall that caused the ACL tear.

Fluke accidents happen when someone goes jumping on a trampoline for the first time in a long time and lands awkwardly on the knee. They may also happen when someone takes an unexpected tumble on a step, pet, or something on the ground.

For some people, they’ll begin having ACL tear symptoms WITHOUT ever having an accident. These people are especially at risk for having a fluke accident because their ACL is already injured due to an underlying root muscle imbalance problem. Once they buckle at the wrong time and in the wrong place, they’re very likely to suffer a traumatic ACL tear.

ACL TEAR SYMPTOMS

Pain, swelling, loss of motion, and inability to stand and walk on the leg are the immediate symptoms right after an ACL tear happens. After the severe symptoms calm down, there is usually a feeling of consistent discomfort in the knee.

But the biggest problem people deal with more long-term is buckling. That’s when the knee just bends, or gives way, while standing and walking. It feels like when someone hits the back of your knee and forces your knee to bend, possibly causing your to lose your balance. People don’t feel they can trust their knee, even though much of the pain and swelling is gone.

ACL TEAR TREATMENT OPTIONS

There is a big chance that if you show up to a doctor’s office with an ACL tear, they will recommend immediate ACL reconstruction surgery.

These days, there are gradually more doctors taking a progressive approach and telling their patients to “wait” 1-2 months, let the swelling and pain go down and then “see” if surgery is needed at that point. They might offer pain medications, an injection, and even send their patient to physical therapy. They’ll sometimes recommend a knee brace during this time in addition to the crutches their patients are already using.

But healthcare workers handling people who are early on in the recovery of an ACL tear are typically unsure exactly what to do besides “wait and see.” They’re hoping that you’ll be miraculously better by then but they’re not going to do much actively to help you steer clear from the surgeon’s office.

Even in physical therapy, many PTs give up on helping their patients avoid surgery because they’re unsure what to have patients do that really helps the ACL to heal for the long-term. Most physical therapists are specialists in helping people recover from surgery, NOT heal naturally to avoid surgery. They may have the 1 or 2 cases they worked with that healed naturally because their ACL tear wasn’t that bad, but they don’t know how to ensure that every patient has the best chance to avoid ACL surgery.

So if the PT’s plan to get the patient on the bike everyday, do hamstring stretches, and strengthen the quad muscles (often with a focus on the VMO muscle) isn’t working, they start to say things like “maybe you should talk to the surgeon,” or “it looks like you’re going to need surgery.” The reality is that the PT’s plan is the same they would do for someone recovering from ACL surgery because that’s what they know how to do best.

And knee surgeons definitely do not know how to help someone avoid ACL reconstruction surgery. Quite the contrary! They’ve studied for years on how to perform the surgeries! They’re just waiting and hoping that patients need their services so they can do what they’re best at doing.

I sincerely believe that both surgeons and physical therapists are doing the best they can with what they know. I really believe they have the utmost, best intention to do right by their patients. They just DON’T have the specialist know-how to consistently help an ACL tear heal naturally.

There’s SO MUCH we don’t understand as a healthcare profession about how the knee works and how to guide it to heal naturally without surgery.

HOW KNEE PAIN AFTER ACL SURGERY AFFECTS PEOPLE

People often don’t wait more than 1-2 months before having ACL surgery because general healthcare workers aren’t specialized in helping them avoid surgery. And surgery, sadly, doesn’t always fully resolve the problem.

In fact, we find that most people have muscle imbalances (that were painless!) leading up the ACL tear incident. And often it was the muscle imbalance that left their knee vulnerable to injury.

If the root muscle imbalance is not properly addressed, then there’s a greater chance that there will be ongoing knee problems after surgery. Even though the patient recovers full knee range of motion and even gets very strong after surgery, re-injury and chronic pain might result if the root muscle imbalance is not corrected.

We see patients all the time who had an ACL surgery in the past and have continually had knee problems while on their quest to get back to being active again. And nearly always, the root muscle imbalance is present.

But the good news is that the muscle imbalances can be corrected! With the right treatment plan even those that have already had ACL surgery can greatly improve their knee health and confidence to return to being fully active again. And if you’re looking to avoid ACL surgery altogether, we’re the right knee clinic in El Paso to help you achieve that goal.

If you’re looking to get started on treatment with us, my team is here to help you. Start by requesting a free Discovery Visit where you can speak to a knee pain specialist in our clinic.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A KNEE PAIN SPECIALIST IN EL PASO, TEXAS?

At our El Paso clinic, we understand how difficult life with knee pain can be - because we’ve been helping people with chronic knee osteoarthritis pain, like you, for nearly 10 years.

If you want natural, medication-free relief from knee pain, so that you can enjoy an active, mobile and pain-free life, you will love what we can do for you!

Set up a free Discovery Visit today to find out how we can help you - our knee pain specialists would be happy to discuss your individual needs and create a personalized plan of action for fast knee pain relief without relying on pain medication, injections, or having a potentially unnecessary surgery.

Our natural and pain medication-free approach to treating knee pain means that you can get back to doing the things you love - without having to worry about your knee pain getting worse.

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Appointments and Questions Call: (915)503-1314

EL PASO MANUAL PHYSICAL THERAPY
2601 E. Yandell Drive, Suite 232
El Paso, Texas 79903