REHAB Phase I: Donjoy, physical therapy

Since my knee's swelling has reduced pretty fast, I'm moving on to phase 2 now. My surgeon prescribed me a super stable carbon brace for the last 2 weeks which was sort of replacing my ACL externally. I have already gotten rid of " Donjoy", as it was called, and am now walking normally. Plus, I'm doing physical therapy 3 times a week to work on my knee's stability. Besides some pain after long working days, it feels almost normal again. I'm sure I will be able to spend some days on the mountain  soon.

REHAB Phase I: Resting, figuring out therapy

Yes, it happened again. For the third time in 8 years, I have torn my ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament; one of the ligaments that guarantee the stability of you knee). I landed on my feet but on a hyperextended right knee. This and the impact and velocity of sliding down a 12 meter long handrail was enough to violently tear apart the transplant ligament that was drilled into my femur and tibia 6 years ago. Besides that, my medial meniscus (a cartilage cushion that absorbs impacts on your knee) was also damaged a little.

I am still a little bit dumbfounded since I never expected this to happen again. But as they say: 3 is a magic number. So I'm going to take this as a chance to start all over again. And I don't mean that snowboarding-wise. I'm going to try to build up my body from scratch. How I'm going to do that, I have no idea yet.

I'm dividing my recovery in phases. All I know for sure is that now is phase one: Resting, letting the swelling go down and figuring out what to do next. Will I have to go through surgery again? Will I ever be able to do sports again without an aching knee? I don't know.

I'm trying to keep this blog updated about my recovery. Patience is the key to everything now.