Having finally made it back to the gym in November last year - and managed three whole months of activity incident free (first swimming, then cross training, cycling and step ups and, finally, running) - today, I find myself pretty much back at the beginning of the rehab process.
If I was a superstitious person, I'd say I tempted fate by tweeting too soon after starting running again (big landmark for me) and managing four, short sessions (2 x 6 minutes, 2 x 12 minutes) incident free.
Then I made the big mistake of taking my husband out for a birthday meal and walking across town on a frosty night to catch a taxi home.
One minute, we're happily chatting away on our way to the taxi rank, the next I've slipped and as I go to ground, the knee shifts in and out a couple of times and there's a lot of tugging on the McIntosh side of my leg too.
By the time we got home, the knee was nicely swollen and next day it was stiffening up, so I knew it wasn't great. Extension gone. Flexion gone. Walking with a limp and generally sore from mid thigh to mid calf.
Ice on the ground. Now more ice on the knee (and also in my gin!)
I managed to get a physio appointment a few days later, who confirmed there was laxity in the joint and worked with me to try to get extension back and before referring me back to my consultant for assessment.
As outcomes go, it could have been worse. Consultant's view is that the laxity in the joint is not excessive for me. The ACL graft may well be partially torn but the McIntosh did it's job (to some extent) and stopped it being worse. Now we have to watch and wait. Eight weeks of physio to see if the (partial?) graft and McIntosh are enough to give me stability or not, then we reassess.
I would be pretty happy with that, except that it shouldn't have shifted in the first place - surely that's what all these surgeries and endless physio have been about in the first place? The way it shifted when I slipped has also completely scuppered any trust I was finally getting back in the joint. That and the fact it happened when I was just walking in flat shoes - nothing 'challenging' like running, jumping over a fence or dancing in ridiculous heels - means it's not happy with even the most basic levels of activity. While I'm not a professional or even competitive sportsperson these days, basic functionality is not the quality of life I was looking to regain.
And flip me, if that's what the MacIntosh working feels like, that's not something I want to mess with too often.
Time will tell...