Recovery after orthopedic surgery, week by week
Post Op Physio Recovery Hamstring, patellar tendon or quadriceps tendon? For ACL surgery, your own tissue beats donor tissue, especially if you’re young. The three grafts differ less in failure rates than in the soreness they leave behind. What to weigh and what to ask.
After ACL surgery, going back to cutting and contact sport before nine months doubles the re-injury risk, and passing strength and hop tests cuts it sharply. The numbers, the tests, the 90 percent catch, and why the other knee matters too.
After rotator cuff surgery, most people sleep best propped up at about 30 degrees with a pillow under the elbow. The setup that works, safe positions, handling night pain, and how long it takes for sleep to come back.
People with diabetes are about five times more likely to get frozen shoulder, and it tends to be more painful and slower to settle. What to expect, what to watch for with steroid injections, and when to get checked.
Frozen shoulder exercises only help if the intensity matches how irritable your shoulder is. Pushing a painful shoulder too hard makes it worse. How to tell which stage you’re in, five exercises, and the pain rules to follow.
Whether a dislocated shoulder pops out again depends mostly on your age. Under 22, about 7 in 10 do. Over 40, far fewer. The odds by age, what does and doesn’t change them, and the dislocation that often gets missed.
Over 40, a dislocated shoulder rarely comes out again, but about half tear the rotator cuff, and it’s often missed. The simple two-week test, why a scan matters early, and the nerve injury that hides behind the pain.
After a dislocated shoulder (without surgery), the sling is for comfort. Wearing it longer than about a week hasn’t been shown to stop it dislocating again. How long to wear it, what to do while you’re in it, and when to go back to sport.
For young, active people, surgery after a first shoulder dislocation cuts the chance of it happening again from about 1 in 2 to about 1 in 16. For everyone else, the case is much weaker. Who it suits, the honest caveats, and questions to ask.
Knee replacement recovery takes about a year, not three months. What to expect week by week, why getting the knee straight early matters more than bending it, what’s normal that scares people, and when to call your surgeon.