Thanks,

- TJ

Another week of rehab done and i’m that much closer to skiing. My quad incision is almost 100% healed over allowing me to start attempting full flexion (Heel to butt and fully extended)
Every single day there is a focus on warming up the knee to become more mobile and getting all the swelling out. I must do this before my day starts or my knee will become more stiff and swollen throughout the day. First thing every morning I plug into my Gameready for 15 min with my leg elevated on a wall. After icing I slowly get flexion in the knee by dragging my heel up and down the wall until it has some energy in it. Pop a few single & double legged squats then my day can start. Biking the first part of week 3 was still stiff. My cut kept popping open so I had to hold back on it. Stoked for spring to come through Vancouver so I can start bombing the streets on my bikes.

Gym routine has really stepped up since I’ve been able to ride the bike.
Gym routine:
15-30min bike ride
Weight transfer to mini squat – left leg squat , pop to right leg squat.
10 clean squats, exploding through hip
Bosu ball 1 legged squats. Squishy side down.
Hamstring ball curls
Sit down leg press. 6 sets of single and double leg. No weight.
Chest
Back
Dead lift – just the bar – 3 sets of 8
Squats with bar 35 pounds per side – 3 sets of 6
Core strengthening – bridging & crunching
Stretch
Bike 15-30min

This has been 4 times a week. 6 times a week I am in physiotherapy & pilates working on different techniques each day. Lots of balance and stability control. In my last surgery I was battling with a finniky fibular head. Mine was popping out like crazy and causing a lot of pain. It was crazy flexible, I was able to flex it and movie it around much too easy. This could be a reason as to why I re-tore my ACL. In physio we have been doing a lot of work strengthening my lateral hamstrings and this has evened out my fibular head and made it more flush.

Piece of advice to those rehabbing from knee surgery. Do NOT drink beer. This will cause psycho swelling almost instantaneously. I had a few beers at dinner a few nights ago and it made my knee look and feel haggard. Stick to water program to flush out all that gunk in your body.

Pliometrics start this week! Rehab’s getting heavy. Sorry about no photos. IPhone camera screwed

- TJ

Bruising and swelling almost gone!

Squats in the ever-so-awesome pilates room at Gastown Physio & Pilates

These were first attempts and were quite difficult. I've stepped up since then. The ball between the feet makes your VMO's work hard.

First day at gym. 1 legged sit down squats. Railroad tracked out cut!

9mm's, 357 mag's n Shotguns

Comparing my week 2 from my last surgery (hamstring graph & medial meniscus stitch) I was still in pain, using meds, my VMO muscle had disappeared along with my quad muscle. The progression with this surgery is blowing my mind. Every day is leaps and bounds of progress.

Week 2 focus:
Constant Ice/Compression/Elevating of the knee to make swelling disperse. (Gameready machine is KEY!)
Quad muscle re-strengthening – Air squats – 1 leg squats – sit down leg press – 1 leg balancing exercises (leaping from 1 foot to the other and holding a power position)
Hamstring exercises

Activities:
Recumbent bike riding
20 minute walks with 1 crutch/cane
Gun Range – no crutch

I will be doing some updates on my rehabilitation with my new knee. There is not a lot of information about the LARS ligament or how recovery is with it. I would like to give everyone an in-depth look into it for those interested in alternative knee reconstructions.

I arrived at the Duval clinic in Luval, Quebec, just 30min from Montreal at 6:30 am for surgery. I sat down with Dr. Duval and the anaesthetist to discuss surgery. I had a spinal tap. Its about as close as you can get to being paralyzed. From the waist down you go numb. Then you get your “cocktail” shot that is compared to a few bevies that make you feel a lil loose. Next thing you know you are seeing the inside of your knee on a screen beside your head. Dr. Duval went about his business in my knee, removing the meniscus, cleaning out the remainder of my ACL stubs and then applying the LARS ligament and wrapping a sliver of my Quad muscle tendon around it.

Surgery was a success and Dr. Duval was extremely happy with his work. He said he wished he had filmed it to have put on his website. If he’s stoked, so am I!
I was put back in my room to numb out. The spinal takes a while to wear off “numb out” so bring a good book to kill some time. The one downfall of the clinic is that you are not allowed to use your cellphone and there is no wireless internet. They have an ethernet cable, but I guess my Macbook air is too cool for that.

The nurses kept telling me I had to try and pee. Because you get numb from the waist down, EVERYTHING goes numb. So, my senses were thrown off. I had to pee, but couldn’t tell. I was given my piss jar and attempted to go at it. I couldn’t do it lying down in bed, so I thought sitting on the side of the bed, being a little taller, could help. I went to put my good leg on the ground for stability and completely slipped out, SMASHED my face on the serving table giving myself a cut on my cheek and a black eye (wish I had the pic) and fell back into the bed and proceeded to piss myself. Success.

I flew home the next afternoon, on a gruelling 4 hour flight with an hour connection to my parents place in Vernon. I highly suggest to take a few days to yourself after surg before flying. I was given blood thinning shots for flying to make sure i didn’t have any blood clots. My knee blew up to the size of a watermelon and I believe it put me back a few days in rehab.

Here is a run down of surgery and week 1:

Surgery:
4 inch Incision made above knee cap to recover a sliver of Quad tendon.
85% removal of medial meniscus
LARS ligament put in place. 2 titanium screws holding it in. 1 in femur, 1 in tibia.

Compared to previous ACL reconstructive surgeries (both hamstring grafts)
60% less pain after surgery
Able to weight bare day after surgery and even walk. With limp, due to swelling.
Swelling similar to Prior surgeries
Muscle feels active still and prominent surrounding knee, unlike hamstring surgery

Week 1 focus
Get the swelling down. Ice / Compression / Elevate
Keep the blood flowing and muscles alive. Small exercises: rotating foot, flexing calf, buttocks, and quads. Leg flat on ground and slowly dragging heel towards butt. Hamstrings are the first muscle’s to start working on.

This week I have started my Physiotherapy and have had massive gains in my rehab. I’ll have another update at the end of the week.

Any questions? E-mail me at info@tjschiller.com

Hospitals are creepy

After my bail trying to pee. This was 5 hours after surg.

Bruised up. Day 5

Day 3. Evening after my flight from Montreal - Vancouver. The blood thinners I took for the flight had me bleeding like crazy.

Day 7. Bruising and swelling slowly starts to disperse.

The synthetic graph sounded extremely appealing . Less invasive surgery and exponentially quicker recovery. I could be back skiing 8 weeks after surgery with minor muscle loss and the confidence in a stable knee. The unfortunate thing about syntheticis is that, because it is so new, there are no long-term follow ups. The best research has approximately 5 year follow ups.
I was put in touch with a few high profile action sport athletes who underwent a surgery called LARS ligament. After many lengthy phone conversations, and me questioning away I came to the conclusion that this is my best option for the time line I have. These guys were blown away by how strong and quickly they came back. I almost feel like a Guinea pig going into this but after hearing personal experiences from these other athletes and how happy they have been with the outcome I have concluded this is by far the best option for the time frame and goals I have.

“LARS is composed of polyethylene terephthalate – an industrial-strength polyester fibre. It can only be used in a population that has a well vascularised ACL stump, ideally in acute settings. The theory is that the LARS pulls the two ends of the ACL together and allow for fibroblastic ingrowth.  Check out the video below for a sweet animation of the surgery – drilling tunnels, fixation etc.” exerpt from “www.thesportsphysiotherapist.com”

exerpt from “www.thesportsphysiotherapist.com”

I’ve said it before, but whoever designed our bodies wasn’t keeping in mind all the dope shit we wanted to do with them! Heres to a rad Winter, i’m gonna miss ya’ll again. Best of luck to everybody at X-Games and throughout the rest of the season. See you in the spring time for the slushy landings!

Best,

TJ SCHILLER

The KIDS are here

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