Episode 188 | DIY ACL Rehab: The Risks and Realities

What is up team and welcome back to another episode on the ACL Athlete Podcast. Today is a story for you guys, a little different than usual episodes, but I’ll try to keep it as brief as I can. But I really feel like this is a very good example of what ACL rehab really entails and just the overall experience. And I just had to connect this particular life lesson or experience with this. I hope that this helps hit home for you guys. For those of you who might be needing this at this current time and yeah, let’s get into it. 

Our garage door broke recently. We heard a huge pop noise when we were sitting on the couch. My wife and I, and we’re like, what the heck was that? And then come to realize when to go look at it and the garage door was broken. I actually didn’t realize that was the thing that broke. I wasn’t sure because in our house we were like, maybe it could have been something that fell in the closet when to go check and eventually when you keep looking, you’re just like, I don’t know what it was, but it’ll figure itself out. We actually go to get in our car to go leave and I go to press the garage door and it will not lift up. And that is how we figured out our garage door was broken. And so that was the huge pop that we had heard sitting on the couch and come to find out the spring that is above the garage door, split into two. 

What you can basically imagine is that there’s a two car garage door. There’s no like separator in the middle of, so it’s basically this big garage door for two cars. This thing lifts up by a mechanical pulley. And the core function of this is that there is a massively long black spring for this door to open. I was thought this thing was always just easy to pull up. There’s this thing you can pull up to manually open the garage door. Little did I realize that these garage doors are so freaking heavy and I couldn’t lift it up. And the spring actually plays a very big role in order to lift it up. Basically, the car was trapped, so where we were going to not happen. With that said, we had this garage door, that the spring was split into and I found that this split can kind of happen over a period of time. It could just wear down just like certain things in like cars or whatnot, but anyways, it just broke and it popped. And so then therefore we were faced with this problem.

I was trying to figure out how can we fix this problem. And I’m a very problem solution-oriented person. Given my background and my dad, like growing up in a motel. We would do all the handiwork around the motel. So anything that went wrong, unless it was something super major, my dad would do the work. I would help him with it. I learned a lot of things from him in order to repair anything. Also, just taking pride in being a guy in the house, and I’m like I’m going to fix this thing. There are a lot of things around the house that I have been able to do in terms of my handiness I learned from my dad (thanks dad). But I thought, you know what, let me see if I can fix this spring myself. I started watching YouTube videos. I started looking for parts online once I was like listening to these YouTube videos and researching the door and the different parts. Honestly, I got really lost because there’s just different gears and different springs and stuff like that. That can impact the way that the door operates and the strength of it and the torque that it needs. And there are also two wire anchors on both sides of the door that popped off. I was going to have to rewire those and fit those into their groove to allow for the door to lift. I was watching YouTube video after YouTube video and even checked out some Reddit threads and was getting the confidence I could do it. 

I was starting to put the pieces together. I’m like, all right, I got to do step one, step two, step three. And then I started like hearing on some of the YouTube videos and in some of the threads, people who are experienced with this. They were just be careful because this thing has a lot of torque on it. And if it’s not done right, then the door can still collapse or you can get hit in the head while you undo it, because you have to use these like metal steel bars to manually torque it and turn it. Think about basically these long metal bars that insert into holes on the spring and you have to torque it yourself. And so you’re manually doing this repeatedly. And if you don’t do it appropriately, of course, with anything with torque, if it’s very, very strong, a very strong spring that is going to lift a really freaking heavy door is going to have a lot of torque to it. And so then therefore, here I am thinking twice about this. And then I started thinking about how much I would trust that I did this right and trust this really freaking heavy door from snapping and falling down one day, randomly. I am no expert at this stuff. I also had to think about now because we have a five and a half month old. I think about him getting a little bit older with the garage door open and we work out in there and we’re always in and out. I think about our cars coming through there. I was just kind of thinking about this and you do this, especially when you have a kid now. You just think about the consequences or the risk of something even more. But I was just thinking about this and I was like, yeah, I don’t know if I could trust this garage door even if I did it myself. I need some help because I feel like I am not going to feel 100%. And I don’t want to worry about if I did the right thing. 

Now, if we’re talking about replacing a light, remodeling, a bathroom, fixing a toilet, I’m your guy. I got it. I’ve learned some of this stuff. It’s very straight forward. Also, the downside of this thing, not working is pretty low. I’m not worried about what is the cost of IT if I can’t get this light replaced or trying to fix some pieces in the bathroom or just whatever it might be, maybe it’s like changing out a tire. These are the things that are a little bit more basic. The risk is not as high as maybe a heavy garage door falling on someone or something that is going to have way more of a cost associated with it. 

A mechanical garage door with a spring and torque—I am not your guy. I needed help. I started to research, I started to look up people who do this kind of work. I started to look at a lot of garage door experts. I was like, all right, let me just find someone who’s highly reviewed. This is what we all do these days. If we go on Amazon to buy something, we’re going to look at something with four to five stars. We’re going to look to see how much volume or number of reviews there are. Same thing with restaurants, right? If we’re going to visit a city, we’re going to go look and see what their reviews are. What are people saying? Social proof is so important for businesses and especially for something that we are going to try and do, because we want to make sure people have experienced this. If we’re trying to work with an expert or has an experience, or some sort of entertainment or technology, whatever it might be, we’re going to do some research typically with today’s society, to make sure it’s an expert or it is well vetted. Therefore, we’re not signing up for something that we’re going to get ripped off for or something that is going to be a very poor experience or something you’re going to buy. 

This garage door expert, Hani was his name. Awesome guy literally, really came out on Saturday at like 5:00 PM. I showed him the issue just to be sure and he diagnosed it. He was like, yep, it’s the spring. He’s like, this can kind of wear down over time. Guess how long it took him to replace this thing? Literally, 20 to 30 minutes. I watched him do it. I talked to him during it. I was telling him I was going to do it. And he was just talking to me about all the different stuff with it. It was very interesting to watch this whole process because he literally knew it like the back of his hand. And of course, I’m talking about fixing something very mechanical and so take this for what it’s worth. It’s like replacing something in a machine. And so then therefore with this said, I watched him do it and he tested it afterwards multiple times. He pulled it up manually. He showed me a few things. But it was actually really cool because he talked to me through it to understand what were the purposes of these certain features, why is it done this way. I actually learned a lot about it. This was something that I just started thinking about a little bit more. 

I was like, you know what? I could have done this myself, but I wouldn’t have trusted myself to do it, as I mentioned earlier. It would have taken me so much longer to do this. It would have taken me at least I would bet at least six hours. It’s one of those things where you’re just like, yeah, it’ll take me 30 minutes or an hour to do, and then you do it. And you’re just like, wow, this is taking 5X, the amount of time it would take. And that’s usually something like this where you’re like, I got I’ll follow it step by step. Anyways, with this said, it would have taken me so long to do it. Even if I say like, let’s say five hours. That is going to be 10X return on my time. And so then I paid 250 bucks for this service and for an expert to come out and help me with this. And it was worth all of it, to be honest. I would’ve paid more for it. And sure I could’ve done it myself and saved a lot more. But this is where we kind of start connecting this down to the ACL side of things. 

I want to bring this around to help really shape this for you guys. Because I talked to a lot of ACLers, and this is something that I really think that hopefully can hit home for you in terms of navigating this situation. If you’re going along and you’re early, then just keep rolling, something to consider with this process. And because everyone will come to this at some point in their ACL rehab process, I would say 5% to 10% of you will not ever have to deal with this because you just have the most amazing process or system or insurance, whatever it might be. But 90% of people will have to deal with this, even in socialized medicine. I literally just talked to someone the other day and he’s meeting with his physio every six weeks. And he’s early post-op, that’s what basically his plan is. He just gets updated exercises every six weeks and it’s the same protocol stuff. I’m like that’s wild. Anyways, with that said, it will apply to many of you. As I’m going back to the story, yes, I invested in this, I could have done it myself and saved a lot more, but I had to come back to the opportunity cost and do a little bit of a cost benefit analysis. And so why did I have to do that? Why do I need to evaluate this? 

One, is that he was a trusted expert who knew his stuff. Diagnosed it and came up with a game plan. He had a solution and fixed it. He did it in 10% of the time, it would have taken me to do it, literally, such a short amount of time. I was almost like bombed a little bit because I was like, man, I just invested a lot for this, but I’m like, this doesn’t even make sense. Should I have asked him to stay two hours to make it feel more worth it? It’s so silly. It’s like a locksmith coming to your door and opening the door and like five seconds. And you pay him 200 bucks and you’re just like, well, was that 200 bucks worth it? If you associate it with time, probably not. But at the same time, you’re like, wow, this is a five-second solution. It’s weird. People’s perception with finances and investment and time associated, because I think we think an hour’s worth of time will be acquainted to the value that we get. But really it’s the outcome and the solution that you were investing in. And it doesn’t matter the time at the end of the day, as long as it is the outcome that you were getting at. 

The other piece I want to mention here is that he gave me the confidence that he tested it out. He talked me through it and I don’t have to worry about this collapsing due to my inexperience self, trying to figure it out. Now don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of things in life where we don’t need help. 

We don’t need to just go call on somebody to help us because we could probably figure it out, like cooking a meal at home. We can kind of read some directions. We can kind of watch some videos and figure it out. Replacing a tire, same thing. Even just basic finances you can get online and figure out a few things and be able to get some basic finance information in order to do that. Even disputing an issue. There are some bylaws where you can be able to learn how to dispute an issue, whether it’s in your city or in your neighborhood, whether at school, whatever that might be, you canfigure out the steps to do that on a surface level. Or maybe it’s even a short onset of knee pain. Majority people aren’t going to go to their doc or to their PT and be like, hey, like I’ve got knee pain. It’s more so whenever starting to get in the way of the things they’re doing and also disrupting their daily life and has been going on for way too long. It’s like getting sick. No one’s going to run to the doctor because they got sick because they’ve had experience getting sick. Usually most of the time you get better, it’s just when it’s prolonged or it’s something that makes you worry. Then, therefore you are going to go get it checked out. But then there are things where we might need some help with that more complicated stuff. And maybe when there’s more on the line, whenever we talk about the cost, benefit or the risk/reward. There is a lot more risk associated with not getting the solution or this fixed. 

Let’s talk about taxes. So yeah, you need help with complicated taxes. You’re not going to just try and figure it out on your own. Taxes are a nightmare. And so you’re going to need an accountant. And so I have an accountant and they are going to help me with my taxes because I don’t want to deal with it. There are so many different rules and regulations around it with a family and business and all the things that I don’t want to deal with it. That’s someone else who is trained up to do that. What about if someone took advantage of a situation, but you’re not sure how to protect yourself, or you need some help. A lawyer, an attorney is going to be the person who is going to be by your side to be able to help you. 

But replacing your car’s brake pads, for example. You can look that up, but do you really want to trust yourself? Who’s never done something like this or know this cars. To, to try and replace your brake pads or to fix a problem within them. No, we’re going to take it to a mechanic. We’re going to invest in someone who’s going to do that for you. Fixing a spring on garage door. Guess what? I’m not going to do it myself. I’m going to hire somebody like a garage door expert. Someone who knows garage doors, who can do it. ACL rehab—same thing here. A physical therapist. Yes, you need a guide. You need someone you trust and someone who is an expert in this. But key thing here is that it is going to be an expert. It can just be a physical therapist. You don’t want to go to your primary care physician for some sort of neurological issue. If you have a cardiac issue, you don’t want to go to your primary care. Maybe you go there first, but then they should be referring you to a specialist. Unfortunately, with our physiotherapy and physical therapy degrees, we were trained to treat everything. And when you treat everything, you know very little about one particular thing, but you can treat all kinds of things and keep people alive. And that’s basically what PT school did for us. And so then therefore, you need to go further down the route, being able to get specialized or just more understanding in different realms that you are working in. And so then therefore, this is really important thing to hone in on. Making sure you have an expert is really key. Coming back to these examples and these problems, you’re going to want to make sure you review to make sure they do good work and have been trusted by others. Social proof—even for physical therapy, we are going to make sure that we are picking the right person. Everyone does their research for the most part for their surgeons. A lot of people will go out of their way to find the best surgeon. The thing that really needs to happen is yes, find a good surgeon, but find a really good physical therapist to help you. 

I know a lot of times what ends up happening is that you won’t meet them until after the surgery or until this process starts going. But just know you can always pivot, even if you get into it, we’re all going to be nice. But you got to make sure that they’re good. And so that’s where if your gut is telling you, you don’t have a good one, then make the switch sooner rather than later. But this is where being able to look at reviews, being able to talk to people, look at the social proof that they have, maybe they have testimonials like anything like that is going to be really important to make sure these people are vetted and they have the experience and the outcomes that a lot of people have experienced themselves. 

Here’s some thoughts and some takeaways for you. Number one, the insurance system has been built to make us feel inclined to free or some type of low-cost healthcare. And even in other countries, even with it being free or socialized medicine, there’s this thing where everyone feels like their insurance system or their healthcare system owes them. And that’s what we’ve been accustomed to, and that’s how it has been over the years. But as it has trended, we have to come back to like, well, what is their number one goal? It’s not to protect individuals; it’s to make money. It’s a profit-based system. And so then therefore, they’re going to be making moves based on what is going to benefit the company and put more money in their pocket. Unfortunately, that is just the way it is. And so then therefore, coming back to this point of the insurance system and the healthcare system, it has overtime made us feel like we do need a discounted healthcare, or we don’t need to pay for this. But we do in different ways from premiums to deductibles, to out-of-pocket maxes. And even in other countries, it might be even pursuing private insurance, usually most people will deal with delayed services. I know ACLers who take three months, six months, even a year or two years to get their surgery. Because they don’t have to pay for it or maybe pay little, but that’s the consequence of being able to have little pay, but then you don’t have as much control of the time. 

Here in the U.S., we have a little bit more control of the timing, getting things done a little bit faster, but you pay for it. This is one of the things I do want to share and think about is that the system has made us feel this way, but we do pay into it. And so then therefore, I just know that it’s one of those things where you will end up getting to a point where it won’t get you all the way there. And once this does run out or we’ve been told we’ve been even graduated, maybe you’ve ran out of visits or your PTs, like my services are done here. It’s been three months, four months, go do the thing. You’re not ready, but they’re like, just build up or they’d tell you something very general. You’re just like, what do I do with this information is not helpful. But that’s what they tell you. You feel like you need to take matters into your own hands. You’ve already exhausted your healthcare experience. So then therefore. you were like, all right, cool. I’ll take matters into my own hands. I hate that this is the typical misleading narrative here, because there’s no one who should do ACL rehab on their own without an expert. 

I tell people all the time, if I tore my ACL right now (knock on wood) I would not do my rehab myself. Even though I’ll walk hundreds of athletes through this, I would not do my rehab myself. I would have a coach who would help me, who is an expert in this, in order to help guide me. And it’s because we have to get out of our own way in order to go through this process because we cannot objectively observe ourselves as human beings. We can try to do the things we want to do or think we need to do. But at the end of the day, there needs to be someone else who’s helping to guide and navigate this because we just don’t need to be doing it on our own. It’s such a complex journey. Even for physical therapists who have graduated PT school,but even majority of PTs are still really stumped with ACL rehab because we just didn’t get educated much on it. So then therefore, again, having to pursue more education on this. But for someone who isn’t even trained in physical therapy or performance or rehab, man, it’s tough. It’s really, really tough. This is the thing that can be misleading because you shouldn’t be doing it without an expert. And because it’s human movement, for some reason, just like nutrition and diets, everyone feels entitled to their own opinion and they know the right answer. I promise that the registered dietician who is taken tons of courses, done research on this, has master’s degrees on this, a license, they’re probably going to know a little bit more about nutrition and the way that that stuff influences our body and performance compared to the keto diet influencer on Instagram who has 200,000 followers. And the same thing can be said about exercising and especially rehab. We see this so much in the rehab space, with Instagram and with professionals who are knee experts in everything. I’m not saying that these high following accounts, there are so many people who have those who do amazing work and I’m good friends with, but the thing is that, it’s just very difficult whenever everyone feels like human movement, they own. The same thing with nutrition is just a bit challenging in the performance and health realm, because then therefore people feel like they want to take matters in their own hands. It’s a little different than like, alright, I’m gonna go do my taxes. It’s like, well, not everyone is like inclined to do their taxes or someone’s going to fix their car. It’s like, well, no, we didn’t really learn that. There’s a lot more to it than that. For some reason movement and nutrition is something that people is just hard for people to get around. Because, especially whenever the healthcare system has been like, all right, we’re done.You feel a little bit more like, all right, now it’s my job to do it. But in reality, it was the systems failure of not setting you up for success—and I want to make that clear here. 

It’s huge for my ACLers to find an expert. And all of you who are listening, I want you to hear me out. While you can try and navigate it on your own, I want you to think about what the cost of that is. And before I even get into that, I understand that everyone is in different situations, socio-economic status, life status, seasons that you’re in, the time, work, school, all these different things that factor in, I get it. Trust me. This is something that I’m not saying everyone can just go off and hire an expert, but I think it is worth your while to figure this out and pursue it and evaluate those options and especially have that available when you need it. But especially trying to jump on it, especially if there’s nothing that is preventing you from doing it. Because the earlier you do it, the better off you are going to be. I promise you that. 

Coming back to the cost of navigating it on your own, let’s first talk about time, not only daily, but also the long term. I’ve literally had calls over the past couple of weeks where people have said they’ve been in the gym for three hours, in the gym for three hours at a session, multiple times a week. I’m like, what is going on? Who is programming this? What are you doing? And they’re like, well, I’m picking Instagram exercises, YouTube exercises. I’m using these protocols. I’m at PT and I have 30 exercises to do. I’m like, this is so inefficient that I’m like, you’re probably not getting anywhere. It’s because you’re just literally doing so little for each of that. We could cut out 75% of this and you would make so much more progress and feel so much better, but that’s the daily cost of time.But then also, the same people might be out from ACL surgery, 6 months, 9 months, 18 months, 2 years, 5 years. They’ve kind of given up on it at that point. So what is the cost of time? Well, it could just kind of add up over time versus it feeling like, all right, well I’m early. Yeah, what’s a day or a week or a month, but then that stuff starts to add up and time starts to pass. 

Another point is the possible setbacks that can occur in this process and navigating those, the lack of progress. This is so frustrating because people make so much progress early on, typically. Because of the way the ACL rehab process is. You’re making range of motion gains, you notice life changes, you’re off your crutches, you can take stairs, you can walk, you can drive, you’re starting to squat, you’re getting back into the gym. The early honeymoon period is what I call it in ACL rehab is very deceiving. Because in the mid and late stages, you start to notice less of those milestones you hit because your day-to-day life doesn’t change as much. And you notice less of that progress, but especially if your plan is in dialed in and custom to you, then therefore it makes it very challenging. The mental side of this, the fear, the anxiety, feeling lost, whether we want to admit it or not, there is something about this. That’s probably the number one thing that people come to us. They’re like, I feel lost. I don’t have structure. I feel like I’m not aiming towards anything. I feel like spinning my wheels. I feel lost. Probably, the number one thing I would say most of our ACL is you come in from somewhere else. And it’s because they don’t really have direction. It’s the thing that they’re probably feeling sometimes that they haven’t even really come to terms with. What about getting back to what you love most? What if someone said that they can cut this time in half for you? They can cut it in half for you. While it’s not an accelerated process, it’s better than what it would have been so low, especially if you’re that 18 month person or two year person. What if you could get back a year of that, what if you could get back more than a year of that, or maybe it’s a year and a half of that, that it didn’t necessarily need to take that long. But it did because we had to take it on our own hands and our own matters. 

The last thing I want to mention here is, what about the reinjury piece? One that a lot of folks avoid talking about. Yeah. The fear of that is there, but really taking that head on and just assuming it’ll work out right. What is the cost of that? That thing of it just working out, just like your gait would workout as soon as you kind of keep working on it or just like over time—it doesn’t. So that’s the same thing with this reinjury piece. It’s not just because you play more of your sport or whatever, you’re going to not get injured again. It’s actually dialing in this process testing, having a doubt in program, making sure that you have proper guidance and those pieces are going to really play into more so of that reinjury piece than it is just with time passing. It’s also this thing where one in three to four athletes going to get injured again. People think that saving money by doing it on their own, sure, in the short term, but what about the long term? And especially if it drags on for months and years and more, so what about the cost of another reinjury and I think this is something that is very important to put out there and I know it’s going into negative land here, but the thing is, is that like, What of this could be changed by like the plan and the guidance that you’re given and the routes that you take. 

Now, I want to flip this on the other side and thinking about finding and investing in an expert. You have someone who knows this stuff, they can spot the issues and even the potential roadblocks ahead that you can’t even see yet. There’s a solution, a plan to get you to your goals. It’s not something that’s generic. It’s not what Bertha, who is 77 years old, in the corner of the PT clinic is also doing. One that’s built for you specifically is structured, instead of feeling fear, anxiety, feeling lost, you feel you have a GPS. You’re getting in your car and you’re like, I know how to get to this destination and I know what that route looks like. Even with detours on the way. You feel assured, you feel that you have confidence in where you’re going and to make any adjustments that’s needed. Most importantly, you feel heard and that you don’t have to wonder what if right anymore. So you’ve got a guy that is going to help you through this process. 

The experts cut down this time. And it’s not to accelerate it. But it could be in a sense accelerated because, instead of you taking this two-year process to get back. Instead, they’re able to streamline this GPS to adjust for everything and gets you there in the most efficient way. And yeah, things might come up, but guess what? Instead of taking that detour and you’re off into neverland, and then having to redirect back, is just literally a pit stop in the most efficient way off of the course to get you right back on it. This is where this matters so much and basically the time it would’ve taken to do it on your own. 

Lastly, I’ll mention giving you the confidence to test it out just like that garage door expert. It literally gave me the confidence to just see him, test it out and talk me through it. And I wasn’t stressed anymore about the door. And I know this seems so simple and so basic. And some of you guys are probably like, why are you talking about this still? It’s something that really just came to mind and connected the dots for me for a second, because I relate everything to ACL rehab and I was like, man, like, this is so crazy. This is literally something my ACLers deal with all the time. And so then therefore, I just wanted to share this is that you don’t have to stress or worry about it because you have the confidence that you’ve been tested and you’ve been given the programming appropriately to be prepared and seeing if it’s going to hold up, if your knee is going to hold up, if your body is prepared for what is going to take place with sport: MMA, BJJ, skiing, getting back to pickle ball, being able to play soccer, being able to trick. There’s so many different things that we are working with athletes with right now that it is wild. We can give you that confidence as a rehab professional, who is very dialed in with ACL rehab versus trying to figure it out yourself. 

Now, some people are like, cool. Where’s the pitch on this? Now that you’ve built this up to finding an expert—I don’t have one. And if you’ve listened to 187 episodes of this podcast, you know how I feel about this? All that I care as you walk away from this episode and probably hear me ramble on and on about this whole entire story, “is that I care that you don’t do it on your own.” And I care that you find an ACL expert to help you. And someone who knows knees,  who knows how to take you from the post-injury post-surgical process to full return to performance and sport. And even if it’s just a gap of, let’s say your physical therapy just gets you to the first three to four to five months because of insurance or because of their experience, because they’re like, Hey, I can’t help anymore. This is past my skillset. Find someone else who can fill that gap. There’s so many coaches out there, there’s so many people who do such good work. But the thing is that don’t do it on your own. And I tell this to so many of the athletes who I do consults with, that are interested in our remote coaching, or do you want to do it? 

It’s just like, I don’t care who you find, but just make sure you get the proper help and expert help. They have the background with the ACL experiences, ideally, a physical therapist or a strength conditioning coach combined, depending on where you’re at. And this is something where they need to have a very dialed in process and prove that it works. Sure, we can help you, but there are also so many good people out there and good humans that I had mentioned who are doing good work, that I’m friends with, that we have an incredible community with. And if it’s something that you are near, a city, especially big city. We have friends in all kinds of different, big cities all around the U.S., especially, and we can even connect you with internationally. But the thing is find an expert, whether it’s remotely or in person or combined, because that is going to be the major game changer for you.

Most important thing that is someone who aligns best with you. Don’t be that person 6 or 12 months from now stuck in the same spot, trying to figure it out on your own. I’m sorry, from the bottom of my heart, that the healthcare system and our PT education was not equipped to make all ACL rehab equal. I wish it was by as we know any profession, not every teacher is equipped to guide this particular student. Not every physician is equipped to be able to take care of this particular disease or issue the same thing here. Yeah, PT can help, but at the end of the day, this is such a nuance, injury and recovery. It is not the knee pain; it is not the back pain. It is literally something that will change your life. And I promise you that and any of you listening can probably already attest to that. Especially if there have been multiple retears or you’ve been on this journey for a while. I’m sorry that the healthcare system itself has not served you very well. And if it has, I’m so happy for you because there are people doing good work, but I do know that it is not designed to help ACLers through this entire process. But you do have the opportunity and the right to find the people who are equipped for this, and have put in the work and have the credibility to help you.  

My takeaway here is go do that and don’t fix your own garage door. I’ll call handy again the next time this happens because I’m going to lean on an expert for this situation. As an ACLer, I suggest doing the same. I know this one’s a little bit of a different episode guys. I just brought the heat with it. Im sorry that I literally unloaded this all on you and you’re probably like, oh, now I got to go find an expert and do all this stuff. Just take a breath, take a second. But it is something that I do think maybe take that step back and evaluate where you are and decide now and decide early if you do need to take that step forward. And don’t be reactive. If you know your insurance is going to run out, don’t wait until it runs out and then figure it out. Get ahead of the game. I promise you, you will be in such a good position to do that. And just know your geography does not have to limit you for your help. There are so many remote-based options now, these days, that you can really find some really good help. And honestly, it’s a more dialed in. You have more communication. It’s not built for everybody, but for the right person, man, it is a home run and you also save so much on the cost of it. This is something to evaluate alongside what’s in-person and whatever else is available, as long as it is with an ACL expert and someone who knows this injury, like the back of their hand. I hope that this helps. 

If you have any questions, if you need help with resources, we’re here to help any ACLer, clinician, coach, whatever that may be. Reach out to us via email,  message on Instagram, whatever that might be. The information is in the show notes. Until next time team. This is your host, Ravi Patel, signing off.