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Early recovery · 8 min

Early recovery: weeks 0–6

Extension, swelling, quad: the three numbers that matter right now.

Why extension comes first

A knee that does not fully straighten changes how you walk, loads the graft unevenly, and is much harder to fix at month three than at week three. It is the one milestone worth being stubborn about.

Swelling is information

A warm, puffy knee after a new exercise is feedback, not failure. Track it daily; a knee that stays swollen for 48+ hours is telling you the dose was too high.

From this guide

These actions arrive with appointments and plans.

Guides educate, your care team decides. Bring the questions, not the printout.