Knee pain and swelling Four months after Acl reconstructive surgery

Dear Ask The Doctor: I recently had acl surgery (4 motnhs ago) and i have been doing well and the swelling had gone down and I have been rehabbing as usual and all of a sudden I woke up and my knee with knee pain whenever I bent or extended my knee I don't know whats wrong and I dont have health insurance any more please please help... what could it be ?

Dear Erik-Jon: You have 16 weeks since your operation and according to your description everything looks just fine, the guidelines and timeframe established in the rehab post ACL reconstructive surgery, about 4-6 weeks using crutches, non-bearing weight period. After these weeks you will start progressively to bear weight on the affected knee, and more active range of motion exercises (flexion-extension), along with quads straightening, and hamstring stretches. It is expected some inflammation and pain the next weeks when you start the exercise routine, but you will control these with anti-inflammatory medication (“Aleve”, “Motrin”). If after using all the rehab methods to control pain and taking anti-inflammatory medication the pain has not improved I strongly recommend a knee reevaluation for the orthopedic surgeon.