Steves problems after surgery

by Stephen
(North West)

I had reconstruction of the ACL via hamstring graft six months ago, following an injury kick boxing february 2008. My recovery has been slow, some what impeded by pain and accomponied with instability.

My physio program had a very slow start being stuck at week 3 up and into my 3rd month of recovery, I have recently started to manage the pain better now, and with perseverance I am pushing my self into achieving better results from physically demanding activitys. I have concerns though about the success of my operation and would love to hear some input from people.
My knee on a whole gives me more trouble now than before the operation. I also have what seems to me like a lot of movement (more than before the operation) between the Femur (thigh bone) and Tibia (shin bone), this movement is most visible when i am satdown working leg muscles with my knee at a 90 degree angle, the Tibia pertrudes in and out with an amount of free movement that looks as much as approximatly 10-20 mm. My surgeon has done an MRI and told me the surgery looks fine and thier seems to be no problems and will see me in 3 months, but i still feel like my knee is worse than before surgery and the movement has not improved yet, at 6 months on from the operation.
I am getting what seems like good continueing support from my physio and in ability have moved on a lot(e.g i can drive manual transmission cars now with very little discomfort and can do 60 minute jogs on tread mill), but im still bearing a lot of discomfort, stiffness, instability, spikes of pain, occcasional clunkiness in movement and a constant dull ache that never ceases. I struggle up and down stairs and going down hills, and simple walks can be riddled with buckling of the knee.
I dont feel wise to what the trouble is and dont seem to be getting the advice i would like, my physio is working more intencely on improving the VMO, my surgeon I will see in april.
I am worried that the large amount of movement between the Femur and Tibia is the root of the problem but my consultant refered it to being a "small amount that could improve", and my physio steers away from discussing it, saying that everybody recovers differently.
I like to think that i can have faith that the professionals are doing what is best for me, some days i just feel like im being fobbed off though.
In my ACL class i seem to be the only one suffering this way, has anyone else experienced similar?.