my ex was playing football and he tore his ACL. he went to the hospital and they gave him pain pills. a week later he said the pills constipated him, so i gave him an enema. he was on the toliet yelling at me to call EMT. the firefighters came and they made jokes. "hey, man we cant take the toliet with us" so he was yelling at me to get him dressed.
o.k long story short
they say he could live with his injury or he could have surgery. he had surgery and was out of work for 2 months,and he had to find another job.

I just read an article about ACL injuries and it looks as though surgery is a must because the ligaments cant heal themselves. I suggest you go back to your surgeon and discuss options. As for recovery time...ligaments take the longest to heal as far as I know so you would be out longer than say if you had dislocated your knee or broken your leg. Ligament tissue isnt good at healing itself due to lack of healing materials in the tissue cells. This is why surgery is so common for these kinds of injuries. Just go and get yourself fully looked at and decide what to do next. It's difficult to judge without seeing the knee!

Before my husband had his surgery he had two arthroscopic surgeries...Each seemed to be better, but just for a short while...He finally had the full surgery...He was on crutches for I believe a couple of weeks and then therapy...I believe he was off work for a good 6 to 8 weeks...

It took a while to heal and you must follow the instructions of the doctor and not try and rush it...Good luck...