Three months later

3 months post op

It's been three months!!

I have been as lazy of a rehabber as I've been a blogger. I hate to say it but I've quit physio and have instead been going to the gym not quite enough and working specifically on rebuilding my leg muscle not quite enough.

I'm bad.

But I feel pretty good! I can do almost anything. I can kneel on very soft things like beds and folded up yoga mats. I can go down stairs basically normally.

My knee gets stiff when I sit at my desk or in a show for a while.

And the scar isn't really looking that great in some spots that were more scabby during the earlier recovery days. Let's take a look.


I try to remember to put special scar oil stuff on it twice a day but it's hard to say now whether that helps.

But all in all I'm doing well! I'm going back to the surgeon next week for another follow up so we'll see what he has to say.

My First visit with the surgeon

Post op week 7

I had physio yesterday and apparently I need to strengthen my hamstrings and improve my balance. Psh. I'm getting tired of going to physio. Can I stop now?

I didn't have a chance to go to the gym yesterday or today, though. :( Did I go Monday? Hmm. I can't recall.

Today I met with my surgeon and all was great. I thanked him for his good work, and he thanked me for being a great patient. He said everything is going according to plan. Apparently I'll be feeling perfect by three months but still can't do real sports for six months. Six months! That means I can play ultimate again in the Spring season. Yay Yay!!! :) I'm excited to play play play.

And I'm thinking of takng up running. What do you think about that?

Anything else new with the knee? Well, no, not really. I can dance a jig, more or less. Probably just as well as I ever could before, in fact. I feel almost normal! I still can only kneel on a thick mat or a pillow and even that feels weird. And my leg feels sore if I have to stand for an hour, say, at the Of Montreal concert. Otherwise I'm very happy!!

Updates!

Six weeks and six days post op

Yesterday I hurried up the subway stairs in a jog-like manner! It wasn't quite as fast as a normal jog up the stairs, but it was a jog up the stairs nevertheless.

Three days ago I began working out once more on the elliptical trainer, in addition to the stationary bike.

Tomorrow I've got physio and Wednesday is my first follow up appointment with the surgeon. Alright!

Range of Motion continues

Six weeks and two days post op

And now we're onto week six of this ever-exciting adventure in knee surgery land! Welcome, boys and girls!

Let me think, what happened in the last week. Well, for one, I went hiking in the Canadian Shield. Yes, that's right. I traipsed up and down through the rocks on a two hour hike. I can't say it was easy - I had to go very slowly, particularly when descending, and my left leg felt it the next day because I depended quite a lot on it to climb up things, but hey, I did it! I twisted my right knee oddly once and feared for my graft but all seems fine.

Yesterday at physiotherapy I had good news and bad news. I'll start with the good. I have 135 degrees of bend!!! That's a mere five off from normal! Wow! And we weren't even really pushingit to its max when it was measured. How sweet it is to be almost normal. The other good news is that my physio had me walk across the room for him. I did that no problem. Then he had me JOG across the room for him. And I did it too! It was the first time I'd tried jogging and it was no big deal. I've since jogged a couple of times here or there, like through the halls of my condo on my way to the garbage shute, for example. It feels good.

My bad news is that my extension, which is supposed to be zero degrees and which was zero the first time I went to physio so I figured it must still be, is off by two degrees. I now feel like I must straighten that bad boy out. Extension is very important, so they say. My physiotherapist was less concerned about it that I was.

The other day I decided enough is enough. I'm sick of limping down the stairs. So I've been taking the stairs down whenever possible and working hard on using the muscles required to do so normally. I believe it's the quads that really deal with descending. I think in the two days that I've been making this conscious effort I've started to feel an improvement, though it's still quite slow going.

I went to body pump today and actually put a bit of weight on for the squatting section. I forget now how much weight it was. I think 5 pounds in total. I also went swimming this week as well as biking at the gym. On the bike I've been doing 3o minutes of actual cardio biking and then five or ten minutes with the seat as low as possible, working on my bend. It seems to loosen things up.

That's all the week six knee news for you. Oh, except I've now spent about $500 on knee-surgery related expenses (most physio). I very much look forward to NOT having a $55 a week physio expense. Though happily I've been managing to pay for it out of my normal monthly budget instead of going into savings like I feared I'd have to.

Next week I have my first follow-up appointment with my surgeon!

I got new shoes!

5 weeks

It's been five weeks since surgery and here's where I'm at.

I think about my leg 65% of the time.

I've done two bodypumps and two bodyflow classes with no trouble. Except I can't kneel so that can get ackward.

When I walked around a lot on Queen street my leg got heavy and tired and uncomfortable.

Going up stairs is painless though I can feel my muscle is not strong, meaning it takes a bit more effort to do.

Going down stairs is still difficult for me. There's a strange interior pain that's almost like a block somewhere deep inside that kicks in sometimes when I go downstairs. My muscle is not strong enough to lower my bodyweight smoothly from one step to another. I can do it very slowly, quicker with a handrail or two, and even quicker if the handrails are close together and I can "crutch" down. But that doesn't count.

I haven't been elevating or icing, except the other day when I walked too much.

I started up with a new physio today. My old physio recommended that I alternate between the two for a variety of physio styles. This one had me do a much more physical session as opposed to the relaxed massage-esque sessions of the last five weeks.

I did:
- about ten minutes of the muscle stimulation machine(is this a crock or what?)
- 3 sets of ten leg lifts lying on each side (so adductor and abductor muscles, I think.)
- 4 sets of seven hamstring curls, which had me standing with the front of my thighs against the edge of the bench and a five pound weight on my calf, lifting the weight up behind me by pulling my heel up.
- 3 sets of ten things where a strap attached to a weight machine went around my knee, and I had to bend and straighten as if I had a ball between my knees, sort of. I felt the same "going down the stairs" pain during this one.
- some supported squats
- a few step ups onto that squishy half ball thing
- a bit of balancing on a balance board.

Everything was easy.

This physiotherapist had a helper girl who kind of did all the work. The guy himself wasn't particularly friendly and I didn't feel motivated or cared for or encouraged like I do usually when I see my other guy. :( They haven't measured my flexion in two weeks!!! Booo. Next week I will insist.

I'm thinking about biking to my friend's house this evening without any approval to do so. Hope that's okay...

Back in the pool! Back in group exercise classes! Back in the game!

Post Op Week 4

Don't even ask me how it's possible that four weeks are behind me. Please. Don't ask.

Things with the leg are really great.

Yesterday I went to the pool which I've only just recently discovered. It's two short blocks away from me and it's free! What the?!?!

I went to a lane swim and I started off doing arms only. I did 20 lengths to just get some cardio action on the go. That felt fine and the leg didn't complain at all. Next I took a flutterboard and did some light kicking for ten lengths, picking up the pace as I went on and realized there was no pain or discomfort really. Finally I realized that I was good to go, and I did 20 more lengths of full crawl. It was great! It's so nice to be able to feel like I'm really burning calories while stengthening.

Today was yet another milestone. I went back for the first time to the group exercise classes that I really love at the gym. In fact, I did them both, back to back, after doing a quick ten minutes on the bike. Maybe it sounds like I'm overdoing it. I hope I'm not overdoing it but I don't feel pain or any reason to stop. So I did a Bodypump class, modifying the heavy weighted squats and lunges sections so that I was just lightly squatting with no added weight. The rest of my major muscle groups were happy for the attention. We'll see how they feel tomorrow. Following that, I did a nice, relaxing Bodyflow class, a class that combines yoga, tai chi, and pilates. There were a few kneeling things that I couldn't do (I can't bend fully yet and I can't put full weight on my knee) but other than that I did some great stretches, strethening exercises, and balance work. My balance on the operative knee is pretty much as good as it was before.

So that's where I'm at four weeks post. I am extremely pleased by this speedier than anticipated recovery.

Overall, I should add, my knee is feeling funny most of the time, but not painful. It feels heavier and kind of achy when I keep it in one position, so I end up moving it around quite a bit, from straight to bent and back again. My walk is almost perfect. The stairs are still tricky on the way down.

Here are some week four photos for ya! Look at that bend!

Three weeks and five days