Keeping it slow...

I had my second PT appointment this past Friday, which was just after 3 weeks. My range of flexibility had definitely improved a lot, but since I had my appointment at 7 am I hadn't taken the time to stretch ahead of time, so my physio therapist was a little concerned that my flexibility of the ACL in straitening my knee wasn't quite there yet. So now I need to straiten it for 10 minutes 5x a day! So a word of advice for those doing this, stretch first thing in the morning, so when you go in for PT it is a more accurate representation of where you are, rather than the fact that you haven't stretched in over 8 hours because you were sleeping!

I was a little discouraged to find out that I could not bike, walk "for exercise", swim, nor do yoga. So I need to keep in the mindset of keeping it slow and focusing on my physio therapy exercises, which I have been doing very regularly. I found out that I can do water jogging, and now have more PT exercises, and now I can use the stationary bike for 20 minutes a day and can add resistance! So that is good. I don't know much about watter jogging, but I'm going to look into it. I don't care if I look a little silly! :-) I'm really eager to ride my bicycle(s) again! Meet with the doc in a little over a week, so hopefully he can give me the go-ahead then. With the disclaimer of course saying "just don't crash!" :-)

Evening things out...

Coming up on 3 weeks now! Things are still progressing well. Walking pretty well normally without the brace. Still a little uncomfortable extending my leg fully while walking. I've been doing the physio therapy exercises very regularly. The swelling of the knee is pretty well back to what the other leg is, will probably take a while longer till they look the same, but close now.

When I was doing the physio therapy exercises earlier this week, the yoga instructor at the gym stopped in and pointed out that I should be doing the exercises on both legs. At first I didn't think much of it but then realized that I should make sure and do that so that I can keep the strength of both legs the same, or as close as possible. I'm not really able to do any other exercieses besides the physio therapy, so it's important to me that I keep both legs in good condition. One thing that I heard is a lot of athletes will tear the opposite ACL after having surgery... Not necissarily due to not strengthening the opposite leg durring recovery, but probably because they are favoring the oposite leg, putting it harms way more. But it can't hurt to make sure that opposite leg is strong too so that you don't mess up the other one too!

First Physiotherapy and Walking!

I had my post operation appointment with the docter 10 days after the surgery. Doctor said that everything was looking good. Was fun seeing the pictures of the inside of my knee! Only a little bit of the maniscus that they had to cut out. So there will be lots left to coushin my knee for things like running.

Right after the appointment with the doc I got to have my first physio apt. The physio therapist said that the knee was looking very good after only 10 days. So I was very happy and relieved to hear that. I guess taking good care of the knee paid off. She checked the flexibility of the knee and recorded that. Then got me started on some physio therapy exercises that I am supposed to work on for the next 2 weeks or so.

I was really happy to find out that I can use a stationary bike! Though I have been told to only use it for 10 minutes a day. After I go back for my next physio therapy appointment 2 weeks after then I should be able to use the stationary bike more.

One thing that really stuck in my head that my physio therapist stressed was that it is very important that I streatch my knee a lot to make sure that I can straighten my knee fully. When they put the ACL in they apparently do it so that it is a little tight, better a little tight than far too loose I suppose! So as the new ACL heals it tends to tighten. So it is important that you have the full range of motion as it heals because if you don't the knee will get pulled out of allignment causing problems to other parts of the knee! So I streatch the my knee by elevating my heel and extending my knee for 10 minutes, 3x a day. Usually feels a lot better after streatching. I also try and streatch it as much as I can throughout the day. I was given exercises that I should be doing daily. It takes me about 40 minutes to do all the exercises. So I am being very diligent about making sure that I get those done.

I was told that I should be putting more weight on the knee when I walk. So I was shown how to walk with one crutch so that I put weight on the knee. This is done by putting the crutch on the side opposite the knee. Then when you step forward with the bad knee you can transfer some weight onto the crutch. If you wanted to avoid putting weight on the bad knee all together then you would put the crutch on the same side as the bad knee.

I was able to get ride of the crutches on day 11 since I wasn't really putting any weight on the cruch while walking. Was also able to start driving my car that is standard on day 11 as well! Was very happy to be able to drive that again!

I am still wearing the breace to protect the knee should it give out or I get knocked by someone. While I walk I focus a lot on making sure that I walk with good form. It's almost as if I'm relearning to walk! Very happy to be walking 99% normally now.

Unveiling

So after 5 days of having the knee all covered up I was able to take off the dressings. Wow that felt really good! It did look pretty nasty though I will have to say. There was some bruising at the back of the knee, which apparently is expected given that's where the pooling of blood would take place. Was nice to finally get to shower at that point as well!

After I stopped taking the ibuprofen after the first week I had quite a bit of pain when I first stood up. There would be a rush of blood to the knee causing a lot of pain. But that would go away after 30 seconds to a minute. Now I'm at 10 days after the surgery and that has pretty well gone away.

I have been using the cpm at the max that I'm supposed to use it (90 degrees) for a while now and that hasn't been a problem. I have noticed the last few nights that I used it that I got cramps in my shins. A little odd, not much of a deal, just painful to wake up to.

I'm excited to see the doctor tomorrow morning and see what he has to say about my progress. I also have my first physio appointment so I'm looking forward to that as well!

Back to Work - constant arm workout!

I was able to return to work on Monday with no problems. Though it helps that I have an office job! It's a little bit of a pain to lug around the polar care ice chest, but it's well worth it. I really found that my arms got a huge work out from using the crutches.

I ended up getting a little sore from the crutches rubbing on my sides. But quickly improved my form so that the crutches didn't rub. Probably would have been good to look at something like this on using crutches, but I thought that they were too simple to deserve research! Definitely doesn't hurt to make sure you are doing things right.