Getting There

It might take me a while, but I'll get there.  Slowly and surely.

Left the crutch in the car today for first time.  Well, left it in the car yesterday when I got home. I'm still walking with a hitch so I'm not confident to give the crutch up completely. (I should just be walking with a cane but I don't want to spend money on a cane).  Knee definitely feels a little more sore the more I use it. I can get used to that if that's the way it'll be. I suspect the more it heels the the better it'll feel. I'm coming to grips with the fact that several holes were drilled thru it. ha.

At the last PT appointment, was the first time he physically worked on bending my knee more. Oh man that shit hurt so bad. No pain no gain. I know. And I know it needs to bend more. But man, as I laid there and he did his thing, it definitely hurt!  After he was like, how do you feel, and I'm all like great if you don't do that again!  Knew that day was coming, it came.  Will have to brace myself for next time, which is tomorrow at 1.

But anyway, just a quick update that I'm sorta walking now. It's still not pretty. I can almost imagine what it will be like to run again but I'm definitely a few months away from that. I have been getting good at doing the stationary bike, and getting it to revolve all the way around front and back. Still positive that I'll make a full recovery by next summer. Just hoping I won't slip or anything this winter, that would suck!

Trick or Crutch!

Still progressing.  Still using the crutch. Despite having a decent day last week without the crutch, my PT guy basically advised that I should use a cane (or the one crutch) until I can actually walk normal without a hitch. I'm still hitching quite a bit though each day is still getting better. Slowly but surely.  

I had hoped to be able to walk the neighborhood sans crutch for trick or treating over the weekend, but couldn't. I put on my running gear (which was nice since I hadn't in forever :sadface:) and took to the streets with my kids as an "injured" runner!  Hilarious, I know!  It was actually my first time around the loop since the injury. As tired of running the loop as I started to get, I'd do just about anything right now to run it again.  Couple more months.  Got a couple comments about my costume from other parents.  "Costume".  

I'm still icing almost every night and I'm still working on my exercises at home. I've kicked up my PT to go twice a week now. I'm a little frustrated that I'm not further along than I am but I still know that it's part of the process. Can't believe that it's almost been two months since the surgery and that time is still doing it's part. I hope by the end of this month, if not sooner, I'm more confident and comfortable walking. I should be.

There was a couple significant knee injuries in the NFL that I'm keeping my eye open on MRI results today. Hoping for the best for those gentlemen.

"Injured Runner"

Pumpkins!

First No Crutch Lap

And on the 87th day of using crutches, I was able to do a full lap around the parking lot at work (a half mile).  It's not exactly pretty but I made it.  I've been getting a little more comfortable walking on this leg the past few days or so.

I can't exactly say that I left the crutch at home or in the car. I used it to get to my desk this morning, but that's as far as it's gone.  Tomorrow I will plan to leave it in the car.

As this month has gone by I've had it in mind and have been hoping to be able to walk on Halloween for trick or treating. Assuming the rest of the week progresses like this, I should be in good shape and even more ready for that.

Hopefully as a few more weeks go by walking will feel normal again cause right now it certainly doesn't. Feels like about a 75/25 split between the knee and leg needing to be stronger and sturdier and my mental psyche of whether or not to trust it.  Time time time, every day is better!

Almost There

Not quite off the crutches. I'm trying. I've been using 1 crutch since Thursday 10/15 and I'm mostly okay on just 1. Definitely still feels weird and I'm concentrating on every step. Doing my best to step consistently. To not shift my balance too much as I go. To land my foot exactly the same. To bend my leg exactly the same. I've never been good at consistency.  I can get around the house a bit without the crutches but it's not exactly pretty.  I'm sure my PT guy will prefer to see me walk in with no crutches tomorrow and I'm trying but I'm just not quite there yet!  Sometimes it just feels like it bends weirdly. Some of it is mental, I understand that. I certainly don't want to re-injure it before it's healed. I'm willing to accept some degree of elongating the recovery if the result is less setbacks. That being said, I'm 80+ days into this now and I'm of course looking forward to giving up the crutches completely. Obviously I want to! Ultimately my goal is to be able to walk on Halloween. It's crazy, I was just thinking how this whole ordeal really put a damper on my summer, and it did, but it's crazy to think that it's almost November already. I can't exactly say the past three months have flown by, but they have gone by, and that's saying something!

It's Nice To Almost Walk Again

I am slowly easing into full weight bearing on this right leg. I'm still using both crutches. I have been able to use only one in times of need, like carrying a plate of food. I can do some walking without but not enough to quite ditch the crutches at home. It's only been a couple days. Though I'm not quite yet there it's nice to be able to at least crutch walk and not be wary of any weight. It's coming. Slowly but surely. One day at a time. One step at a time.

I should also note that yesterday I was able to get my first lap in around work since the surgery.  It was great to finally get outside and get some fresh air!

Doctor Follow Up

Had my four week post-op follow up yesterday.  The one I had been waiting for.  Doctor opened with "Are you ready to ditch the crutches?" -- UHH YEAH that's what I've been waiting for!  Got the green light to ditch them.  It should take about a week to transition off of them.  I began walking on my leg as soon as I left that room.  I'm still putting a good amount of the weight on the crutches, but it's so nice to be able to start the transition. I don't remember exactly how long it took for me to go from 2 crutches to 1 pre-surgery but that's what I'll be working on the next few weeks.

The only other take away other than everything looking good and him saying to not overdo the flexion quite yet (I'm at 82 degrees ROM as of the last PT appt Weds) was that it will take a while to get back to jogging.  With a normal ACL repair it's about 10 weeks. With an ACL repair with Meniscus it's closer to 4-6 months. (That's me)  Which I expected to hear.  Good news is that 1 of those months is already over. So projecting out 3-5 months from now puts me into the January-March range before I can get back into running.  That's fine.  I'm content to just be able to get back to walking at this point, and that should be soon.   I'm not expecting to be ready for kickball by Spring season, but possibly, hopefully Summer. And at the end of the day, if it takes me longer to return to be able to play longer into the future, I'm fine with that. IIWII right.

Quick Update

Still living that #crutchlife counting down the days until my follow up appointment a week from Thursday. The swelling is going down slowly and slowly. Still swollen. Still tight. Bending it has been tricky and every day I try a little bit more and more. This early stage of PT has felt a bit like a holding pattern since I still can't put weight on the leg. It's annoying and will prolong the recovery a bit but it's better to be cautious with the meniscus repair since I'm going to be relying on that cushion in the future quite a bit once I get back to running and playing. But for now, I'm just hoping to be back to walking by Halloween!  August was long. September has been longer. Bring on October!

I've been following ACL injuries in the NFL this year closer than ever before. There were 25 complete tears in the preseason and so far no complete tears during the season. Kiko Alonso of the Eagles did partially retear his. There's been a couple MCLs and knee bruises. Big Ben avoided an ACL tear this past weekend but did damage his MCL. So it's good that there haven't been any yet during the season but all of this has certainly changed my perspective a bit. I watch the games slightly different. I notice all of the knee braces that linemen wear. I scan for injury updates when I see a player go down clutching their knee.  My team, the Falcons, are 3-0 and flying high. I can only hope the players stay healthy!

Many players who previously tore their ACL have been playing great this year. Tom Brady. Carson Palmer. Tyrann Mathieu, Jamaal Charles, Adrian Peterson, Rob Gronkowski, Darrelle Revis, Eric Berry, Travis Benjamin to name a few.

First Week Of Recovery

Been a minute since I've posted so let me see if I can bring us up to speed.  In my last post I talked about the surgery and how weird that experience was. Now let me see if I can appropriately recap the past ten days...

The first couple days after surgery were definitely the worst.  I didn't put many steps on the fitbit meter the day after surgery!  I spent most of the day on the couch. Oh, but I did go in for a followup with the doctor. We got our first look at it under the bandages. And it didn't look all that bad all things considered.  The doctor did confirm that I had some meniscus repair and that I wouldn't be able to put weight on my leg for four weeks. We asked about driving and he said that I could when I was feeling able to. He also drained some blood out of the knee cause it was pretty swollen and felt super tight. Flexion was a bit difficult and I had quite a ways to go with that, but I was able to straighten it and that was a great place to already be at.  If you can't straighten your leg after this surgery they basically have to do the surgery again.  That'd be awful! After the appointment we were on our merry way back home to rest, feeling a little bit better.

First look day after!

So pretty!

On Sunday I was able to keep my podcast on schedule, publishing episode 19. I used a bunch of songs that referenced doctors and knees, haha. I had planned to return back to work on Monday but by Sunday night I didn't feel quite ready to return. I emailed my boss and asked for a couple more days to recover. I did work from home on Monday and was able to get caught up on some of my work. I took Tuesday off.  On Tuesday I remember thinking that the previous 5 days or so just slipped by, even though I had spent 98% of that time on the couch. It was time to get out of the house! By this point I had weened off the painkillers. I believe I had 1 at night Monday and Tuesday but other than it not feeling super awesome, it felt alright. Still pretty tight. Earlier in the day on Tuesday I went out to see how it would feel driving. The leg was a bit ginger but I drove around the neighborhood a bit. Driving wasn't all that bad so I planned on driving to work the next day. Wednesday morning I woke up and drove into work. No problems. 

The first day back at work was a bit rough. Playing catch up never is fun. We have a lot going on. I felt super tired about half way through the day but was able to, somehow, power thru the day. My oldest started Kindergarten the day before surgery and since she's right next to where I work, I get to pick her up. I managed to crutch into the school to pick her up that day and every day since.

On Thursday I had another post-op followup with the doctor to remove the staples. The doctor again reiterated that I needed to keep using the sticks for another three weeks and that he would see me again on October 8th. (basically the day I am counting down to now). The knee was still swollen but he said that it was looking good and that I was doing great so far. It felt great to get the staples out. I had been looking forward to it for a few days at this point!

No more staples!

I had Friday off as part of my 9 day schedule. I had my first post-op PT session in the morning and because I can't start putting weight on the leg we started pretty simple. A lot of leg lifts and working on the flexion. The leg lifts were really hard the first couple days and have been hard. I wasn't able to lift it at all the first couple days in recovery. He gave me some pointers on how to work on a few of the exercises and everything went well. Starting over is a bit tricky considering how far I had progressed before surgery. Every day gets better. I go again today after this post gets finished.  After PT, I returned home and took it easy for the day.  At night I met up with some kickball friends and went to the WAKA end of season party.  I got voted the Prince of kickball lol. I was so confused when they said my name. All like, what's this for?? haha..

Let's Party!

Hanging with The Box!

With some of my favorite people from other teams! -- Terri is hilarious!

I always hate the last day of kickball cause I don't get to see everyone over the winter. With our team not playing Fall ball the off-season has come (and in my case especially) even quicker than I would like. But them the breaks. It is what it is to borrow an oldie but goodie.  At the end of the night I was super tired and headed home! We hung with the neighbors, the Cocoa bunch, on Saturday and on Sunday I enjoyed one of the best days of football I've had in a while.  Both of my teams (Falcons and Patriots) beat local teams and their obnoxious fans had to stick forks in their mouths by 5 o'clock.  It was glorious.

This week so far has been pretty manageable. I'm super busy at work so that has made the time go by pretty quick.  We have some fun weekend plans for Saturday so that will be nice.  And as I mentioned before, I am basically counting down the days until October 8th when he'll say that I can start putting weight on this leg.  It was tricky the first time starting to relearn how to walk after two plus weeks, I imagine it will be as tricky after four weeks. I need to keep working on flexion and getting the swelling to go down more and more. In time these things will come. Everything has gone as expected. Every day is slightly better than the previous. People at work that I see in the halls wondered why I was using two crutches after they had seen me get down to one. I had the surgery yo! No, it didn't get worse. It got fixed!  Now it just needs to heal up a bit more so I can progress towards the end goal.  It's definitely uplifting to know that there is a light at the end of this tunnel and that I'm not where I was a month ago, in a holding pattern waiting to get the surgery.  I'm staying as positive as I can. Like I said, every day is better, and new days come all the time!  I'll write again soon. I definitely missed being able to do a 5k at lunch time today with the weather cooling down.  Some day again. Some day.  I'll get there.  It may take a bit, but I'll get there.  Love you all.  Thanks for reading!

Relearning To Walk

Relearning how to walk has been one of the more interesting and challenging experiences of my life. I injured myself on July 30th and put hardly any weight on my right leg for 2+ weeks. On August 17th after my followup with the doctor, he advised that I start putting weight on the leg. (still wish I had bumped that appointment up earlier since I had a two week gap after the MRI was done and that but oh well).

I started physical therapy on August 19th and learned the initial set of exercises I needed to work on to strengthen up the rest of my leg. Some people do not need surgery as a result of this injury if they are able to walk and are not trying to play sports. For me, I've always played sports and I know I'll need the surgery to return. In the meantime I needed to work on regaining leg strength to be able to walk. Quad strength being a lot of the focus.

Before the PT appointment on Wednesday, I worked on crutch walking Monday and Tuesday. It made quite a difference. Before, I had to use all upper body to get from place A to place B. Now, I could sort of walk, albeit with the aide of the crutches and pretty slowly. But it was a start!

I was slightly nervous for the PT since I knew there would be some bending of the leg in ways it may have not been quite comfortable yet. And it did. But it wasn't so bad. I did some knee bending and some leg lifting. I was given a print out of the exercises to work on and left with the homework assignment of doing those three times a day. Not too bad. He also said I need to ice it down every night which I had not been doing.

On Thursday I asked Matt if he wanted to do a lap outside. Fresh air breaks at work has been a daily ritual for us to take a step away from our desks, breathe in the good air, and stretch our legs a bit. It had been almost three weeks since I was able to take a lap around the property and I was ready to snap that streak. One lap around the entire premise is a half mile, so it's a decent amount of distance. We did it, slowly, but it felt good. Later Thursday I went to my kickball game and the bars afterward to celebrate victory and at the end of the day my fitbit "printed" out a 3.47 mile for the day. I had gotten up to 2 miles a couple times before but this was my best day so far.

Of course with that being said, I was pretty sore for the rest of the weekend. It got tricky doing the exercises at times. A couple nights over the weekend I did wake up in the night with it not feeling so awesome. A couple It's Always Sunny episodes were quality medicine as I was able to transfer some brain energy to laugh at those idiots. That helped. I had to buy four new tires Friday morning for my car to pass inspection. That didn't help. We had a pizza party Saturday night with some friends. That helped. (Thank you again Sara for making the pizzas). And generally, I took it pretty easy over the weekend. I wasn't able to go to Magnaball (wasn't planning to), but I watched the live streams each night and that was super awesome! All three nights were fantastic. The boys are on fire.

Yesterday I went for my second PT appointment. I was able to use the stationary bike. I got full rotation on the pedals but wasn't able to pedal all that fast. That was nice. I showed him how I had been walking on crutches and told him I over did it on Thursday. He asked me to show him how I walked without crutches and I just stood there. Not quite ready for that. I'm hesitant because I don't want to fall. I'm slightly hesitant to somehow make this worse before it's repaired. I haven't tried without crutches yet so yeah I'm a bit nervous about that. He showed me a couple new exercises I can do now to work on shifting my weight from side to side (formerly my goto dance move) and extending up from my tippy toes distributing the weight evenly. I'll work on those and try to attempt some without crutches walking at some point.

To a lot of people, having PT before surgery seems a little different, but I understand why. I need to strengthen everything else up in my right leg prior to surgery so that after surgery that strength is still there while my new ACL gets ready to take over it's functions.

The doctor had said last week that I didn't need to wear the leg brace all the time so I've been keeping it off when I'm just at home.

I have another followup with the doctor next week and another PT appointment this week. Hopefully by next week the doctor likes the progress he sees. My daughter starts Kindergarten on the 8th and I do not want to miss that, but they are welcomed to open me up the following week if everything looks good to them.

Relearning to walk is one of the weirdest things I've ever done. I don't recommend you try it.

Suzy & Larry

Suzy & Larry They're my guys If they can't do it I certainly can't Suzy & Larry Wherever they go I go too and so do they If Suzy & Larry Can't do it Neither can I Suzy & Larry By my side All day long and All night too Suzy & Larry Are some real cool dudes

Monday Morning Walk And Talk

Kind of like Monday Morning Quarterback but without the quarterbacking or walking.  Just a quick check in here.

I guess I went in the wrong door Friday morning when I went to the town clerk for my handicapped parking permit. There I went in the door, only to find 8 steps between me and where I needed to be. Irony. But no problem. I can do nice and easy stone and concrete steps. Got my red temporary car parking thing and went home. Off from work, this was my big adventure for the day.

Saturday we visited with Nancy and Andy and it was super nice to get out of the house for an afternoon. I'm finding that most places are handicapped accessible enough. With a little grease under these arms (actually that'd be bad), anything is accomplishable. I got some sun and watched my kids play in the pool, even though my view was impeded by a bare chested Andy sunbathing at times.

Yesterday's big adventure was a trip to Joe Bruno Stadium to catch the Hudson Valley Valley Cats take on the Lowell Spinners. I ran the Fathers Day Home Run 5k in June which gave me four free tickets to any game. The box office gave us tickets for section 320 which was way down the right field line. Okay. After five innings of sitting in the sun and staring at the sun we moved to behind the third base dugout and into the shade. The home team won and we got to see a couple home runs and double plays. The best part was at the end of the day last night when my fitbit only gave me two stars for all this efforting. Some day I'll get five stars again, someday.

Couple quick comments and observations I've learned during my 10+ days of no walking.
-- I have learned to appreciate dry hands above almost everything else. I typically do not mind washing them and letting them air dry, but these days I've really got to take a minute and make sure they are completely dry.
-- People aren't mind readers. And that's ok. I've got to just ask for things. I'm not used to it.
-- Pockets and backpacks are crucial. I can't carry anything. But I sure can if I have somewhere to put it!
-- I say thanks a lot because I am very thankful, but I've really stepped up my 'thanks game' the past couple weeks. I'll continue to be thankful. Most all people are very helpful. It's nice. Yes, there's a lot of inconsiderate people in the world but let's not give all of mankind the thumbs down quite yet!
-- I took a shower Saturday night and my daughter asked me if I just got back from a run. I wish honey, I wish. They understand I'm injured and that they need to be helpful, but they do not understand why it's not magically fixed yet.
-- The past day or so my right knee has really wanted to do stuff. It's a little tired of just sitting here, but that's it's job now. Like it or not!
-- My left leg is going to be great at pivoting in basketball when this is all done. This is the training it's always wanted I suppose.

Otherwise, all things considered, everything is going well. I'm anxious to hear what the doctor has to say next Monday and don't like waiting but it's all part of the process. Patience!

You've got to crawl before you can walk.
You've got to stand before you can step.

Have a great week, I'll post again soon!

keyword being temporary!

Getting Around

Took it easy for the weekend, oh wait no I didn't. We had a team party Saturday night and I hopped around until 6am!  Getting around is proving to be not exactly an easy thing. I'm new to this crutches game but need to get better and better.

I've been able to put pressure on my foot, just can't stand on it. I can tap it and move it around. I needed to see if I could drive, so I gave that a try on Sunday.  Drove down to the pool area and watched my kids play in the sprinkler for a bit. Driving seems possible now, but I wouldn't want to exactly have to slam on the brakes. I'm just going to be extra cautious and typically only drive the 1 mile to work and back.

Monday at work was a learning experience. I laughed when I saw my first calendar entry for the day. The 9am company wide wellness walk that occurs on the first Monday of each month. Yeah, skipping that. I had another meeting that morning at 1030am in the, let's just call it the far away place from here out. I left super early, with my backpack of course, and headed over to the far away place. Stopped at the rest room and was still 10 minutes early.

It wasn't easy but once I got going with the crutches it wasn't too bad. What I dislike is, "crutching" with my head down. I like to walk and look at where I'm walking, not at my feet. Oh well. I've kind of adapted the attitude of, I'm handicapped, you watch out for me, I'll make sure I don't fall view so far. It won't work all the time, I've still got to be aware, but for now I'm making sure I am not falling by concentrating on my crutch placement.

I like to blend in. I'm sure people know my walk, and when I'm walking by. But now, I'm the guy with crutches. I stand out like a crying baby and you can hear me coming from that far away place.

It's new though. I'll adjust. I'll get better. In the back of my mind I know that the more adjusting I can do pre-surgery, the better. I know it will be a different story immediately after. The better I get now will help tremendously then.

For now so far, I get around. It just takes forever and I really have to limit my trips and think about them before I do to maximize their efficiency.  Be happy you can walk if you are reading this.  I'd like to plug my phone in right now, but it's a process.

I'll talk about it more in a future post, but since we're talking about getting around, up until last week I was averaging 15-20 miles a week running for the past 16 months straight. I'm used to going for a run when I have any free time. I became a runner and am registered for two half marathons this fall (in sept, and oct).

Slightly burying the lead here, three posts deep and at the end of the third but aside from the day to day living, missing kickball sucks, but missing being able to run every day basically sucks more.  I skipped the day of my game and the day before after finishing my second August challenge on Tuesday.  I was just about to heat up in my training and was enjoying running in the summer heat. I ran 5ks on my lunch break!