Hitting The Streets

Yah, I've been bad. I owe you a recap of the last few months. The short version is that my surgeon recommended I stop going to PT and just do it on my own in January. It felt like I was breaking up with a girlfriend when I told my PT guy. Mid way through January I started using the Elliptical machine at work. I've maxed at 30 minutes so far and have stuck to a path of slow progression.

Last week I attempted to actually jog for the first time. I started my intervals small at 30 seconds walking, 15 seconds running. The running felt okay but awkward. It isn't looking very pretty to see but it's happening. I felt decent enough halfway through that run to switch intervals and do 30 on, 15 off. I actually had a few strides that felt normal. I did a little over a mile.

This past Saturday I went back out and did 30 second walking, 45 second running intervals. It again felt okay, but limpy. It should improve. I' going to try to stick to running only a couple times a week until it feels better and better. But it's nice to get back out there and get my feet on the ground. I'm getting closer to feeling slightly more normal!

Progressing

Not a whole lot to really update you all on at this moment, at this juncture, in this space of time. Things are progressing. Did have a doctor follow up last Thursday 11/12. He thought it all looked good and I was progressing nicely. I was aware beforehand and he reiterated that the graft itself is at it's weakest 2-3 months post surgery. I don't really know all the medical science behind it but as part of the healing process with the graft, it's strong at first, becomes weak, and then begins to strengthen again.  So for now I am in a bit of a holding pattern with what I can and can not do with the knee/leg.  As it is, I still have a few more months to go before I can start to jog again because of the meniscus repair. But I have been using the cycle at the gym at work and will continue to do that. I am progressing to new exercises at physical therapy as I really try to focus on balancing on the leg without having to shift all of my weight over to counter balance. I do a lot of squats, a lot of steps. It's still difficult for me to control my leg going down and I am pushing to get better at that. But otherwise, I am completely crutch free at this point and able to get around to where I need to go. It still has feels, not painful, sometimes sore, but where the left leg just feels like a leg with the absense of feeling, the right leg still feels like, well for lack of a better description, that it got cut open and operated on 2 months ago.

Long story short, I'm progressing. Trying to get my range of motion further along so I can use both legs to go down stairs. Working on leg strength so I can balance better. And feeling a little less worried about the soon to be winter, ice, and snow season. Winter is coming. Oh and I almost don't have to think about what it takes to get out of my car yet, almost.

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!

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.