Picking Up the Pace [6 Weeks, 1 Day Post-Op]

A lot can happen in a week, and now that the pain in the area of my patellar tendon is nearly gone, I am gaining back confidence in my leg and certain motions I avoided before. Throughout the holiday weekend I was on my feet a lot and also took part in 8+ hours in the car (total) which was probably the toughest part! Weekend activities included hanging out on the dock, but I was wise enough to skip the swim to the water trampoline! Saturday the ladies of the group hit up the putt-putt course... Does that mean I can claim I'm playing sports again? :)

The last few sessions of PT have me improving by leaps and bounds, being able to do exercises I haven't touched since pre-surgery therapy. This includes more challenging balancing exercises, squats, and adding more weight (or resistance) to previous exercises. I am up to 90# on the one-leg press; I am confident I could do more, but am trying to only gradually increase the weight.

Going down stairs is getting much easier, partially due to trust in my leg and the exercises in PT that have helped me break the mindset that my leg will give out if I put the opposite one down on the next stair first. There is still some favoring going on, but it's much improved.

Otherwise, my focus has been to get my walk to normalize, and I know I am capable, but the thing most often holding me back is habit, and maybe the *littlest* tweak of pain in some motions. They said I was not letting my leg extend all the way as I worked through my gait, but I am shaking that habit. Today there was proof of this, since in PT I was put on the treadmill for ~5 minutes and Drew kept bumping it up until I was at a speed-walking pace. At first I was hesitant and favoring my surgical leg. As I eased myself into it and realized the pain that's held me back in the past was not showing itself, I was able to get a normal stride.

My big event of the day was my first attempt at running!! Drew was there to push the 'speed up' button on the treadmill until I finally couldn't speed-walk any more. I'm the first to admit, the run was not pretty (by any means), but I think, again, it was habit and a mental block more than anything, which kept me from evening it out. I didn't run long - perhaps 1 minute, but when I haven't done anything (but putt-putt) since my surgery 6+ weeks ago, 1 minute of running was plenty for me to see where I stand today!

In PT there are 2 other young ladies I see often, I believe 1 week and 4 weeks behind me (same procedure and Doc...). They were both there today, and it's hard for me not to look at them and compare myself in the way of progress. Two of us seem roughly the same, but the girl who's at 2 weeks (versus my 6 weeks) was ALSO on a treadmill today (albeit at a slower pace and a more obvious limp...). But I'm blown away by this girl's progress and have so many questions - What did I do wrong? Why isn't she in as much pain as I was? How is she asking questions like "Can I ride my bike now?" when at 2 weeks that was the last thing I wanted to do? I remind myself that everyone truly has their own schedule. I make sure to congratulate her on her progress, because we all can use words of encouragement as we work down the winding road of recovery!!

6 Week Post-Op Pics

My range of motion (ROM) is "very good" and while I still undergo forced bending in PT, the focus has turned to building the muscle back up via my exercises

Muscle mass is slowly coming back, as the exercises which flexed my quad had hurt my patellar tendon in the past, and now (I hope!) I am past that!

[I also had one of the trainers tell me that if my right thigh wasn't so muscular, I wouldn't have so much work to do to catch up!] :)

The incision is healing nicely, and it seems to be loosening a bit, but I still have a ways to go until the skin move freely over top of my knee.

Surgical vs 'Good' Leg [5 weeks, 1 Day Post-Op]

I was just thinking about how at the end of February I was hitting all the resorts in Salt Lake City with my snowboard, and here it is, almost 3 months later, and I've been through injury, surgery, and what they say is the hardest part of re-hab. I can't wait to hit the slopes again... among other activities I'm itching to get back to!

So in my continued efforts to get back to 100% (or better!) I returned to PT today assuming I'd have pretty much the same routine as normal: Ultrasound (locally @ incision), a few painless exercises and stretching, and eventually 'ice' by rubbing ice directly on my knee until it's numb! I was right on everything, but then I got a little more in the way of exercises.

At 26 Days Post-Op (just 10 days ago) I mentioned some 'upcoming milestones'...

One goal is to get back to a 'normal range of motion' , which is from zero to 130-135 degrees. Drew told me that I am within a few degrees of that as of today (Yay!) but that my 'good' leg is closer to 160, so I definitely have some more work to do!!

Another ongoing goal is to normalize my gait. Today I was told I have all the PARTS of walking normally, I just need to piece it all together in one fluid motion. I like to compare this to learning to golf -- it's not easy to do everything right at once! While I may be able to control my walk enough to appear not to have a limp, it is still a very conscious effort (hence my previous post, 'Could the limp be gone?!' not stating that it was gone!). Drew would watch me walk and of course compare- What was my 'good' leg doing that my surgical leg was not? [Answer: My surgical leg is slightly bent through the whole stride; I'm never completely straightening it out.]

My goal to walk smoothly comes back to another goal I was perspicacious enough to realize over a week ago- being able to trust my surgical leg as I balance on it and at the same time go between straight and slightly bent. I brought this up to Drew today and he had me 'practice' doing this very motion. There were some new twinges of pain as I did it, and my leg was shaking (oh, how sad the weakness is!), but it was good to be forced, because I hadn't challenged myself at home just yet. I had to stop a few times and do the same motion with my 'good' leg, just to remember how it's supposed to look and feel!

And so the battle of Surgical vs 'Good' Leg continues.... As for the other milestones I'd set:

• I'm happy to say I can go up stairs without favoring my surgical leg
• I can balance on my surgical leg when it's straight (as well as slightly bent) without pain or feeling like i'm going to tip over (it's going between the two that's tough!)
• I can go down stairs with one foot per stair (though I favor my surgical leg VERY much when doing so)
• I continue to massage around the incision to get the skin to move freely over the knee cap (and I've also been using Mederma to hopefully reduce visibility of the scar... eventually)

Pic as of today (you can ignore the waffle imprint- that's from using my ThermoComp icing machine...)

And, since I may not post again before the Memorial Holiday - I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend, and I'll try not to do anything dumb to mess up all my hard work on my knee!!

Cheers!