Getting Bored

I am having a love-hate affair with the leg press. Right now, I can press 65 pounds with my left leg. This is compared to the 130 that I was pushing prior to the second surgery. I need to hit at least 120 to start running again. It is a bit frustrating because I try to push but I'm hitting a wall. What people don't always realize is that after a surgery, muscles around the area tend to shut down. With the knee, it is the quads. It takes about 6 weeks for the muscle to regain the neuromuscular function and to start getting bigger. So no matter how much weight I try to push, there is no getting around these 6 weeks. The compounding effect of 2 surgeries plus and injury may make make strengh gains proceed more slowly. Only time will tell.

In PT I'm doing pretty much the same as I have been doing: Leg press (single and double leg), hip flexion and extention, calve raises, balance drills, squats on an unstable platform. I started working on going down stairs. Right now, I can go down step over step if I have a handrail. I just don't have all the strength back in order to lower myself under all my own power. Even with this muscle weakness, I have to say that this is the best I've done going down stairs since my injury last August. I'm not very fast but I'm better than I have been.

On a brighter note, I got back into the pool on Monday. The first 1000 yards it felt like I was swimming in mud. After that, it got a little easier. It will still be several weeks though until I get my strength and endurance back in the pool.

The Toughest Thing About Recovery...

...is being patient.

The major difference between these two surgeries (besides the actual type of surgery) is the fact that after this one I feel so good. I am just waiting for my body to catch up with the rest of me so that I can start training. At this point after Surgery 1 I was still dragging my leg around with me. Now I can officially do stairs. At least going up. Going down requires a lot of weight on the hand rail.

Two weeks out from surgery: I have full range, less swelling and mushy quads. Just the quads. Everything else is still strong. It will get better but it is going to take a while. I've been told by my PT that June 15 is the day I can go back to running. So long. I'll be on the elliptical before then and that is almost like running. Sort of.

I'm in PT twice a week right now and I fit in one extra day of lifting on my own (just to give those a little extra oomph). The other days I've been on the trainer pedaling away. The more I pedal the better it feels so as long as I keep the resistance low I can spin, spin, spin.

Another thing I am dealing with is some swelling around the port sites that do not want to go down.
I got the idea from PT to start adding some extra compression with gauze and tape.

Then I place the compression sleeve over the entire thing. It just helps to keep everything down. Yesterday, it looked like it was starting to go down so I ended up leaving the tape on overnight. The only time I have been taking it off is to do my stretching because the tape pulls on the main incision and it is still a little tender.

I've got a great collection of compression stockings and sleeves. This one is from Zensah but the main ones I use are just some cheaper compression hose that I got from PT that you can cut whatever length you want. They come in different degrees of compression so I tend to wear a lighter compression one at night.

Post-Surgery Update And A Photo of Beans

I do not have children... yet. It's just my cat in the background that sounds like a crying baby.

This is what I have to tell people when they are on the phone with me.

This is my first update since my most recent surgery. I admit, I've been a bit lazy, a bit busy, but mostly just exhausted. This whole process to get my knee back healthy has been a little more than I was originally prepared for. However, this most recent bump in the road may have been just what I needed.

It all started last week the Monday (March 29) before my surgery. I found out that I needed authorization for the surgery. This wouldn't have been a big deal if I had found a little sooner. The insurance company originally told us we didn't need it. Then, two days before surgery, they told us that I did AND that it usually takes 72 hours to RUSH an authorization through. I was in tears and beyond stressed. To top it all off, the insurance company told us that I wasn't even authorized for my first surgery even though they had paid for it in full. Talk about lack of communication. Eventually everything got straightened out, my authorization done in under 72 hours. The day before surgery I found out everything was okay.

After that, surgery was nothing. This was done by the same doctor, but in a different hospital site. This site had a TV so Aaron didn't have to entertain me the whole time. This time I was also allowed clear liquids and black coffee up to 6 hours before surgery. I really think that helped to make a difference because I didn't feel so bad coming out of surgery. I went in at 3pm (I even remember them putting the oxygen mask over my face) and woke up a little after 4pm feeling great. In fact, I felt amazing. I had no pain. For the first time since my injury, my knee felt right. While I was waiting for the doctor I started bending it up and straightening it back out, just to see how far it would go. It turns out that I had a very large cyclops lesion (I was right!!!). The doctor manipulated the knee (bending and and straightening it and cutting out scar tissue) and took out the screw. The screw was working it's way out on it's own and I was forming bone around it. The incisions were placed in the same place as the last time so I won't have any new scars. I couldn't have hoped for an easier time.

The next two days I headed to physical therapy. Dale went really easy on me the first day. Lots of gentle movement, some straight leg raises and then hooking my quad up to electric stim. The day after that, I did a little more. Some squats on the shuttle press, calf raises and more stretching.

This week is when things started to get tougher. I got to do some serious strength training. Most of the swelling has gone down and it actually makes walking harder because my quad is so weak and my balance is really bad. I am actually more afraid of falling now than I was last week. I did leg press, dead lifts, tons of squats and cycling. I was so sore and tired midweek that I could hardly get myself off the floor. It isn't even the muscles that I am trying to train. My right leg is actually more sore than the left. It takes all the work than the left can't do.

My leg press weight is really bad. I think that I topped out at 55 pounds this week. I need 125 ideally to start running again. My doctor told me that at the earliest I could start back running 4 weeks after surgery. I'm hoping than since I have been doing so much strength training these past few months that my muscles will bounce back faster. I'm scheduled for PT two times a week for the next month and I plan on doing a third day of lifting on my own. Last time 3 days of lifting per week got my strength back in about 6-8 weeks.