July 15, 2009

The Cure for Knee Issues: Step in a Ditch

Two Monday's ago, I attended karate class and really enjoyed myself. There were only three of us there and it was one of those nights where you initially feel like you can't get anything right and then things sort of start to click. I wanted so much to go to class on this past Monday night to add on to what we had been doing before; but I decided it was best that I not go.

During the Monday class, I got thrown around a little bit and while it was happening I was concerned about my knee. There were some sudden movements and although braced, I still worry. I keep hearing my surgeon's words echo in my head, "You only want to do this once. Revision ACL surgeries are not successful."

I came home after that class and told Mr. BBM that despite the scare, my knee was feeling solid. I told him I was feeling more confident and how happy I was that it was holding up. Then I woke up Tuesday morning in a world of pain. My extension was like post original surgery and I was visibly limping. Add to that the pain whenever I tried to straighten my leg and I was a very unhappy girl.

Mr. BBM assured me I had just overdone it a bit, maybe tweaked it a bit, but the discomfort continued. I skipped class on Tuesday and hoped I'd be better by the Pittsburgh trip. But I wasn't.

I spent the drive out there icing my knee, popped ibuprofen like candy through the weekend, and spent the nights in bed trying to get my leg to straighten out, sometimes pushing my knee down against the bed to the point that it almost brought tears from the pain. When I hit a week and it still wasn't any better, I contemplated calling my surgeon. Clearly something was very wrong. I decided I'd give it another week; but I played it safe and traded my karate night for swimming laps at the pool instead. The cold water in the pool always seems to help when my knee is feeling cranky and I wanted to do some type of exercise.

Yesterday, the grass needed to be mowed and Mr. BBM wasn't feeling well. So I strapped my ACL brace on and went out to mow. The edge of one side of my yard borders a vacant building lot; and we live in a rocky area lacking uniformity. I looked at the street for a second to watch a car drive by and stepped in a hole that would have made my knee hyper-extend if not for my brace. It hurt, badly enough that I had to stop and breathe for a minute.

I walked it off and continued mowing the lawn as my knee throbbed the rest of the time. I figured I had really screwed it up. I came inside, took my brace off and stood there with a straight leg. In fact, with a straight leg with the maximum extension that my left leg now allows, I had only a tiny bit of pain. I figured it was a fluke, went to bed, and woke up this morning with only a tiny bit of soreness behind my knee.

I really think that I broke a piece of scar tissue loose at karate and that it was inhibiting my movement to full extension when it got stuck somewhere it shouldn't have been. I think when I stepped in the hole, I knocked it loose making me able to bend again.

Today, I walked without a limp for the first time in a week and a half. Tomorrow night, I'm back at the dojo.

***Summer Serenade videos will go up this week!