16 Weeks
I hit the 16 week post-op point last week. It marked another change to the recovery regime. My PT added leg extensions and they went fine while I was there. It was later in the night that I started to hurt and I continued to hurt for the next two days.
Back at PT on Friday, my PT said he’s taking them out of the routine for now. My knee cap is getting too irritated and I need to build up my quad more before adding them in again. It took a good four days for my knee to stop hurting and being so stiff. I’m just sick of set-backs like this. A week earlier I was a degree from touching my butt and on Friday I couldn’t even get close from being so sore.
I see my surgeon next Friday. I had high hopes of getting my brace ordered and planning my triumphant return to karate. I just don’t know if that’s going to happen yet. While my Mom and Mr. BBM have remarked about how muscular my legs are getting, the left one still lags considerably behind. Mr. BBM says there’s not much of a difference but I think he’s just being nice.
Mark the calendar people. It’s time for another feeling sorry for myself session. Let’s hope it’s the last one.
If you can’t bring the heel to the butt. . .
I am just one finger away from having my heel touch my butt. One finger. That is it; and it seems like it’s going to be impossible to get it to go just that teeny tiny little bit further.
Today I told my PT I have a plan. Instead of continuing to torture myself with painful flexion, I’m just going to start eating lots and lots of ice cream and potato chips. If I can’t get my heel to my skinny butt, then I’ll bulk up the butt and bring it to my heel.
My PT and another ACL recoveree thought it was pretty funny. Personally, I think it’s pretty smart. Bigger buns are in these days anyway right? The problem is that with all the biking, treadmilling, and leg pressing I’m doing, I’m tightening up and making getting that heel to touch that much harder.
Bring on the mint chocolate chip and salt & vinegar potato chips. I’ve got a plan and I’m prepared to use it.
PT for Everyone!
I once had to take the girls with me to PT, but it was only for about 10 minutes. Mr. BBM showed up and took them home before they had the chance to do any serious damage. Since then, they’ve asked if they could go along with me from time to time. It’s like they think they serve ice cream there or something. Yesterday, they had to go for the full almost two hours. It was as if I brought live entertainment to the PT room.
When we arrived, it was packed. Spring must be surgery season. Four tables were filled up leaving one for me. Several people were also circuiting through their exercise routines. I set the girls up on a low padded table that no one ever uses. Mickey Mouse Park came out of Lil C’s bag along with all of her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters. Big I got to work on her homework.
Lil C felt it necessary to unpack her entire entertainment bag so in no time at all the rather large table was littered with Dora diapers, Mickey characters and a random Teddy Graham or eight. Like the angel that she is, Big I was quiet and completed her homework without making a peep. Then there was Lil C.
Always needing to be the center of attention, she started talking and loudly right away. She had to confirm everything that was happening to Mommy’s knee. "You laying down now Mommy?"; "You putting heat on your knee Mommy?"; "You all done yet Mommy?" she asked me every 10 minutes or so. The other patients smiled with amusement at her boisterous and talkative manner. When my PT asked me if I wanted some reading material, I refused. "I left it at home for a reason," I told him. "She could turn into a little devil in no time at all."
Things got entertaining when Big I finished up her homework and got out her two new library books. One of them was a dinosaur book. Big I began turning the pages and showing the pictures to Lil C. It was super quiet at the time so Lil C’s very loud, "Oh Wow! Look at the Dio-Whore" echoed around the room. Everyone sort of stopped what they were doing and looked at her and then at me.
"Yes," I confirmed from the floor where I was doing some stretching, "she said ‘dio-whore’. That’s what she calls them." An eruption of laughter took hold of the room and even the poor guy fresh from surgery laughed until he almost cried. Realizing she was a "hit," Lil C continued to talk about "dio-whores" for the next 15 minutes.
Then she made friends. One of my PT buddies came in with her older daughter and they made the mistake of engaging Lil C in conversation. She spent the next hour talking to them loudly, telling them all about her Mickey guys, sharing the fact that she had burped with them, and even going so far as to make her Mickey characters use the one woman’s head as a sliding board.
She also played some April Fool’s jokes which she learned like a pro from her sister earlier in the week and told several people "you have a bunch of bugs on your head." She was a real hit.
With 15 minutes left in my routine, she decided she was bored and ready to go home. She packed the important things up into her bag, leaving behind her diapers and random Teddy Grahams and dragged her filled up bag towards the door.
"I am going home," she announced with a pout on her face. She spent the last 10 minutes of our visit to PT glaring at me as I walked backwards on the treadmill. When I was finally done, there was Teddy Graham carnage to be cleaned from the table, and two very bored kids. I highly doubt there will be much interest in accompanying me back to PT anytime soon. It’s certainly lost its allure for them.
It hasn’t for me though. I hit 154 degrees yesterday. Only one more to go.
A Giant Leap Forward
Spring has brought to the physical therapy room yet another new ACL surgery recoveree. I met him last week when he was at his first visit post-surgery. It was a very good reminder for me of how far I’ve come. When he found out how long ago I had surgery (December) he and his wife were shocked that I was still there at PT. It’s a very long road; I told him to prepare for it. I also told him to get himself some prune juice.
While he worked on some painful leg raises, I worked on getting my heel to greet my butt. I am so close now. It’s hurting a lot less and my extension remains good. Yesterday I pushed it past 150 degrees. I have less than five to go.
While he was working on pushing his flexion to 80 degrees, I was standing on one leg on a foam block playing catch with a weighted ball. I told him to go to his "special place" when I noticed the pained expression on his face. That first week was horrendous, and one I don’t wish to ever relive. I made it through that week by going to the beach in my head. Staying in that PT room while working on flexion was just too painful and difficult.
When I was finished celebrating from that little feat, I rode 4 miles on the bike in 15 minutes and then moved on to my other exercises. I bumped up my leg press to 80 lbs. and for the first time in weeks, I bumped my weight up on the leg curl machine as well. It finally felt easy. Yesterday felt like real progress.
Last night, Mr. BBM and I were filming an interview tape for consideration to be on a TV show (more details to come if we get chosen), and for part of the video I put my gi on. It felt so strange putting it on again for the first time since October. Mr. BBM retrieved my belt from my belt display and I tied it on like it had been only yesterday when the injury happened. I’m getting the itch to return like I’ve never had it before.
I was adding an appointment to my calendar for April this week and noticed that I have another post-op appointment with my surgeon at the end of April. This is the appointment where he’ll determine if I’m ready to be fitted for my sports brace. I am determined to push myself really hard this month to build up those muscles and get fitted for that brace. It’s just another forward step in the process of returning to what I love.
I’m focusing on taking it in small steps so as not to reinjure myself or take a step backward. Right now though, every degree in flexion and every pound I can bump up in weight feels like a giant leap forward. Real measurable progress feels so good.
The Underwear Issue. . . Again
This is just one of the many reasons why I wanted to wear underwear during my ACL surgery. Seriously. Thank God I got a new ACL and not a new. . . go see for yourself.
Today I was relaying this story to my PT while on the leg press machine. One of the surgeons walked by and asked what we were talking about. My PT deferred to me and I told him. I told him that I was telling my PT to explain why I was so obsessed with being able to wear my underwear before I went in for surgery.
The surgeon stood there stone-faced, then asked me, "Who’s your surgeon?"
I told him my surgeon’s name and he said, "Ahh, well, then you didn’t need to worry. He doesn’t operate on assholes."
Good to know. I felt like it was a compliment.
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