Great News!

Well despite the fact that I am absolutely exhausted and I caved and took one of two remaining Percocet that I had saved for days like today, I am psyched to share my progress!  Today at physio I finally reached 90 degree range of motion without assistance (95 degrees with assistance! But shhh don't tell the surgeon; he asked that I not go beyond 90).  In the image to the right you can see how it's measured (that's not me, but we do my physio and measurements and flexibility tests the same way).

As some of you remember from last Thursday, the PT also started me on attempts to start using my hamstring to begin working at lifting my leg with a roll behind my knee.  As you can see from the image to the left, it looks pretty simple.  Actually it's remarkable difficult as my patella (the meaty area just below your knee cap) is still very sore from the main incision, and attempting to flex that tendon and allowing my hamstring (the muscle along the back of your thigh) to tighten and flex is incredible hard still.  Well happily today, after 5 days of trying, I actually lifted my leg!!  Granted, I only lifted it about half an inch off the table, and my whole body was shaking from the effort, but I did it!  It was sort of funny having the other people there for their therapies cheering me on as they watched my progress.  When I finally managed to lift it and hold it up, I got a round of applause... it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life I have to say.  Those people know damned well how hard that was for me... so it was very cool getting that kind of support from them :)

I've also been working very hard at being able to flatten my leg to the table.  As you can see in the image to the right, this again looks pretty easy.  Remember, though, that the new tendon I have (thanks Hamstring, you're a pal) is like a brand new rubber band.  It's very inflexible and very tight.  So what ends up happening is it pulls my leg up into an arch and I have to work to stretch it enough that my leg will lay flat.  I also still have a lot of swelling, so that causes quite a bit of discomfort yet.  Well this week I've managed to flatten it from having what my PT measures 'two whole fingers' to 'just one finger!' (underneath my knee as I flatten it).  This is great progress, and I'm sure with working at it I'll have it comfortably stretched where it belongs in a few more weeks.

So that's about it so far!  I have my 6 week post-op appointment with the surgeon this coming Monday where I find out if I'm allowed to set fire to stop wearing the iron maiden zimmer splint, and I find out if the meniscus healed okay and the graft is doing well (via an xray I'm SUPER excited to see! pics to come I'm sure), and if I can start slowing bearing weight on my knee again.  After that the PT suspects I'll be on the crutches for another 4-6 weeks but just for support while I regain the use of my leg and learn to walk normally again.

After all is said and done, it will be a total of about 6 months of rebuilding all the muscle around my knee and in my leg before it's safe to use again for anything more than just walking.  But once I'm off the crutches I'll be able to exercise from home or from a gym (looks like a gym membership is in my future - anyone want to take the opportunity of me HAVING to go to whip into shape with me? hee hee)

Anyhoo, I'm sure I'll update after my post-op on Monday if not sooner.  CHEERS!

5 weeks post-op

Tomorrow marks 5 weeks since the surgery.  Last week I went back to work full time, and also started the 'hard work' at physiotherapy.  Physio has begun getting harder on me only because my PT has decided I'm ready to start trying to use my hamstring to lift my leg.  It's amazing how difficult it is trying to regain the use of my muscles, and how painful it is.

Aside from the spasms and the muscle pain, I'm happy that the bruising is all gone.  I still have a fair bit of swelling, but the incisions are almost completely healed over and I'm working on the scarring with some Bio-Oil.

I'm finally able to use the stairs somewhat normally, and I've figured out a way to reduce the impact on my shoulders while I use the crutches, so that pain is slowly dissipating as well.  Now if only I could figure out a way to stop my palms from bruising from the crutches...   I have a feeling that'll stick around until I'm off of them completely though.

I have to give a shout-out to a good friend of mine, Joscelyn and the constant-reader Alex for obliging to go out for dinner with Eric and I on Friday night, so that I could get out of the house and start acting like a normal person again (haha).  It was very nice to get out of the house, even if people look at you weird when you're on crutches (don't worry, concerned citizen, it's not Ebola).

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll update more soon!

3 Weeks Post-Op

Well I just arrived home after my second day back at work and my 4th physio appointment, just three weeks after surgery.  I'm pretty exhausted but that's to be expected.  I haven't fallen down the stairs, spilled coffee on myself, peed my pants, or lost a crutch while battling a printer.  Okay that last one might not be entirely true...

But in all seriousness, it's great to be back into the swing of things and to have a change of scenery.  Even if the change is pretty tiring since I can't have my much-loved 3pm nap and I have to navigate the stairs at home every day now instead of twice a week.  On that front though I'm happy to report that I've built up enough muscle strength in my arms, shoulders and back that I'm able to use one crutch and the handrail to get up the stairs relatively easy.  I'm pretty psyched with being able to use the stairs somewhat normally again :)

Physio was actually GREAT today!  This 'Little Warrior' is officially at 85 degree range of motion (just for some perspective - I'm where I'm supposed to be at 6 weeks at just 3!!), my muscle strength is greatly improved, I'm almost able to lay my leg flat (this has become my new goal now that my range of motion is greatly improved), and I'm doing more reps of the weights on the pulleys with my leg.

Next week I'll be able to increase the weight and I'm going to reach for 90 degrees and a flatter leg!

My swelling is down a lot, the bruising is almost all gone, and all but the main incision are completely healed over and the scarring is looking very healthy.  I'll have to get someone to pick me up some Bio-Oil so I can start working on the ones that are healed over.

I'll check back in soon :)

17 days post-op

Well here I am, 17 days after surgery and things are looking pretty good.  Tuesday was my first physiotherapy appointment with actual muscle strengthening exercises and some serious stretching (interpret that as gross gross gross).

Today will be my second appointment and I'm hoping tomorrow I don't hurt as much as I did yesterday.

Thankfully, at my last appointment I found out that in the 6 days between my assessment appointment and my first real physio appointment I doubled my flexibility from about a 35 degree range of motion to a little over 70 degrees.  Unfortunately though not all the news was good news; as a result of the swelling in my knee that remains, my quad is almost completely unusable.  It's a weird feeling trying as hard as you can to flex a muscle that simply does not work right now.

The swelling does go down further every day though, so I'm hoping that I remain on track and by the time I get to my 6 week post-op appointment with the surgeon I'll be cleared to bear weight on my leg again.  Here's how far it has come already (see left).  As you can tell, the bruising is almost completely gone, the incisions are healing very nicely, the swelling in my calf, ankle and foot have reduced considerably (a little still remains though).  There is still quite a bit of swelling around my knee, and the physiotherapist says that swelling won't completely disappear for about a year post-op.

All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how things are coming along, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to work on Monday.  I just hope I get used to the stairs and my bad shoulder cooperates eventually so it's not so tiring lol...

Speaking of which... I should really get someone to record just how I'm maneuvering up the three flights of stairs... to a soundtrack like Eye of the Tiger or something (hahaha).  It'd probably make for some pretty entertaining post-op YouTube content :)

Thanks for staying tuned... I'll update later today or tomorrow once I see how today's appointment goes.

Physiotherapy Round 1

Well, once again my trepidations were unfounded and yet another aspect of this recovery wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  I had my physiotherapy assessment today, and in general it looks like things are going pretty well.  My physiotherapist did some measurements and did some flexibility and strength tests to see where I'm at a week and a half out of surgery and from what she saw apparently I'm a 'warrior' haha. 

I have pretty significant swelling, so definitely lots more icing (and possibly some heating as well to get the blood moving better to reduce the swelling), but I haven't lost any muscle mass in my leg so that's AWESOME.  She said that's pretty rare but for how much muscle I have in my legs she wasn't that surprised. 

My flexibility is decent but she wants that improved so I have some exercises to improve that, as well as improving the muscle use in my quad.  She explained that if you don't work on flexibility right away, by the time the 4 week mark hits and your scar tissue starts developing, it gets a LOT harder to get to the point that is optimal for range of motion (in my case I have to reach 90 degrees by week 6).

She also told me some updates that the surgeon and his nurses failed to tell me like I AM allowed to shower as long as it's safe, and I'm also allowed to get my suture tape wet because it'll come off when it's ready anyway.  I was super pumped that she showed me the proper way to adjust my zimmer splint too because the nurses completely failed to point that out after the surgery AND at the post-op (thanks for all the awesome patient care, hospital staff!).  She was kind enough to show me how to go up stairs with crutches too, so that was cool of her (despite making me hobble on my crutches pretty far to get to stairs to show me this lol).  Unfortunately, I was unable to actually do that with my bad shoulder on the same side as my injured knee so I still have to do the old 'butt scoot' up the stairs (haha).

I'm happy that I have some revised exercises (apparently the ones the hospital hands out are something close to 20 years old and the physiotherapists recommend NOT following those - how on par is that with the hospital service thus far lol).  My arms are getting a lot stronger so the crutches aren't nearly as bad as they were when I first came home.  Pretty happy with how well I'm recovering as well, all things considered.

So yes, here I am, less than two weeks out of surgery and feeling pretty good.  I still have another 4 weeks in the splint and on the crutches, but by doing the exercises and regaining my muscle and flexibility, soon I'll be walking on my own, going up and down stairs, driving, showering... oh man the things I took for granted before this surgery lol...