6 week review

This week has been another solid week of recovery. My knee is getting closer and closer to being as straight as my good knee and my flexion is finally coming back. As you can see in the picture below I am definitely past 90 degrees. I really think that I can reach my goal of biking by the end of the school year. Also, I mowed over 3 days this weekend and my knee did fine with all the walking over a somewhat unstable surface (grass). It definitely was good to do something that I've done in the past so it feels like I'm returning to a sense of normalcy in my life. Other than that, there's really nothing to report about this week.

5 week review

This has been a pretty good week in terms of making progress. My bad knee is so close to being as straight as my good knee. If I put a weighted towel over my heel and lay it off the edge of a table for 15 minutes, I can put both my legs flat on the floor. The only difference is that I can flex my good knee when it's flat on the floor, but I can only get a pathetic little flex out of my bad knee. And my walking is essentially normal now. Tonight for the first time I could walk and swing my bad knee to straight like how normal people walk. I had a mini celebration in my head. Also, I'm working on getting more flexion in my knee, which is coming slowly but surely. I hope to be able to bike by the time I get out of school, so May 19. Now I just want the swelling to go away because it looks ugly. It's tough to make myself do my entire circuit of rehab exercises 4 times a day, but I keep reminding myself that I need to do them in order to be normal again. It helps to read successful acl recovery stories because they all say the same thing: work your butt off in rehab. So that's what I plan to keep on doing.

So I feel like this was a big week for me, as I'm making enough progress to keep me satisfied. For now. I really can't wait until I can bike. I'm for sure doing a post on that day, just to release all of my happiness. Then I'll promptly go for a nice, long ride.

end of 1st month

Let's gooooooooo. This week has been interesting, but in a good ish way. I'll get to that eventually. Anyway, on Monday I was walking to the DC (my dining area) and slipped in the mud and bent my knee past what it usually bends. This was probably the second worst pain of my life, behind when I actually tore my acl. My leg was twitching slightly and I couldn't move my knee at all. Immediately I was worried that I tore my graft or did some other kind of damage, but I didn't twist it in any way, just bent it back. It was really sore in the back of my knee the rest of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I lost a lot of range of motion, and the knee felt weak when standing on it. I asked one of my teachers, who is the head athletic trainer, and my therapist today if they thought I did any real damage and they said they don't think so as the graft is really strong the first few weeks after surgery, then it weakens. So, to sum this story up, I was really worried, but I don't think I hurt anything. I've been working on getting my extension back that I lost from the fall and it's already back to "normal," or where it was pre fall. And now for some very good news: that sharp pain that was in the back of my knee when trying to work on flexion is now gone. Because of the fall? I guess so. But whatever, I'm just glad that it's gone and now I can work on getting my flexion back. Now there's still pain, but it feels just like it did before surgery, like it's stretching the joint in a good way and I can make progress. And some more good news: I was curious as to how much flexion I had after doing some of my rehab exercises, and I'm past 90 degrees with only mild pain. Seeing as how getting to 90 degrees was extremely painful the last time I tried to bend my knee, I'm pretty happy. So even though it was horribly painful, I guess the whole thing turned out for good in the long run. Hopefully now I can work on my extension and flexion now with no difficulties and make some progress.

I look back at where I was exactly one month ago from today, and I've made tons of progress. Back then I nearly passed out going 5 feet to the bathroom and now I can walk around and do light rehab and have my normal life somewhat back. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm gonna work hard and get back to normal and hopefully be playing sports again (not all out) by the end of summer. Anyway, thanks for following my progress! Check back again on Sunday when I'll post with all the progress I've made.

4 week review

Another week down of recovering from acl recovery. I'm seeing improvement in a lot of areas, except for flexion. I saw my doctor on Tuesday and he said my knee looks really good because it is very close to straight. I told him my worries about the pain when I bend it, but he said not to worry about it because flexion will come back much easier than extension. So he gave me an exercise to do where I lay on a bed or table and lay my feet over the edge and put a weighted towel on my heel to force my knee to bend. It works really well because when I do that for 10 minutes, my bad knee is as straight as my good knee. And I got pictures of some x-rays of my knee. You can see the staples in my bone. Anyway, here's a list of the good and bad, like I did last week.

Good:
- No more trouble with sleeping at all. That is back to normal, thank goodness
- Done with all pain pills since I don't have any pain ever
- Scar is looking pretty sweet
- Hair is growing back from where the nurse shaved for surgery
- Extension is coming back and is almost back to normal
- I can walk around with no pain and I can walk almost normal
- Going up stairs isn't a problem at all, going down is another story

Bad:
- Hard to go down stairs, still have to take it one step at a time
- Still a significant amount of swelling
- I lost so much muscle and my leg is very noticeably smaller than my good leg
- Still have that sharp pain in the back of my knee when trying flexion
- Can't bike yet, which I should be able to do by now, but can't because I don't have great ROM
- I get fidgety when sitting for long periods of time

I think my progress is going slower than most people's, which is really frustrating because I want to get better so badly and it's really tough being patient. And I don't feel like myself when I can't exercise at all. When the doctor tells me it's ok to bike again, I'm gonna be so happy to have one form of exercise back.

That's all for this post. I'm gonna do one on Thursday, the 14th, for my official one month post surgery blog post, so you should probably read it.

3 week review

After three weeks, I feel like I'm miles from where I was on March 14. Here's a list of all the things that are noteworthy:
- no pain, thus no pain pills all week
- ugly yellow bruising is all gone
- can walk around just fine with zero pain and can stand for long periods of time without the knee swelling or starting to hurt, which makes showering much easier
- can stand on just one leg on my bad knee for minutes without falling over or it hurting
- the swelling is down, as you'll see in the pictures below
- because swelling is down, you can start to see some definition around my knee cap and quad
- took the white bandage off, so the wound is open but it is almost fully healed
- almost have all of my extension back, only a few degrees away after warming it up for a couple minutes

Even though there is a lot of good, there is still some bad:
- flexion is not coming back very easily, and I am still having that same sharp pain in the back of my knee when bending it
- knee is really stiff in the morning
- having trouble falling asleep at night
- still some swelling
- I lost a lot of muscle mass and tone, so I have a lot to gain back
- overall, having acl surgery = big hassle in everyday life

So I think I'm coming along nicely, but I want progress to go faster, which I know is something that can't be rushed. It's going to be tough to be patient, that's for sure. I go to the doctor on Tuesday for my second post op visit. He wants it straight by then, so I'm really hoping it is as straight as my good knee by then.

I think that's about it for this week's review. Check back next Sunday!

P.S. - go Butler

Pictures





Right after I took off the white bandage