Week 4 - One Month!

One month down...5 more to go..! Well, really more like 11 to go, but I'll start that countdown after 6 months on September 14th 😋

There's seems to be a pattern- A couple days of low, followed by a couple days of high per week. I gave my knee a pretty good workout on Tuesday (day 21), and overall it did really well. It was a combination of the stairmaster, bike, elliptical, modified squats/lunges, ROM (135 degrees) and stretching/foam rolling. It didn't feel sore, but did let me know to take it easy the next few days by being really tight and stiff feeling afterwards. It felt as if someone had taken my tibia and femur and pulled them in opposite directions to make all of the tendons tight in my knee, then left it for a few days. Add it to the list of things-never-felt-before! I continued to work on ROM and easy quad exercises and it loosened back up just fine by Friday (day 24).

To add to the things-never-felt-before list, my swelling went down even more (yay!) throughout the weekend (day 24-26), however I think because of this I was able to feel things and use muscles/tendons that I had previously been protected by the swelling. My PT assured the popping and new feelings were all ok. I will though, be happy to squat again without feeling my kneecap popping..!

Can kind of make out my knee cap..!

For a visual of the popping in my knee, just what you wanted to see right? :P 

Week 4 milestones:

- Able to walk downstairs no handrails (day 26). Quad control/muscle is definitely coming back..!

- Walking normally with no limp

-Reached 140 degrees in flexion (day 27)

-New Exercises: wobble board and bosu ball for balancing.

With 150 degrees being my max flexion, I'm very happy with 140..!

This injury has definitely 'messed' with me mentally (as I would imagine any major surgery like so would do). For example, I tend to have alot of light dreams right before I wake up, and I remember in one, I was in a situation where I needed to run for some reason, and I said aloud to the other people running 'Sorry guys I can't keep up because I can not run!!' 🙈  Another habit that I've formed is picking up my leg for any lateral turn. I would imagine sometimes I look like a solider when I make any sharp turns because I just (out of mentally telling myself no lateral movements) pick up my leg kind of high and pivot on my right foot as if I'm marching 😅  Oh and I'll also occasionally just be walking along when a step with my left foot goes a little higher than normal, but then I continue on walking normal. Always catches me off guard! My brain and left knee evidently still need to work on their communication with each other 😛

Wall squats with an exercise ball

This is my active ROM (how much you are able to bend by yourself without help from a towel or wall to bend it for you.) Bent my right to compare!

Still a bump/swelling next to my lower incision

Overall I've surprised myself with how well I am doing, but as I keep telling myself, this isn't the hard part yet..!