Nymeria soaks in the bacta tank - (ACL reconstruction and rehab log)

[Nymeria]

Post surgery Day 8:

Met with the doctor, and he thought my knee looked great. He was impressed that I had enough quad control to lift my leg and walk without crutches. Even though I was worried about my flexion, he thought that was great, too.

I'm expected to continue using my leg brace for another 3 weeks to protect my healing MCL, but I can keep it on locked to go from full extension through 90 degrees flexion.

I'm going to have to re-learn the walking, since it is a bit harder with the brace unlocked. My first PT appointment is next Wed, so I'm going to stick with the same exercises and working on my walking for the next 5 days.

Kids are fine, mostly since my parents have been visiting for the last week and a half. It'll be a bit tougher after they leave, but I'll hopefully be more physically capable of taking care of them.

[KB Girl]

How much longer will your parents be staying for?

It's great that the doc thinks it's going well, that's very promising.

[obax]

Great to hear things are going well so far, and especially great that you're impressing your doc with the progress!

[Nymeria]

Day 9:

I finally was able to take a shower this morning. It was divine.

I can still walk without crutches when the brace is unlocked, but it's much more tiring. My knee has been more sore the last day, but that's because everything is so weak. I'm sure that after a few days with the brace unlocked, I'll regain quite a bit of strength.

I'm still not sleeping very well. Hopefully that will improve as my knee regains strength and becomes less swollen.

[cobaltsword]

soo happy to hear your knee is recuparating so well  ^^ you'll be up and running with us in no time

[Nymeria]

...just to add to the woots for today:

I "officially" reached 90 degrees flexion. My hinged brace only allows 0-90 degrees, and I reached the stopper.

And, I just walked a full lap around my main floor (maybe 80 feet distance) with no crutches.

[cobaltsword]

...just to add to the woots for today:

I "officially" reached 90 degrees flexion. My hinged brace only allows 0-90 degrees, and I reached the stopper.

And, I just walked a full lap around my main floor (maybe 80 feet distance) with no crutches.

 

woooooo

[KB Girl]

Woot  

 

The divine shower made me laugh. If only there was a way to capture that feeling and have it everytime during more mundane and regular showers eh?

[Nymeria]

@KBG. Yeah, there's nothing like the sensation of showering when you're truly filthy and nasty. But, I'll happily trade my divine showers for the ability to take daily showers.

Day 10 update: I'm more routinely and easily reaching the 90 degrees of flexion. I'm not sure if I should try to push it more, but I'll find out when I have my first PT visit.

I managed to walk without crutches all day yesterday. I'm still not walking a whole lot, but each day I'm walking more. By the end of the day, my leg and knee feel really weak and sore.

The plan for today (day 11) is to continue walking more and doing some PT exercises. At least if I can stand long enough to prepare my lunch or wash my hair, I'll feel much less like an invalid.

[Nymeria]

More success with walking. It's slow and I'm limping a lot, but I am managing to get around. I even managed to cook my own lunch and get my own ice packs today.

I also, just out of curiosity, set my brace lock at 100 degrees, and I can reach that, too. I'm hesitant to crank any further with the flexion before starting PT and getting the green light there. I'm becoming more and more optimistic that the ROM work won't be as frustrating and torturous as I had expected.

I'm really pleased that I'm seeing progress, but it all is maddeningly slow.

[Aeryn]

Hooray for progress, and your doc being pleased with your recovery so far! Nice!

[KB Girl]

Prepping your own lunch seems like a great milestone for day 11

[Elastigirl]

I'm sure it feel like slow progress to you, but it seems like things are progressing very well

[Nymeria]

Day 12: later this afternoon, my parents are leaving after helping me so much over the last 2 weeks. Today, my goal has been to fully take care of myself without their help. So, I've grabbed my own meals, drinks, ice packs, tv remotes, etc. without asking anyone else to fetch anything for me. I'm still spending the bulk of the day sitting, but I feel like I'm gradually transitioning toward more independence. Everything is very slow and weak, but otherwise, I'm still making progress.

I also was able to walk up and down the stairs, taking them one at a time while heavily using the handrail. I might be able to fully retire the crutches soon.

PT tomorrow. I'm eager to learn some new exercises, especially since one of the things holding me back with walking is that my knee tends to bend too much when I'm weight bearing.

[MasterOfCows]

It looks like you're making fantastic progress regardless of how slow and frustrating it must seem to you.  Thanks for this walkthrough of your recovery as well.

[Nymeria]

It looks like you're making fantastic progress regardless of how slow and frustrating it must seem to you. Thanks for this walkthrough of your recovery as well.

I hope my daily log ends up being really helpful for you when you eventually have your knee reconstruction. I'm so mad on your behalf that they're making you wait so long to get your knees fixed. It must be incredibly frustrating.

[MasterOfCows]

I'm almost at the point where if it's going to be so long, I might as well do the things I'm not doing now.  What is the worst that could possibly happen?  I'm already going to have knee surgery…  I know that's a bad attitude.

I did phone the surgeon's office today and left a message, so hopefully that brings some news about a time frame.

[Nymeria]

Day 13- I had my first day of PT. my extension and flexion were measured cold (without warming up or loosening up the joint at all). I'm at 3 degrees shy of full extension and 98 degrees of flexion. I was a little disappointed in the lack of full extension, and I know I would have measured better with a warmup. The PT seemed pleased with where I was, so I'm not going to stress out.

The PT was also pleased with my quad control for the straight leg lifts and the walking. I've been crutch free for several days now, so I think I'm officially done with them.

I also have new exercises, which is great, since the old ones weren't really helping much anymore.

[BigWill722]

Great to hear that you can rid of those crutches 

[Nymeria]

Day 14- yay. Two weeks post-surgery!

After PT yesterday, my quads were really sore and crampy. I slept very poorly yet again. For the last 6-ish weeks, I've basically slept 3 hours, woke up with a stiff and/or painful knee, and then massaged it or tossed and turned for another 2 hrs, slept another 2-ish hours, and then failed to sleep after that. I miss sleep so much!

At least I only have to wear the leg brace another 2 weeks, so the end is in sight. I'll probably still wake up with some pain or stiffness, but that should improve as I heal.

I'm back to basically the pre surgical protocols for the time being, so it's a lot of mildly painful ROM stretches and some straight leg lifts. Plus, I'm permitted (encouraged?) to walk as much as I want around the house. I should be cleared to pedal a stationary bike with the bike set at zero tension soon.

I actually want to do so much more, because I feel like the PT isn't that much yet (maybe 40 mins per day), but the therapist was clear that I should follow the program precisely, and that doing more could easily be detrimental to healing. I'm sure I'll elaborate on that in a future post sometime. I really wish working harder=improved results. I'd be totally willing to bust my ass in the gym 3+ hrs each day if that would help me heal faster.

[lyranedara]

I know your current routine may not feel like you are doing much, but you really seem to be healing quite well. If only you could sleep an extra 3+ hours a day.

[KB Girl]

I get that sentiment.. Just reinforces more isnt always better.

Actually now that I think about it- dealing with all this and the emotions that come with it would be hard enough with full night of sleep. You're doing really awesome all considered!!

[Nymeria]

Re: more isn't better-

I'm sure someone like Yuen could explain this much better, but I'll take a stab from my understanding of the whole process.

For ACL reconstruction, one of the factors is regaining muscle strength in all of the muscles that stabilize the knee, which would normally suggest that pushing things to strengthen those muscles would be a great thing. After all, the muscle strength is the thing that lets you feel more physically capable and ready to get back into normal activities.

But, there's also the healing of the graft itself to consider. For mine (hamstring autograft), the graft is attached by drilling holes in the bones, and then attaching the tendon with screws. So, it takes some time for the tendon to affix itself to the bone. Too much stress before the area is fully attached and healed could lead to detachment, which in turn leads to another surgery.

Also, the tendon is weak until your body regrows a network of blood vessels in the tendon. This takes about 12 weeks. Too much stress before then could lead to tearing or over stretching the new ACL.

So, the PT is largely a balancing act between letting you maximize your muscle gain while still protecting the graft from too much stress. I think the 12 week point is when I'll be cleared to return to a lot more activities.

[Nymeria]

15 day update:

PT went well this morning. My extension is 1 degree shy of full, and flexion is at 110. This time, I was measured after my joint was warmed up.

I also was cleared to ride on the exercise bike at no resistance for 10 minutes. It actually felt really good to cycle my knee like that. I'm additionally cleared to do upper body stuff at the gym, providing that I do nothing at all with my legs (not even walking while carrying DBs or weight plates). So, for the time being, I'm going to stick with sitting/ lying upper body machines. Being able to hit the gym tomorrow will be great!

[obax]

That's great news re: the gym! I can see how frustrating it is for you not to be able to push with the PT exercises, now you can channel all that into upper body stuff.

 

Are you able to do any upper body work like pull-ups and such, from a bar or your climbing holds? Or is there too much danger of coming down too hard on your leg if you lose your grip?