It has been a while since my last update but school has really been a pain especially with mobility issues.
But as of today I am 2 days short of 4 weeks since my surgery. One week ago I went to see my doctor for a check up and asked him a bunch of questions. Initially he stated that I should be on crutches for 6 weeks but when I asked him if I could get on a more aggressive rehab plan he said it was just a suggestion and in the end it is up to me. So 2 days ago I finally ditched the crutches. I am walking quite a bit slower than with the crutch, but it feels good to be able to use both hands in carrying things when I walk around.
What I find tough is walking down the stairs. Up is still fine, but if I walk down the stairs leading with my good leg, it becomes impossible. Too much pressure on my new ACL I guess.
I stopped going to PT twice a week because I am on a limited number of visits from my insurance. I now go in once a week and the last one was really good. It was a PT that I haven't seen before and he did a really good job in helping me get my ROM and giving me exercises. With the doctor's 6 week partial weight bearing orders off, I was finally started on the bike. It was a really good warm up to get my flexion up. Last friday I was up to 130 degrees flexion! My other leg gets around 140 so it's pretty close now. One thing I worry about is the stiffness, it takes a lot of warm up and stretching to get to 130, and I hope that it will come more easily and naturally soon.
I still get a sharp pain near my kneecap when I do quad sets (flexing my right quad and holding it). Doctor and PT simply wave it off and say I just had surgery it's normal.
Goals for this week..getting my knee to stop buckling while walking normally, work on stiffness in the knee, get the knots out of my calf, work on quad strength.
Don't have that much more expectation for my ROM because the last 10 degrees will probably come over the span of a few weeks so there's nothing much to measure there anymore.
Overall, starting to live the normal life again, hopefully I will walk unnoticably different from anyone else within the next 2 weeks.
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For me, going up stairs was always easy but going downstairs definitely was a lot tougher. I think it was 2+ months before I really felt good going downstairs.
ReplyDeleteMy physio described it as follows:
There's muscles that work when the tendon shortens (ie, your quads when you straighten your leg) and those same muscles work differently when your tendon lengthens (when you bend your knee with the quads flexed, ie squats.). Those latter ones take longer to come back.
The bike is a perfect workout, as it's very very low stress on your knee / new acl. Get on it as much as you can!
Sounds like you're doing good though! keep it up!
Cheers,
Thanks a lot man
ReplyDeletethe pain is a lot better with more exercise and massaging. the bikes been pretty good as far as stretching goes.