Tomorrow I enter my 40's.
Today my PT confirmed that I've entered my 30's, so to speak...I have 133° of flexion in my knee!
That gives me a great feeling of accomplishment, especially in light of being just over 3 weeks out of surgery. By comparison, I was at 126° at this point with my right knee.
My final ROM in the right knee settled in at about 138° of flexion, -10° extension, so hearing my left knee is "in the hood" is quite exciting.
My extension still needs work, as I'm not quite into negative (hyper extension) numbers, but that mostly comes with time. I plan on prone leg extensions to push that issue. You lay on a bed face down, dangle the leg out with your knee at the edge of the bed and allow gravity to gently stretch things out into a slight hyper extension.
Taking stairs going up has become quite easy, but I'm still a bit unstable bending the operative knee going down. I'm fine until the last inch or two before my other foot lands, so I need some more strength work in that part of my range. I expect massive improvement when I begin squats in the next week or two.
I'm hoping my nighttime leg cramps go away soon. Other than ibuprofen--which is eventually gonna wear a hole in my stomach if I'm not careful--the practical solution has been a combination of a hot water bottle applied to the thigh and a large pillow between the knees.
The pillow keeps stress off of my sprained MCL, which I'm still nursing while in rehab for the ACL. Padding between the knees gives Mrs. Shaft a better night's sleep; I can sleep on my side comfortably and avoid waking her with snoring!
The weather around here is hovering near zero degrees, with forecasts into the negative double-digits next week. Boy I sure hope it warms up a bit before I start running!!! I'm looking forward to Robert Frost moments.
Happy Thursday, everyone!
Today is the Day
2 years ago
4 comments:
Best Wishes on your 40th BD!!
I'm a 47 y.o. greenbelt 8 weeks (today) postop ACL allograft reconstruction. I'm in the process of feeling my way though a slow cautions return to the dojo floor and am glad to have found these blogs to help guide and encourage me :-))
Greenbelt,
Welcome to our community of martial artists with ACL stories to share.
I was a green belt when I tore my first ACL in 2007, and it was frustrating to be off the floor longer than I'd been on it!
I was technically supposed to start the cutting drills and whatnot in December, but I lost my health insurance due to union stipulations way back when, so I couldn't go to my physical therapist or doctor. That's why I won't be starting anything complicated until February . . .
Congrats on the improved ROM! Every little bit counts and you're making such quick improvements!
Hack,
Belated welcome to your 40s! you'll never catch up with me, though....
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