Old doc, new tricks

Thursday's visit with Dr. K went as expected. No surprises, and I'm cleared to begin running. Granted, in the chilly state I live in it's not been above freezing the entire month of January, and mornings are still dipping into the negative numbers even today. Combine that with a nasty cold I've been dealing with over a week, and I'm just not ready to head out for an early morning jog! I do promise to post some pictures when I do, however, since the mornings are so beautiful this time of year.

Having been through all this before, I had some fun with Dr. K and the medical student working with him. As I sat on the table with my legs dangling down, he asked "OK, which knee are we looking at today?" I told him to guess. "Well, they both look the same," he quipped.

I replied, "If you can't tell, then you must have done a pretty good job!" as I pointed to the left knee. Truth be told, they did look very similar in terms of minimized scarring. The only real give-away would be the slightly shorter patch of hair around the left knee and shin, still growing back from being shaved.

He demonstrated good surgical results to the student with a cursory Lachmann test and a pivot-shift test that months ago would have insulted the MCL sprain accompanying my torn ACL. We also chatted about the mechanics and root cause of injury to each knee, making for really rich conversation between surgeon, patient, and student.

At my 6-week appointment last year, I was asked if I had any more questions. "Sure," I said, "Am I going to be able to play drums??"
A puzzled Dr. K: "Well, I certainly don't see any reason you couldn't."
Me: "Great! 'Cause I can't play them at all!"
(insert rim shot: ba-dum bum)

This year: "Am I going to be able to pilot a plane?"
A year wiser Dr. K: "Could you do it before?"


See, you can teach an old Doc new tricks!

The 30's: Arriving and Leaving

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!