As I mentioned in my last blog post, I am firmly in what I consider Phase 2, the actual recovery phase of my Knee Surgery Recovery, and let me tell you, it is amazing. Okay, to be fully and 100% honest, I still have some bad days, but they are not as bad and it is more like bad moments than whole bad days. It’s funny how quickly my brain can flip back and forth from “I am kicking lots of ass, recovering like a champion” to “This is taking forever, what if I’m never right again.” Trying to look at the big picture though. 

But I digress. Originally, my othro doctor said that he anticipated that it would be 12 weeks before I could run again. Well, today is officially 6 weeks from my surgery, which means I SHOULD be halfway there. And I’ve not gotten any indication of the timeline changing so, fingers crossed that I am actually Halfway There! 

So where do I stand at the Halfway Point? I’m getting there. I started PT on July 13th and have had 3 sessions with my 4th scheduled today. I am going to IVY Rehab in Rock Hill, SC and really like the place. The 2 doctors that I have seen are both really nice and funny which makes for fun sessions. They operate in a big room and bounce back and forth between a handful of patients and during sessions we all get kinda talking about stuff (Covid disclaimer, all staff and patients are wearing masks and everything touched is sanitized constantly). Inevitably the group conversation at some point turns to ice cream. I’ve been 3 times so far, and all 3 times we’ve had extended ice cream talks during my hour and a half long sessions. 

Here’s the basic run down of what I do during PT. 

My first session, I was still using a single crutch. After filling out all of the obligatory paperwork, Dr. Bob did a complete evaluation of my knee and mobility. I had lost a TON of range of motion. I was missing about 5 degrees on my straight extension and I could only bend to 85 degrees. I had also lost a lot of muscle composition in my quad and calf muscles due to being locked in the brace and non-weight bearing. We talked about my goals for that week -Getting off crutches and regaining full straight extension, and he gave me several exercises that I would do at home on my own, and took me through each one. 7 in total. 3 were range of motion based (front, side and rear), 1 was quad focused, 1 hamstring, 1 calf, and one extension focused. That last one is my favorite. Seriously, you just lay there with your legs dangling off the table. Or as I call it, the nap time exercise. 

BEST EXERCISE EVER!

The first session finished up with Dr. Bob stretching my leg for me in a variety of painful ways. Then he busted out the HyperVolt. Y’all that thing HURTS but in a good way (eventually). See for that first visit, honestly my calf was hurting more than my knee since I had just started walking again 3 days previous and it was NOT used to being used. I managed to make it through the HyperVolt extension without crying on the outside, but it was close. I swear every time I flinched, he’d do it harder there. I think he was actually trying to make me cry, but I did not give him the satisfaction.

So a cool thing that they have at IVY is that use an app to assign your at-home PT work. It is really cool actually. It is called MediBridge Go and when you are set up, your exercises are on it and you can follow along with videos for reference and timing cues. 

The next session, was 2 days later. I was still on a single crutch, but I left it in the car and hobbled into the session. They started me out on a stationary bike. I was told that I probably wouldn’t be able to peddle all the way around but to go until I couldn’t any longer and then go the opposite direction until I couldn’t and repeat. And sure enough, I couldn’t do a full rotation, Whenever I got close to the limit of my rotation, it was really kinda scary as I feared that I’d get to a point where I couldn’t stop and I’d go all the way around anyway. The doctor said that is how most people do their first full rotation. I was pretty conservative because of that. The rest of the session was similar to the first with me doing the exercises same as last time, but he added in a few more – calf raises and squats. They also pulled out the TENS Unit to electrocute my quad for 10 minutes, another hurts so good portion of PT. 

My last walk with the crutch, and I even
just carried it some!

The HyperVolt session was less painful due to the fact that my muscles were already starting to strengthen due to use and also going on several walks. I was basically given free reign to walk as much as I wanted, so I have been. My first week of mobility I put in 8.5 walking miles. I plan to increase this every week. I’m not graceful by any stretch of the imagination, and I am slow, and also it HURTS like mad, but I am still getting out there an putting in the miles. I know it will help me get to a place where I can start running again quicker if I keep it up. And I did talk to the doctor about the knowing the difference between pain that just sucks and that I can just push through and pain that is doing actual damage to my recovery. Basically he said also long as I am not trying to run (😢) or jump, or if I don’t suffer a fall, I won’t cause any damage to my “new” knee. My biggest fear is that I will go through all of this and not be any better in the end. Dr. Bob, however feels that when all is said and done, my knee will feel so good that I’ll want to get the other one done too. I am not convinced of this. By session’s end, I had picked up some degrees in my straight extension (still not fully straight) and could bend to 90 degrees. Progress. After my session, I left my crutch in the car, and I’ve never used it again! 

Week 2 PT started on Tuesday where basically, it was more of the same. BUT, this time, I could do a full rotation on the stationary bike!! Much like walking, not graceful, fast or pain-free, but I still did it! I had more stretching added to my session and a few more exercises, mainly focusing on regaining quad strength to help patella tracking (this was a pre-surgery issue for me even). A few more exercises were added to my at-home assignments (mostly standing exercises). No TENS session, but more HyperVolt that was even less painful again. And for the big news – I had picked up another 20 HUGE Degrees of range. I could bend to 110 Degrees! Yay!! My goal had been to pick up 10 degrees this week and I blew that WAY out of the water!

I go for #4 later today. My insurance will pay for 15 sessions (Hard Max) and so far I think I am making pretty decent progress. Really hoping that I will get to try out the elliptical soon. So here’s hoping that I am actually Halfway There, because I’ve got me some big goals to crush this Fall!

Just gonna just keep on walking until I can run!