Today I honor my 1000th recovery day. I sure hope I'm not counting up to 2000 days! Seriously.
I have mentioned that I like to break up my recovery in 100 day increments. Here is my recovery summed up in 10 stages! Days 0-100: Surgery, painful, rehab going somewhat OK Days 100-200: Flare up city! Too much too soon. Major pain not settling, medical team sends me home to rest Days 200-300: Dark, depressing, medical teams admits they are at a loss what to do Days 300-400: Hope! New rehab plan involving heavy slow resistance training (aka lifting) begins thanks to tendon/anterior knee pain expert Days 400-500: Starting to gain some strength, I start to mountain bike again! Days 500-600: Rehab starting to feel stagnant, need to trust the process, still biking a lot Days 600-700: Biked the White Rim trail, highlight of 2018! Doing so much more also leads to more flare ups as a test out my new strengths, still weight lifting Days 700-800: Winter sports added - snowshoeing + fat biking, rehab continues, 1 year of lifting completed, 2 years post op, but also start wrist injury rehab, still weight lifting Days 800-900: Finally strong enough to skip, hop and begin an intro to running program! 2019 is year of the hiking. Most PROGRESS ever! Then broke 2 ribs (day 895). Days 900-1000: Major recovery phase - two fractures ribs, lung injury, costochondritis, plantar fasciits issues, wrist rehab and weight lifting quite affected - there is still some hiking Tomorrow we set off on an adventure to celebrate my 1000th recovery day. It will be a 3 day, 38 mile backpacking trip down a desert canyon. Starts in Utah, ends in Arizona, feet will be wet during the hike as you cross the river 100s of times. It will be chilly. I have trained all year to be able to do something like this. My body and knee are capable, but it will be a challenge. Husband will carry most of the weight. We have our non-refundable permit, friends are meeting us down there, and the shuttle is lined up (it's a point to point hike). I'm excited, but I am terribly nervous! I don't want to sound whiny, but I have a few issues that I am concerned about that I didn't have last month. First, I visited my darling nieces and nephews last weekend and I think they gave me a cold. I have a throbbing non-stop headache, the kind that feels like you are able to get sick. Taking Tylenol, zinc, vitamin C constantly right now. Fingers crossed it doesn't turn into anything worse! Second, my plantar fasciits flared up mid October (after that 7 day hiking trip) and has not settled yet! That's over 3 weeks ago. I'm stretching the foot/calf daily, doing calf raises, taking turmeric, stopped running and hiking. My worry is that it's going to get so bad on this trip that I will be stuck in the middle of nowhere unable to walk without excruciating pain. Yes, that is my worry. However, most of the time it's most painful in the morning and gets a little better after I start moving (at least it did that last month for me). I know I will be delaying my PF recovery by doing this trip, but I really feel the need to do this. Lastly, while visiting family last weekend, I played some games in the yard with the kids that involved fast sprinting and fast stopping (freeze!). I have not trained AT ALL for this, but I could do it with some discomfort. I did quite a bit of other stuff that I could never have done just one year ago on a similar visit home so I try to focus on being grateful for what I could do. But, I'm paying for it. Going on day 8 of very swollen and painful knee. I haven't done any rehab this week at all, even the stationary bike is not feeling good. Ironically, I can hike 15 miles, but make me sprint and stop fast and I have major aftermath. It's all in the training and what you have prepared the knee to do. It totally makes sense to me, but still kind of bummed that EVERY SINGLE MOVEMENT needs to be introduced slowly and trained for. Come back in a week to see if I survived my 1000th day trip! Meanwhile, I'm am trying my best not to be worried and trust it will be OK! So many times I was worried before a big hike, and I have always been able to finish an adventure I've started, I've never been stuck/trapped due to pain (even with broken ribs)! Working on calming the nerves and staying optimistic.
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AuthorA 45 year old active female who tore her ACL in January 2017 (at the age of 40). Reconstructive surgery in February 2017 with bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft. Archives
November 2022
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