My 3 year ACL surgery ankneeversary was on Valentine's Day. As per tradition, I always take my knee out for a good time. This winter, due to the foot, winter fun has been VERY limited. I was wondering what kind of activity could I do to honor my ankneeversary. I was secretly hoping I could cross country ski for this ankneeverary "knee date" (back in November I was cleared to try it, but that is when the foot issue culminated). In the end, I chose to go on a fat bike ride! Now I have not biked outside in 11 months since starting my WristWidget recovery protocol for a TFCC tear. I am not actually approved to bike outside, but I chose it because I thought it would have the least amount of consequences. I sit on a stationary bike for an hour, so maybe this wouldn't jack up my arm and wrist too bad? Turns out it was pretty lovely, definitely needed a really good shoulder/arm stretch session after. The arm aftermath wasn't too bad. The sun was shining that Friday morning, there was no one at the trailhead when I arrived. The snow was pretty firm (great for riding), but yet the air temps felt pretty comfortable for a ride, might I say perfect for a fat bike ride? I took myself out to lunch and then got a chocolate, Valentine's themed acai bowl afterwards. Nice little ankneeversary date! Poor husband was not able to join me. He is dealing with pneumonia right now. Check out what I did for Year 1 and Year 2 ankneeversaries. The day before I had Skyped with my PT in Australia. It had been 3 months since our last Skype. The plan we laid out in the November Skype did not happen at all due to the foot issue becoming the limiting factor. He did not agree with the podiatrist's opinion on waiting until my foot is 0/10 pain before adding in any calf raises. The concerns are I already have a pretty deconditioned leg due to the moonboot, it already had about 7 weeks of "rest" while in the boot, and that didn't eliminate the pain, and waiting to be pain free could take weeks or months! This just makes daily function become even more challenging and the atrophy process get worse!
Instead, much like my tendon expert PT would say, we need to add load to the tendon despite my 2-4 pain level (which is an acceptable level of pain). We are not going to rupture the tendon with these moves. The key point here is that despite poking into pain a little bit, we are in no way doing any tissue damage. Now I have a 4 month tendon loading plan. These are to be done 3-4 times a week. On top of that 2x heavy lifting sessions, and 4-5x week of cardio (biking, walking, swimming, elliptical are all OK).
Hard to believe I used to single leg calf raise 1.2x my body weight. All this before any running is attempted. Yes, this is a bit of a bummer and a setback. However, I feel this is the right action plan. Also no snowshoeing, xc skiing, snow walking - need to stick to pretty flat hard surfaces or else that tendon will be irritated in this stage. This tendon issue has been around for many months and I want to build it up right. I don't envision running again until mid-June. I am shaking my head in disbelief that my very first run was late May 2019, and then my next run may be June 2020. In that entire year process I have never made it past 2 minutes of running! (2 min run/2 min walk, repeat for 32 minutes to be exact). My last consistent week of running was October 21 (3 weeks after the costochondritis episode.) Good lord! How am I going to get anywhere at this rate!?!? *Phew Big Breath* It won't be like this forever, I have to not ruminate on stuff. I have to catch myself and stop it when I dwell on this too long. What I do know is that I do have a new capacity to do things that I once could not before, however I may go a bit overboard and my body may not be resilient enough to bounce back from these random big events. While I am encouraged to do normal things and live like a normal non-rehabbing person, I also need to know when to stop an activity early. It's the DOSAGE of normal fun that I am not getting quite right, which leads to these other issues. Still need to get rehab more consistent to build up my resiliency.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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
|