For Thanksgiving week, we took off for the Utah desert - kind of our last sunny warm weather hurrah before winter settles in. This is our 3rd Thanksgiving going to the desert and we just love it. Always new things to see despite returning to the same area. Plus my abilities vary year to year! I think about our trip last year and where I was physically. I was 9 months post op and JUST did my first outside bike ride. Last year at this time, I had zero medical direction from my surgical team/PT. They were at a loss what to do for my major anterior knee pain, admitted they had never seen this (but kept calling it tendonitis), and rehab (at home on my own) was not very meaningful due to the pain. I really felt like they gave up on me and just wanted me out of their offices. Just a lot of uncertainties. I was very limited. This was such a sad hopeless time. This year - which is over 10 months into my new and improved rehab - it was a much different story! On this trip, I did two long mountain bike rides and several hikes. Most notably was the scrambling on slickrock and hiking in steep sand! I could have never done this last year or even 6 months ago. The steep hikes did leave me pretty sore for the next few days, but no flare up. My limitation this year was more from my major head cold which made physical activity kind of exhausting and head poundy, but I was determined to soak up the sunshine and rest when I wasn't moving. I would have liked to have biked more, but I'll take what I got. Now that we are home, my head cold is still affecting things (maybe I made it worse on vacation? Still need to lie down everyday, this is week 2) and all I can think about is how many weeks I have not been back to my rehab weights! Approaching 3 weeks of no weights! However, winter is upon us, snow is on the ground as I type this, and that means the vacations have slowed down. I will be able to get some consistent rehab days in with fewer interruptions once i feel better. I do love my vacations and they are usually active vacations, so maybe it all works out just fine.
Which brings me to winter. It's here. Friends are already skiing. What am I going to do with myself this winter? It's a little sad to see snow yet again, I will admit.
Definitely no downhill or backcountry skiing this year! I know I am not strong enough, I would not be able to pass any return to sport criteria right now. Heck I even haven't started jumping yet! I know what the re-tear stats are. Here are some that come to mind from Mick Hughes PT Facebook page.
Which brings me to the question of "which sports" are we talking about? Obviously I am mountain biking and doing some hiking. But since I am not able to perform RTS (return to sport) tests yet, which sports should I avoid exactly? Probably the cutting and pivoting ones, but what does ice skating and cross country skiing fall under? What if you need to plow to stop but on cross country skis? Is that too much knee pivoting? I'm going to guess yes. Waiting for PT to email back so I have a better idea. I bet I can manage slow dragging of skinny skis in a flat empty field with no issues.
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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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