I have completed one year of NEW rehab under the guidance of my DPT at a sports and exercise medicine research center!!! Would you believe that we have never met in person? That is right, we are doing this remotely. She's even on a different continent. This is pretty amazing. I remember thinking why she is only giving me 3 rehab moves total? If I don't see improvements, I will thank her for her time and go back to my little 6 week old leg lifts. Six weeks PLUS the rigid knee taping was enough time to notice some changes (keep that in mind when trying something new, try it for 6 weeks first!). Now I'm up to 8 moves. Not all of them have been performed for a full year however, but all of them have been in my routine for the last 6 months. Look closely for the faint quad outline on the outer thigh. I took an old photo then made today's photo transparent on top of it trying to line up the inside of the knee. That is actually muscle growth over one year! Leg on the left is operative leg (my right leg). While the photo may look like decent gains (relatively speaking), I also have a video of clenching my thigh muscles and releasing. While my left side barely budges when I clench my quad, my right side has a very dramatic lift up, caving in, and then jiggling release. Like it's not even attached to my bone. It's as if my thigh were a floppy piece of raw chicken breast (my sister's words). Not sure I'm brave enough to upload it here.
This one year rehab anniversary is both pretty exciting and extremely depressing at the same time. As in, I can be proud of my hard work one second and then crying in the shower the restroom the next second. I think it's the idea that all of this hard work for an entire year and that's all I have to show for it? OMG there is so much work left. How long is this going to take!? When will my knee stop hurting??? So much adapting still left to go! I found out the hard way that the knee is not close to being adapted to the elliptical. I have an elliptical at work so maybe I'll sneak in 2 minutes a day to get things adapting. I went for it and did 30 minutes (SLOWLY) and that was obviously too much. I didn't think it would be that different than walking or biking honestly. TFCC tear. The first 3 weeks of using the wrist brace, I don't think I had it on tight enough. Plus I'd take it off to wash dishes, cook or play mandolin. I've had a few painful twangs in the wrist that made me call the doc's office to ask if I'm theoretically resetting the 4 week clock every time it tweaks. Turns out yes. Ugh. OK start over. I have tightened up the brace and will only take it off for showering and changing my shirt. Plus papers I've read say 6 weeks, so I'll tack on two extra weeks making a total of 9 weeks in all. I really want to give it its best chance of healing - that is if it's the right kind of tear. About a 57% chance that it's the right kind of tear that can heal on its own (according to one paper). So check back early February to see how it went. I think I will know right away if I need surgery. I am pretty sad to have to put the mandolin down. I feel lost in the evenings. It was my perfect coping mechanism for winter and pain.
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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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