I'm almost 6 weeks into my "whole body/less ACL thinking/less worrying" experiment. This was at the suggestion of my physician assistant (assistant to my surgeon) to try for 6 weeks to see if we can lessen my knee pain. Good News: I successfully tried things that I haven't done in months which put a smile on my face (mountain biking, longest walk to date, walking in the snow, yoga classes, joined a gym). I am not pain free when I do these things, but I did them and was sore, but I could walk the next day. I do think I'm gaining some quad strength. Currently in week 14 of my "do over" rehab after I had a long hiatus of prescribed full rest. Bad News: The knee pain is still the same. Did I not do the experiment long enough? Do I try harder? Add more techniques? What was it supposed to accomplish? Was being pain free really the goal? Is it even possible to manage this kind of pain with the mind? I'm just bursting with questions! Overall, I use daily mantras of, "I am healing, I will heal, this isn't forever, I will get better, I have healed in the past." When I first tried it, it felt fake, I didn't believe it. Maybe now it doesn't feel as fake at least. I did not cure myself from random bouts of worrying, but I am going to continue this anyway. I do practice the "STOP! thinking" when I do start to worry, so I can divert my thoughts immediately. At least this wasn't a daily issue! Then after 5 weeks I just felt like something was really wrong, unsettling. I had to research more. This was all being too passive for my liking. I emailed professionals for advice. I've continued my research. I don't care if they say I'm hyper-focused on the knee, you and only you are your best advocate. I am getting hardly any physical therapy guidance, and am always questioning if I'm doing the right things. Below are two photos from my Thanksgiving desert camping trip (camping trip #13 of the year!) where I discovered I can ride a bike outside! I did four rides, two of which were legit mountain biking trails. One left me pretty sore. However, it felt so good to have wind on my face, legs spinning that I was smiling the entire time! Photo below: I walked in the SNOW as well! Almost a 4 mile hike on a road I've walked before, but now it's covered in snow. Snow is where I had my injury so it was a rather significant walk to me personally. I wore spikes on my shoes to prevent slipping and used poles. It felt like a workout and took me over 1.5 hours to walk it. Afterwards I felt like I had run a 10k! Photos below: My wall sits are progressing - I swore this was a 90 degree angle, but discovered not quite after I took a photo! I started with just 6 inches a couple months ago. Leg press machine at Planet Fitness - I won a Planet Fitness membership for 3 months. Great timing with winter here and all. At day 90 post op, I was doing 100 lbs with operative leg only! Now at day 300+ I am at 55 lbs with two legs, and thinking I need to drop it a bit more since I'm pretty sore in the tendon the next day. Just shows you how much work I still have to do. On to the research... I listened to podcasts on chronic pain treatments (Dr. Joe Tatta is a great resource). I've also contacted him on tendinopathy/tendonitis pain after surgical trauma. One of Dr. Tatta's podcast was with a tendon expert from Australia. I've also contact her with the same question asking how does surgical trauma tendinopathy vary from sports tendinopathy - aka do the same rules for isometric exercises and this top 10 things of what NOT to do (from Dr. Jill Cook) apply to my situation? For example, she says not to stretch the tendon, where as my surgical team (who has never seen my case) told me to stretch the tendon out more if it feels so tight. WHAT DOES A PERSON DO?!?!?!
I also contacted a sports psychologist after listening to another great podcast from The ACL Club. A phone call is scheduled this week to gather more info. Some days I just feel like I cannot do this alone anymore. I have many tools to use, but what if the tools aren't cutting it? Am I not doing them right and it's not working, or I am doing it right and this is the best it can do? I don't know!
I also contacted the US Women's Ski Team doctor. He has 20 years of female ACL/skier experience. I asked his team about tendonitis/tendinopathy this far out, what to do/not do, what to expect. His team wrote me back. His trainer said:
I also contacted another (third!) physical therapist. He is in the office where I went for the first 3 months of rehab. He suggested I do some isometric quad contractions everyday assuming this is tendinopathy, but we cannot be sure what it is. I wanted to know if a patient like me should really be left to her own devices doing rehab without guidance. He said typically he would meet a couple times with retests/revisits a month or so apart. My positive attitude: it is a work in progress. I have improved in lots of ways. Painful days are still tricky to remain positive. There you have it. I am researching again, I have burning questions, I have lots of information to process, new things to try (maybe not all at once). I just know being passive about my treatment was not working for me!
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
|