Phew!! Finally off that 18 day pain train! What did I do? I just did a little too much back in mid August. Dancing, biking, rehabbing - I cannot pinpoint one exact thing, but everything just kind of caught up to me. Also during this big week I had that weird pain experience at the gym too.
Now back to my normal everyday pain! I can be functional with this daily pain. I can still have progress in this state. Tonight I plan to tape up the knee and resume rehab at the gym. I will decrease my leg extension and leg press weights, but keep all my hip, glute, hammy weights the same. Perhaps I added to the "overdoneness" by adding on too quickly. I recall feeling even sore in the other knee because weights were pretty heavy. This flare up was particularly bad because the joint was so swollen and tender. It felt harder mentally too. I didn't handle the low points very well. One day I must have cried 30 times. I reached out to my PT asking how do I know if I did something wrong? How long is too long to be this swollen? She suggested products such as lectric soda crystals to draw out the swelling (never heard of these but YouTube explains everything), Zostrix which is a topical analgesic made from chili peppers, Tubigrip which is like a compression sleeve elastic. She also suggested I do some type of gym rehab even when super sore; i.e. just working the non-operative side, or just doing the minimal load I can tolerate, some load is still OK. Well some of those days I just plain hurt simply walking so I opt to move as little as possible. Next time I will try to go regardless and try some of these new products too. She suggested 2 days on with load and 1 day off. I think we can all agree that this heavy loading, then periods of unloading due to pain are probably not the best plan of action! To add to my "mental tricks" bag, I bought the book True, Grit and Grace by Amberly Lago. She endured a horrific moto accident and has had 34 operations to save her leg. She now lives with CRPS and lives a happy life despite the pain while redefining what life means for her. I find that amazing and inspirational, not to mention humbling. I need to learn her tricks! I wish I could limit these episodes. Then again if I didn't have any, I may be so frustrated that things were going too slowly. PT said that she likes how I decide when to up my weights. Basically if I feel I can do more than 8 reps, then I will up 5 pounds. There are formulas out there like the Acute to Chronic Workload Ratio where you increase weights or effort only 0.8-1.3 times your rolling aka "chronic" workload. Would that help guide me more? Not sure, I am not progressing like normal people and this isn't like training for a race where you can build upon each week. I don't think it's singular events that tick it off, but probably a combination of things that vary with certain intensity, duration and how they were grouped together. PT said that it is OK, I am allowed to live my life and have fun, in fact she said it's essential that I do things like this. The knee will forgive me! She did not make me feel like I needed to try and avoid these flare ups, they are just part of the process. Use the tools we have for pain, swelling and mental health, and HANG IN THERE. We were able to get away for this weekend in our little trailer. Thursday prior, I was unsure if I'd be able to bike or not. I said let's just go anyway, the change of scenery will be good. Come Friday it was still kind of tender but I managed a very slow ride right from camp. Then Saturday I did an 11.9 mile ride and Sunday a 9.4 mile ride! I think I'm off the pain train! Wahoo! These trails were somewhat mellow all staying under 2000' vert which was very pleasant overall. This was Idaho, not far from home. Non-motorized single track trails are the best.
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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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