Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Day 148 Of My PCL Surgery and Recovery






Five Pound Weights!
Ride The Stationary Bike For 10 Minutes!
Mini Wall Squats!


40 Calf Raises (ouchie) Feel The Burn
Quad Strengthening
So much to do!
I'm still icing a lot. I don't have enough range of motion to go down stairs yet.

I'm using my CPM device for at least three hours a day. My tens unit three times a day too. This is a lot of work. Things like working on balance and all my exercises. This surgery takes a huge commitment. Did I say a lot of work too? Yes, it sure is.


I did leg raises at home too. This is not a part time recovery!

5 comments:

Linda said...

Your knee is looking so "normal." What will it take to walk down the step? . . . is it a quad strength issue?

Skinnygurl said...

Hi Linda,

Range of motion is what's holding me up from going down the stairs. I'm at 125 degrees. Going down stairs takes more ROM than going up the stairs.
I'll get there! No doubt in my mind!!

How are things going in your neck of the woods?

Anonymous said...

What does it feel like when you try to walk down stairs? I can do it now with 125 degrees ROM (holding onto the left rail), but I couldn't do it a month or so ago even though I had 125 degrees ROM. My problem wasn't range of motion, it was the amount of weight on the knee, knee pain, and quad weakness. The last little bit of the step down was really a fall (and it didn't feel good). My PT explained that walking down stairs is like a controlled fall. I have a lot more control (increased quad strength) now. Don't worry, it will come back.

I'm itching to get out of my brace. I don't need it for stability, but I suspect my surgeon would tell me I still need it for two more months in case of a fall or blow to the knee.

Anonymous said...

P.S. Your recovery is progressing faster than mine has, but much of our progress is simply limited by how fast our bodies heal. Remodeling that ligament and filling in the bone tunnels just takes time.

I bet your PT and OS are very pleased with your progress.

Skinnygurl said...

That's a good way to describe walking down stairs "Controlled Fall". Actually when I want to try and walk down a stair it feels like I'm going to fall face first down the stairs and my knee hurts too bad and won't bend far enough for me to go down all the way. I don't have hand rails here at home so maybe that's part of the problem. We're using different sized steps in pt for me to practice on and they're giving me lots of time to build
muscle. PS and rehab, not sure what they think but I feel like I'm lagging behind. Of course everyone that has this surgery is going to think that their recovery for themselves is too slow. Back to your question of what it feels like when I go down a stair. It hurts bad, like a stabbing pain in the middle of my knee.
Today in rehab we did some pretty tough exercises so I've been icing more than usual. I still use my CPM and next week going to crank it up to 130.
I tried the wobble board for the first time today too. I have lots of new things and will post pictures as these days of recovery come to pass.
Fun stuff, eh?