Prone!

I have been seriously stepping up my prone exercises to straighten my leg. It has led to yet another lesson learned! (insert drumroll)

#11 Do a Complete Variety of Exercises. It was feeling hard to get all my exercises in everyday, so I ended up often skipping the same ones over and over. The prone exercise would usually make me feel unable to bend my knee very well for a good 30-60 minutes afterward (which made it harder to get other exercises in) so it was often the one I skipped. Once I started focusing on it though, it got so much easier and it got rid of that super painful "locking" in place that kept happening when my leg was straight. So, I guess all the exercises need to work together. If you can't fit them all in, make sure you aren't skipping the same one repeatedly.

Other than that, things are progressing pretty tentatively. After the microfracture last year, I was eager to get better and kept trying to do more and more. I don't know for sure if that led to the failure, but this time around I don't want to take any chances.

Dr. Trice and Sandy both said to use a scale to see how much 25-50 lbs really feels like. I did, and it is a lot of weight! I stood on the scale with about what I was initially comfortable to bear through that leg, and it only registered 23 lbs. I put more weight through it and it came up 38. I put as much weight as I possibly dared and it still came up only 47 lbs! So, as much weight as I dare right now falls inside Dr. Trice's guidance. That's good to know.

I am planning to start working from home next week (8 week mark). That was my initial plan and it still seems appropriate. My stamina is getting pretty solid and the swelling is really starting to come down, so I am looking forward to trying to work. However, I let work know that I wanted to work from home the first 4 weeks I am back. I think this will help prevent me from getting dangerously overconfident and push myself too far. It is a very real concern.

Weight

So my appointment with Dr. Trice was both good and bad. I'll start with the bad side.

Dr. Trice was not happy with my extension (straightening the leg) and was nearly about to make me wear yet another sort of leg brace/torture device. I really haven't been keeping up on the exercise that that helps this, which is called the prone position. You lay on your stomach with your leg straight out and the edge of whatever you are laying on only supports you from just above the knee and up. So, your knee and lower leg hang free and a weight is placed on your ankle to straighten the leg. Stay like that for 15 minutes. Sounds like fun, eh?

So, he asked me to do one of these prone stretches there in the office so that he could see how the knee extension looked afterward. Why it didn't occur to me, my mother-in-law who brought me, or Holly (Dr.Trice's surgical nurse) to note the time I started, I have no idea. One would think of the three of us that someone would have thought of that. So, my best guess is that I was in that position for 20 minutes or so. But, the knee sure did straighten after that! So, no new torture device was required. I am just supposed to step up the prone stretches to five times a day for 15 minutes each time.

The good news side is that Dr. Trice said I can put 25-50 pounds of weight through my leg and that when I reach the 8 week mark, I can work on getting to full weight-bearing. That is earlier than the generic protocol for the surgery! Woohoo!

So, in my PT session with Sandy yesterday, I did start putting weight through it. The heel of the bad leg goes down at the same time as the crutches, about 8-10 inches in front of the other foot. Heel and crutches, then weight, then good leg forward. It takes a surprising amount of concentration. I had random aches and pains from my muscles protesting, but my knee was silent. I kept putting weight on it when I walked all last night and this morning. The knee isn't hurting from the weight at all.

I am afraid to hope because after 16 months of pain and surgeries it seems like recovery is too much to hope for. Maybe maybe maybe oh just maybe this surgery might have worked!