I can’t believe it’s been five months. To some extent it seems like 2 years, but in some ways much less than 5 months. I feel like the last two weeks have seen a fair amount of improvement. I eliptical 3-4 miles per day, plus lift weights, do one legged knee bends, mini leg extensions, leg presses, etc… I may have gotten over enthusiastic with the resistence on the eliptical, because the last two days I have had a fair amount of swelling. Advil really does not help, so I am going to ask the doc for an anti inflammatory at my next visit (6 month visit). Some days I feel good enough to think I may run again. Some days I feel like that sounds impossible.
On an interesting note, my insurance company sent me a letter telling me that they were not coving the 70k cost for the carticel(!). Imagine my surprise since they had preauthorized the procedure. However, after I called and pointed out this inconsistency, they agreed that they had made a mistake and said they would re-run the claim… Good thing… Looks like the kid’s college fund is safe!
I am looking forward to a day when I do not think about my knee every 10 minutes, or feel it every minute. I feel like if I keep progressing, that in another two- three months I might be more or less as good as I was before the surgery and on my way to being actually better than I was. I am pointing out these things in the hope that if anyone ever reads this they will be better prepared with their expectations, and therefore not have the emotional turmoil which I experienced. My spirits are better than they were even two weeks ago and I am hopeful at this stage. Hope springs eternal. I actually picked up Runner’s world off my mail pile without immediately pitching it in the rycyling bin this week… baby steps…
desperate2run 
Tbhis is where I’m at now, exactly 5mos last wk, pushed it on the elliptical 4 days in a row and have been paying for it for the last wk. No swelling but a good amount of soreness. Glad to see that this kind of normal!
I experienced a lot of swelling and stiffness at 5-6 months. I did a lot of time on the eliptical, but I can not recall at what resistence. I know I increased the resistence steadily over time. I worried constantly that I would mess up the graft – but since I did not have any acute pain I kept going. If it is very sore after the eliptical – take a day or two off and see if that helps. For me my knee was at its worst when I walked long distances on concrete. Hang in there – this is a really rough time – but it will get better. To this day I have periods when I have extreme frustration (like last night when I went running and it took a ridiculously long time to run 4 miles). I try to keep in mind that I can expect improvement for up to 5 years. 🙂
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