10 Month Progress Report

Well tomorrow is 10 months out from surgery. I have regained some quad strength and definition. I have minimal swelling (maybe the size of a quarter on the outside of my knee cap). The skin at that spot feels a little numb, but nothing I notice too much. I have no limp. I continue with weight lifting 3-4 times per week and elliptical 5 x per week. I am up to resistance level 6 and can do about 3-4 miles per work out. My biggest challenge is stairs – going down is difficult. I can do it normally, but with the bad leg it feels not very controlled, so I plop down hard on the step when I bend the “bad” leg to lower the good leg to the stair. I have called my doctor to get a script for one PT session to get some ideas about exercises specifically to deal with that problem. It appears from my research that it’s normal to have difficulty going downstairs after long periods of quad atrophy. I would definitely say I am better now than before surgery in terms of stamina and pain in the knee with high activity. My tip to anyone having this surgery: write yourself a note about what you are feeling like before surgery – so when you are doubting yourself and your decision, you can see what kind of shape you were in. I did that, and was surprised how bad off I was before the surgery in terms of everyday functioning, which now makes me feel like I made the right decision in having this surgery. The reality I think for me is that I am a high activity person who loves to work out. If I did not have this surgery, I would have become sedentary because my knee was getting worse pretty much by the week. Now I am getting better by the week. Not sure I can expect much more than that. I am still determined to at least try to run, if the doctor clears me to do that after my MRI in March. The closer it gets to the date of my MRI the harder I find myself working on regaining my strength – if the doctor clears me, I want to have the quad strength to at least try to run. Well, as they say, it’s a marathon not a sprint — I am figuratively at mile 18 (you know, when you start to feel kinda tired, sore and frustrated but there is an end in sight — but it’s still a ways down the road). 🙂

Tags: aci knee surgery, ACI KNEE SURGERY RECOVERY