Elliptical

I did the elliptical machine for the first time since the surgery today!!! I was a bit nervous. But then the girl on the machine next to me asked "ACL?". Yup. She said that she was four months out from her surgery and had just been cleared to run. I said congrats and that I was 5 weeks out and had just been cleared to do the elliptical. She said "You can do it!". It was just the encouragement that I needed. Sometimes people are really nice.

I only did 10 minutes and was not just allowed to have any resistance. But it was fun and felt like quite the accomplishment!

Week 4

This was a really hard week of physical therapy. I literally spent about 10 hours in PT this week. Maybe more. It was really intense.

I regressed! Although I did all of the exercises to improve my extension and continued to work on my flexion (bending), my extension is worse than last week! NOT GOOD! Like a lot worse. I can't get my knee straight anymore.

My theory on this is that I tried too hard to get things to work and, as a result, I stopped focusing on my VMO and instead worked other stronger muscles to compensate. This resulted in a lot of pain in my shin. And, needless to say, didn't help. You can't force things!!! During my second follow-up appointment with my surgeon, he told me to relax. He said that a lot of resources say that patients need to get to full extension by 3 weeks or 4 weeks at the latest (which is now). But that really I have until 6-7 weeks. He said that I have a lot of tension in my body and that it doesn't help matters. He can tell that I am trying hard (which my PT substitute guy is unaware off) and he reassured me that my muscles will come around. He is nice.

So we added some new and exciting exercises to my current routine:

1. prone hangs with weight for 1 hour each day (ouch!)
2. a hyperextension brace to sleep in
3. electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) - to use electrical impulses to make my VMO contract; reminds of frog sciatic nerve experiments in cell biology lab in college

The amount of pain that I am in increased a bunch this week. I am exhausted and pretty stressed out.

Week 3

Working with the substitute PT guy and it was tough!

My bending is getting better. We measured it at 95 degrees, with me sitting at the end of a bench and holding it back with my left leg. This is great because it meant that I was able to get on the EXERCISE BIKE!!! I am not yet able to make a full revolution so I have to rotate the petals forward as far as I can and then backwards as far as I can. This will help me to back to a normal range of motion (ROM).

So although my bending is progressing, my extension is not. And this is bad. I am still at zero. And we tried a new test. When I hyperextend my left leg (the normal one) I am able to make my heel naturally just pop up off of the mat. It occurs really easily (try it at home!) but it requires me to be able to contract my quad muscles. We tried this test with my right leg and my heel didn't budge at all. So this is something that I am really going to work on. My VMO (vastus medialis oblique) is the quad muscle that I need to get to fire to make the hyperextension occur. This is the muscle that I have been working on by doing the quad sets. But it is not strong enough.

So I have a LOT of exercises to do this week:

1. heel props 10 minutes every waking hour (can heat back of knee with a heating pad)
2. quad set every waking hour
3. straight leg raises
4. side-lying his abductions
5. calf raises
6. patellar mobs
7. seating knee bending
8. practice walking in brace
9. heel props with ice
10. exercise bike for 15 minutes

Well, I am going to do these exercises because it feels really bad and frustrating to not be able to do something. I don't like feeling like I am not progressing as fast as I should. This makes me nervous.