14 Weeks - Still No Endurance

It's been 14 weeks now since the ACL reconstruction and while I am doing much better, I've discovered that I'm still lacking two things. 1. the strength and lack of pain to lift from a squatting position (I need this for my job) 2. I don't have endurance to walk for long periods of time without causing major soreness the next day. It seems that when I am walking it doesn't bother me, unless I'm mixing in running like at PT, then even walking is a bit uncomfortable. There is one part of my job that I haven't even come close to trying and that is stepping up and down from an 18-21" step, but I gotta imagine that would be extremely uncomfortable.

On Tuesday of next week I get to start it all over again with having the left knee scoped; I'm not even thinking about it really except that I'm trying to get a bunch of stuff done before to get ready for Christmas since I will be messed up again.... the story of my life for the past 2 years.

13 Weeks - I'm getting stronger

So its' been more than 3 months now. I'm feel like I'm feeling stronger. But I also feel like I lack endurance. Meaning? It's like I can do the exercises, but depending on which order I do them I feel like my legs/knee are fatigued and I then can't do the exercises. For instance if I do single-leg leg presses at the beginning of the PT session I can do them without much difficulty now at 90#, but if I do them after doing side steps with the rubber band, step downs, 30-second quick steps, and the like and attempt the leg presses near the end of the session there is a very noticeable difference in my ability to perform the single-leg leg presses to the point where my leg is actually quivering while extending. I'm sure it will come in time, but that's what I'm noticing the most right now.

So last time I wrote that I was running on the treadmill for two 1-minute sets with walking between. This week I started with a 2 minute quick walk (3.0 mph) then running. Last week I was running at a 5.2 mph pace and it was quite painful. So this week I decided to ramp up the speed and let my natural running style take over. Oh this was much better. Better than the walking for most of the 2 minutes even. My theory and the truth is that when I run my legs reach out more and and when I plod I bounce up and down which puts more pressure on my knee(s). So yes, I'm saying that running at a 6.3 mph pace is more comfortable than a 5.2 mph pace. For now I'm doing a 2 minute intervals of walking and running for 10 minutes or 3 times I walk and alternate with 2 times of running.

We started some new "fun" games today. One is stand with the bad leg on the carpet and the good leg on a slippery piece of fabric on like a waxed plastic board. Now slide the good leg back and the bad leg bends then slide back up to a standing position; I'm not very graceful with these.

Yesterday I started wall squats. Anna asked me how far I could squat. I didn't know because I hadn't done it yet. Then she wanted to know about squatting with work. I proceeded to demonstrate the 8 keys to l*fating and l*wearing (* would be my paranoia... fill in with i's). I actually did sort of squat during my demonstration with a wooden stand that I used as a package, but I cheated and had my right leg turned way out from the hip to avoid actually squatting down. I think she got the picture when I basically put my left heel on my butt to lift the box up with "smooth steady mot*n. Oh so anyway, yes, I started doing wall squats. With a big ball behind me and against the wall you lean on the ball with your lower back and move your feet out away from the wall then roll down the wall on the ball which of course makes you bend your knees while partially load bearing; this was a definitely a stinger and I was quite sore from it on Monday.

Today was one of those better feeling days doing the exercises. Unfortunately just when you start feeling like you can do it, you get new exercises that knock that feeling right out. But I am definitely getting stronger!

12 Weeks

So it's been 12 weeks now since the surgery. If I were a normal person I would be back to work, but I'm not. Dr. Anderson doesn't quite understand why work wouldn't bring me back in a different job while I heal. I reassured him that they don't want me back until I'm 100% and when I mean 100% I mean that they will want 110%. Since he's a football doctor too, I told him it would be like sending one of the Lions back in the game full speed ahead like nothing had ever happened. No easing in slowly... just BAM you're back and expected to perform the same as you did prior to the injury. Hopefully he understands this before sending me back!

PT is still challenging and since I've now been running on the treadmill for two 1-minute intervals I've been very sore. The only new thing that's been changed is now my "step ups" are on a step about 4" higher than the first "normal" step that I was doing; this happened after I had the "you do know what I do for a living" talk with Anna and told her how high the first step is into the truck.

My daily life is one piddling thing after another. Although I have been working on starting up an etsy shop online to sell my crap crafts.  I raked the leaves today for about 20 minutes, but that's about all I could do. Ok so I could have done more, but I really don't like pain. I've been going to the Y a few times a week to swim and do some upper body weight lifting which makes me feel better than I can do an activity without causing pain.

If you've read this from the beginning I'm sure I mentioned that I tore the meniscus in my left knee back in April after a slip and fall in the snow while delivering to a residential house. Well, I scheduled to have it scoped Dec 1. I feel that it's best to have it done now rather than wait. Most of the time it doesn't bother me, but then again I'm not doing very much. I fear that with winter sneaking up that the slipping and sliding in the snow will cause it to flare and believe me that is nearly an unbearable pain.