6 MONTHS!!!!

I cannot believe it's been SIX MONTHS since the ACL revision. I do realize that I haven't posted in a while and I do apologize to anyone that is sitting on the edge of their chair just waiting for the final chapter (what? that's not happening?).

So September 29, 2010 was my last appointment with my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Kyle Anderson. I told him that even though after my last follow up he wanted to see me again in 2 months, but I made the appointment for 6 weeks knowing that the insurance company would have a cow if I didn't see him again for that long. About a week after making my appointment and informing the ins. co. I got a call/message stating that my appointment had been moved up as the big brown delivery company wants to try to get me back by Sept 1st. I told Anderson that I could almost squat on it, but really only for a split second. After hearing about the prospect of my returning to work, he lowered his head, crossed his arms and admittedly said, "No, I don't even think you should be squatting on it for two more months... have they seen your record?". Of course I had to giggle just a little bit, because it's a sad but true story of my "history".

I pretty much talked him into writing up a script for work hardening so it at least appears that I am taking bigger steps toward returning rather than continuing to do the same old PT and it would in the least buy me some more recovery time. Work hardening (aka occupational therapy) is kind of like physical therapy but in addition to strengthening with rubber bands and goofy little exercises there is focus on simulating your actual job and it is a program in which you will spend between 2 and 6 hours doing.

So off I went with a script for work hardening in my hand and a follow up card for an appointment I made 4 weeks later. It took about 10 days before workman's' comp called me to inform me that the work hardening had been approved and that would take me up to my next doctor's appointment.

I called Al at the work hardening company and we discussed what was going on. During the conversation he said, you do realize though that you're only going to have 6 visits until your next scheduled orthopedic appointment. Hmm, this is true... this will not do. So I called up my ortho and rescheduled my appointment for 4 weeks after the time that I would start this new therapy. Then I called my case worker for workers' compensation and informed her that since there was such a delay on their part in getting the therapy approved that I had rescheduled my ortho appointment for October 13. I haven't heard a peep from them. Good!

So the work hardening is going well, I'm gaining some more upper body strength and getting acclimated toward working with packages; lifting, lowering, using a dolly, stairs. I have had one set back and that is that the IT that was irritated at the previous PT place is still prevalent and really doesn't like weight bearing lifting. I don't recall if I mentioned that episode where I strained my IT. Basically it occurred because I really needed to do some lifting and lowering with the very realistic possibility that I would be returning to work in just 2 weeks; long story short there was a over use issue combined with an excessive strength test at PT that did it in. It's been 6 weeks since I strained it and it's still acting up. Bummer.

At 6 months, I can now squat fully on the knee and have ran a bit on it. It doesn't react well to extended walking/standing as I can definitely feel some swelling in it the next day after this. I probably shouldn't be traveling 7 miles at a time at this point, but I'm a little thick headed when it comes to common sense and fun.

STAIRS: The wonkiness I felt when going down stairs is pretty much gone; I do feel a bit of it after over doing it (see above paragraph about the 7 miles on foot).

SQUATTING: Yep, I can actually squat on it now without feeling the urge to just fall back on my butt because it hurts so much. I still favor it, but that's to be expected.

SENSITIVITY: This is about the same. It's not too bad, and honestly I really only notice it when shaving my legs.

SWELLING: See 7 mile paragraph above. Really though, it's doing much better in terms of feeling like I over did it. PT doesn't affect it too much. It's kind of funny though watching the assistant get a little scared when I set it to hill workout with a max incline of 12%. LOL. 40 minutes of hard up and down hills does make it feel a bit stiff (aka swollen), but it's not too bad and it doesn't linger. And a lot of lifting and lowing is a bit harsh too.

POPPING/PAIN: the popping has pretty much dissipated and I no longer have a lot of medial pain.