Recovery Continues

In the days after my surgery I continued doing my straight leg lifts. I was not cleared to use any weights so I was instead making the workout count more by lifting slowly and then holding each lift for 2 seconds. Then after I did 30 lifts, I would hold it for 30 seconds, and then end with 5 quick reps. I was able to get a pretty nice burn and overall I thought I was doing the most that I could possibly do.

One week after my surgery I had a follow up appointment at Advanced Orthopedics. I did not have to wait long at all in the waiting room before I was called back to the little room. The Physicians Assistant saw me first. She took my stitches out and placed some more little pieces of tape over the incisions. She answered some questions for me and wrote me another prescription for more pain medicine. I was still taking the pills which were helping alleviate the pain so I could go to work, sleep, go up and down stairs, etc.

After the PA was done with me, the surgeon came in. He examined me very briefly and told me to continue to take it easy. I thought he would be setting me up for physical therapy right away but he said it was too soon. I felt a little disappointed. He spent less than 5 minutes with me. Basically he described what they did and told me to take it easy and that was that. They rescheduled me for another follow up a few weeks later.

Four weeks after my surgery I had another follow up appointment with the surgeon. On this particular office visit, the doctor was running a little late. After waiting in the main waiting room for a while, they called me back to the little room. While sitting in the little room, I could hear the doctor approaching. He started to open the door, then stopped to talk to someone-twice. He did finally open the door but right before he came in, someone called his name. He told them to wait a minute and then came in.

He did apologize for running late. I could tell he was in a hurry. On this particular visit, I think he spent less time with me than in my first follow up. And again, he told me to continue to take it easy. Again, I was a little disappointed. I thought for sure I would be started on PT after this visit. I did not have to pay for these follow up visits but I did have to take sick leave from work and miss work. I am not sure about the purpose of this visit. I can understand the first follow up. But this visit seemed useless to me. Except for one thing. He did say I could start riding my bike trainer. Well that was something I guess. I left with another follow up appointment scheduled for two weeks later.

Before I tell you about the next appointment, I want to tell you about some of the things I got for Christmas and our New Years goals. First, our goals. They were the same as a lot of people. Eat better and be more healthy. We also decided to quit soda and caffeine. I also decided that I would no longer eat any candy, cookies, pies, cakes, etc. We also decided we would only eat out for one meal a week at the very most. The first few days with no caffeine and no soda were not so great. I had headaches and no energy. But we are on our winter break so I did not have to work so I had plenty of time to doze in an out on the couch while I recovered from the withdrawal from caffeine.

There are 4 things I got for Christmas that relate to exercise. The first two things were books. My brother got me a book called "Core Performance Endurance." Melissa got me a book that I had asked for called, "Iron Heart."

I read Iron Heart first. It was very inspiring. In a nutshell, "Iron Heart" is a true story told from the first person perspective about Brian Boyle. Brian was in a terrible car accident when his car was hit by a dump truck. He was a high school swimmer who had just graduated and would be going to college to swim. The accident was so bad that his heart actually moved a few inches across his body. He lost a lot of blood and in was in a coma for quite a while. As the story unfolds, Brian details what it was like to be in the hospital, completely paralyzed but able to hear what was going on around him. Slowly he starts making improvements. He manages to blink, and then later to force a smile. As the story continues, Brian continues to work hard to get better. The doctors could hardly believe he was alive and did not expect him ever to walk again. However, he persevered, learned how to walk and eventually completes the Ironman in Hawaii. For those of you unfamiliar with the Ironman, it is a especially grueling triathlon that starts with a 2.4 mile swim in the ocean followed by a 112 mile bike ride, followed by a 26.2 mile run. To come from near death to finishing an Ironman was an incredible feet of strength and determination. This inspirational book kept my spirits up during my recovery.

The "Core Performance Endurance" book was also good. Without going into too many details, this book detailed exercise and nutrition programs for endurance athletes. Rather than simply focusing on running, biking, and swimming, the book focused on core training and strength exercises. I had always wanted to work on my core more and this book could not have come at a better time.

The other two things I got were additions to my exercise equipment. I got a Kettle Bell which is the next new fad in exercise equipment. I first saw in on the Biggest Loser and I know Lance Armstrong uses Kettle Bell workouts. I can't use the Kettle Bell yet but plan to incorporate it into my workouts when my knees can take it.

I also got a BOSU trainer. Before I talk about, here are some pictures from the internet.

So now I was cleared to ride my bike and I could do the "Absolute Abs" workout on the DVD that came with my BOSU trainer. So I started doing a half hour on the bike just about every day followed by the abs workout. When I rode the bike, I did something that I had not done in a very long time-sweat! I would come home from work, change and then setup my trainer in front of the TV. I would put soccer on with the sound turned down (you can actually enjoy a soccer game with no sound) and put on some upbeat rock'n music to bike to. After 10 or 15 minutes of warm up, I would do intervals. I would bike pretty much as hard as I could for 90 seconds and then slow down and recover for a minute or two and then do another 90 seconds hard and then repeat, and then cool down. I also added some upper body work to my workouts. I worked my arms and shoulders with various exercises-bicep curls, bench press, shoulder presses, dumbbell flys, and tricep curls. Plus I had to continue my leg lifts. I could not run but I was getting some pretty good workouts in.

After a week and half of these workouts, I could feel myself getting stronger and it better shape. It felt good and I was looking forward to Physical Therapy that I knew I would eventually get. Finally after my 6 week follow up with the doctor, he prescribed PT for me. But only 3 visits as I would be working a home program. That was fine with me because I was pretty determined to come back from my injuries stronger than ever.

During my first PT visit, I learned that I was really not doing the leg lifts exactly correctly. Plus they taught me some new exercises and stretches. I love learning new stretches. You would think with all the training and reading I have done, I would know them all but I did not.

After just 3 days of PT, my knees were feeling a lot better. I held slightly less pain and could walk better than ever. And then the inevitable happened. I over did it just slightly.

It happened today. After getting up and having breakfast and lounging around a bit, I called my buddy Mario to see what was on tap for the weekend. I had been living vicariously through my friends as they ran, biked, etc. He said that the guys were having a soccer practice and said I should come out an walk around the track. I decided that I would ride my bike from my house to the field and do my stretches up there while watching them practice. It was an 8.5 mile road ride and when I got to the field they were all done and heading to their cars. So I turned around and biked home.

On the way home I experienced the Murphy's Law of an out and back. On the way to the field, I had a tail wind and of course on the way back I had a head wind. But it was still a great ride. I just took it easy on the way home. My knees hurt a little bit after this relatively long ride but while I was riding they felt fine and my saddle sore was actually more noticeable than my knees. I came home and did some of my stretches and then iced my knees for a while. Later I was able to complete all my other PT exercises and then spent a few more hours icing on the couch while watching the US lose 3-1 to Honduras in an International Friendly.

We will see how the knees feel tomorrow. I did not get a chance to work on my abs or upper body today. Tomorrow, I will likely skip the biking and just work on my PT exercises, upper body, and abs. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to do all this stuff. It is supposed to rain tomorrow anyway and there are always soccer games to watch on Sunday so I can work out and watch soccer.

Who knows when I will be able to run again but I am determined to come back strong by building up my core and the key muscles that are used in running. Quads, Glutes, Hips, Ankles, and Calves. Also if I am able to run long distances again-which is still uncertain-I am going to slowly build up and only run in my Vibram Five Fingers and do more trail running. Below is a picture of some Vibrams. Thanks for reading.