9 Weeks, 2 Days. Dear Hamstring, Please come back. Love, Me

This week was good! Besides the encouraging news at the doctor, I had some good therapy sessions too. Today, the representative from the brace manufacturer came out to my work to measure my leg for the new brace! He showed me a picture of the brace and it looks pretty high tech! It's also very pricey - whew, am I glad to have insurance. It looks like something Darth Vader would wear. Apparently, according to the rep, this is the brace that pro football and basketball players wear and if I watch games, I will see them all the time. So if it's tough enough for the big boys, it should be fine for little old me.

Attractive, yet functional

I went to PureBarre this morning and got my ass kicked. Bad. There is a very intense hamstring exercise that is awesome, but to someone missing a piece of hamstring apparently it is not going to be a good time.

Looks innocent enough...

The exercise looks like the above picture, but we were squeezing a ball in the back of our knee as well. So you do tiny squeezes with the ball, while lifting the whole leg in tiny, tiny movements. I almost blacked out. I think my inner thighs felt sorry for my missing hamstring and decided to pitch in and try to help, because when I walk they feel like they are on fire. I love it and can't wait to recover so I can do it again. Quite possibly tomorrow, but I would skip any additional hamstring torture. I don't want to push too hard with them.

I really, really, really miss aerial. October seems like forever from now- but I will have to keep myself occupied in the meantime. I watch a ton of youtube and have lots of ideas for the trouble I can get into when I am ready. Can't wait!

Sweet, sweet freedom - just under 9 weeks.

See the round circle in the head of my femur?

So, long story short - I got out of the giant brace! I'll keep it handy in case I need it, but my doctor is having me fitted for a new brace this week, just for activity. I had to ask if the brace would let me go back to aerial early, but he said no. It never hurts to ask!

He said everything looked good - I will see him in about a month. I'm still in the most vulnerable time for the graft - until it has time to set and revascularize (so creepy, but cool at the same time) it is the most prone to rupture. It's also a dangerous time because you start feeling more normal and want to do normal things, and you can't yet. I am not taking any chances.

He said the pain I'm having is normal and that as long as it's not severe it's fine. I was a little obsessed with the xrays - it is so bizarre to see your bone with new accessories. He was all excited to tell me about it, especially how the washer (used to secure my pin since my bone is so small) was lined up just perfectly on my femur - not too far to the back, but not too much on the side. Looks like he did a good job! In the picture above, you can see a perfectly round circle in the head of my femur. That's the washer. I don't think you can see it in the picture here, but in the office if you looked carefully you could see the screws in my tibia. They will actually dissolve over time and will be replaced by bone. Medicine is so cool - I wish I was better at science in school. Or maybe had just paid more attention.

Onward and upward! Thanks for reading!

8.5 Weeks

Ever since my surgery, I have been wondering when I would start to feel a little more normal. For me, it was about 8 weeks. That's how long it has taken for me to be more confident moving around in public, to be able to go up and down stairs, and get around. Sticking to my rehab plan has been key - I've been really consistent with my sessions and at-home exercises. I started bouncing on a mini-trampoline, which is a pre-cursor to determining if I am ready to start some light jogging! It didn't hurt at the time, but the outside of my knee has been a little tender and achy ever since. So I am going to take it easy.

In the meantime....I am back at PureBarre! My first class was last Wednesday and I was pretty nervous. Not that the exercises would hurt, but everyone has all their equipment (balls, rubber tubing, hand weights) and all I could think about was not tripping over it. Fortunately, I didn't! It felt so good to be back. There were some exercises today where you were on all fours doing some of the leg presses, so I did those laying on my tummy. It definitely still worked - my hamstring is still pretty weak, but this will help. I'm also still doing a ton of bridging, and more work on the Pilates Reformer. I can't wait for my legs to be the same size again - ha!

I see my surgeon on Monday, so we will see what he has to say. He's going to take an X ray, so it will be so weird to see my bones with washers and screws in them. I am going to try to sneak a picture!

7.5 weeks....

I'm getting to the point where I am feeling a little more back to normal - even though that usually leads to some icing and ibuprofen! I'm doing 20-21 minutes on the bike each day and more squats and bridging than you could imagine. I feel like my hamstring is slowly coming around - but my quad is still very atrophied. The intermittent swelling is to blame for that - Meghan said that it keeps it from firing correctly. So I will keep icing it up!

My brace is now unlocked so I can bend it to 90 degrees! I am able to go up and down stairs pretty well, which is exciting to me. I was in the stairwell at work yesterday, grinning like a fool, and some people in my building were like, why are you taking the stairs?? And why are you so excited about it?

I've been doing lots of stability work on discs and balancing on one leg - my rehab will step down to twice a week. I see the surgeon on 6/13 and am really hoping to get out of the brace. But in the meantime, here is the really big news - next Wednesday, I will get to try a PureBarre class. I'll have to modify a lot of things, especially if there is kneeling involved in the exercises, but I don't care. I will be so happy to be back in a class! If it goes well, I can do the 6am class during the week on my off days from rehab. Back to the burn - I love it.

I went shopping today at the outlet mall and bought some summer clothes, shorts and tees and stuff. I even bought a little romper - I am very excited about it - it's so Three's Company. Come and knock on my door! It's awesome to be out and about again, and to be feeling better. My new knee rocks!

Progress....slowly

I am enjoying the long weekend, even though it started off kind of shaky. Thursday night we had a tornado touch down about a mile from our house and we lost power for about 24 hours. I missed my stationary biking for the first time since I started - I couldn't bring myself to go upstairs to the dark attic room to do it. Plus it would have been ridiculously hot and stuffy.

I feel like I have turned a corner - I don't want to jinx myself, but I am feeling better and better. Mentally as well as physically, which is really good. I also got to do a split for the first time on Thursday at physical therapy, which I was very excited about! I can only do it with the surgery leg in front - it's not ready to be in the back yet, but that's okay. I was also okayed to start using my Pilates reformer again - I can try one new exercise per day. That way, if it causes pain and swelling by the evening I will know what did it. I've done basic squats and calf raises on it - it feels so great! I am so happy to be back on it. I tried to do some hamstring presses today but I think that was a little aggressive - my hamstring was not very interested in doing all of that.

My knee and leg are looking a lot better, too. There is definitely still some atrophy, but it's improved. It doesn't have that soft, "skinny-fat" look to it anymore, which I am happy about. It is still ungodly pale but that is okay - the scars are healing nicely, I think. Is it the Burts Bees? The castor oil? The cocoa butter? Who knows? But all three combined are cheaper than Mederma and working very well.

I am still doing a lot of PureBarre exercises daily - it's just a matter of time before I can go to class! And I would really like to try a tiny bit of jogging. It's exciting to wonder where I will be next week and what I will be able to do. We will see! I am very glad that the post-surgical blues appear to have passed and good days are ahead.

Tomorrow is Six Weeks!

Happy Almost Six Weeks to my new knee! I talked to my physical therapist, and this evening swelling/redness/hotness is normal. It's just my body's response to the new activity - as long as it's not sharp or lasting through the next day, it's fine. So I have gone back to basics and am doing lots and lots of icing. I get so impatient with it - it's easy to forget that it hasn't been that long and it was pretty intensive surgery. I need to be nicer to it instead of all pushy.

Today we did some more stability work - I balanced on a Dyna Disc, on one leg! It was freaking hard! I'm also doing bridges with my feet on the foam roller. I am really liking being challenged with these new exercises.

I really want to do splits but those are still forbidden. I can do some basic yoga, but child's pose is out of the question for a while - which is funny to me, since that's always the place you go if you can't do what the class is doing. I'm still hoping to get to try PureBarre in a couple of weeks - I know I will have to modify everything but I don't care. I will be so happy to be in a class! Hopefully soon.

Day 35 - 5 week mark!

Five Weeks today! I cannot believe it. So I celebrated by accidentally doing too much - way to go!

Everyone has told me all along not to push it, and I have really been very respectful of my body's boundaries. However, the excitement of walking in the brace and being able to bend, plus upping my time on the bike from 15 to 20 minutes for the first time this morning - yeah, I did too much. Nothing hurt while I was doing it, but then tonight my knee is all hot and red again, and really tender and achy. Rats! I am icing it and took some Traumanex, and am going to bed. We will see what my PT says about it tomorrow - hopefully my body will just get used to the increased activity. I really don't want to back off of anything unless I have to! Nighty night.