8 Months - 10 April 2010

So, the last month things have been busy. I started training with an American football team in Melbourne. I have been keeping up with all the others with no trouble on the knee. No problem with turning, cutting, squatting and running. I also trained two days with an aussie rules footy club and there no knee issues, I just struggled from a general fitness standpoint...

At home I have been doing lots of squatting (mainly to get me fit for a ski trip we are taking in August to New Zealand, with a day of Heli skiing on the cards!!!) Even still my quad is about 90% the size of the other one. I don't really know what to do to get that back to normal.

The physio recommended against playing netball. He said it isn't that the knee can't take it is just that it such a high risk sport and so many people get knee injuries that if I wanted to keep myself healthy for skiing that I shouldn't play it. I think i will take his advice and play gridiron instead.

I would say in hindsight I would have taken more time to do my exersises on a regular basis. Everyone gets busy with work and other things in their lives but I would have spent more time getting my knee ready with stretches, squats and all the other early on exersises the physio gave me I would definetely have been able to return to sports a few month earlier...

10 March, 2010 - 7 Months

Well, the last two months have gone very well. I have worked my way back into normal activity. The knee feels fine and doens't ever hurt. I still have full movement but it still does pop a bit but it doesn't worry me.

My quad is still about 85% the normal size, it seems to be just staying there. Most of the time I pretty much forget that I had knee surgery.

Five Months 10 January 2010

Things have really changed this month. I have gone for a few 3km runs not on the treadmill and the knee doesn’t feel any different than the other one. My left quad is about 85% the size of the right and everything feel great. I don’t really get the pain when twisting my knee any longer.

The popping is still happening but it doesn’t really bother me.

I saw the physio and he gave me some hopping, squatting and skipping exercises to do. He told me to do those for 2 weeks and then come back and see him for the agility exercises. I only got around to seeing him 1 week ago so hopefully next month I will be fully into the agility training.

I no longer feel like I have any injury. I am tempted to get back into the sports but I know that my knee is not quite there yet so I will follow the doctor’s orders and keep doing the exercises...

Four Months 10 December 2009

Over the last month the clicking in my knee continued but it got a bit easier to lock the knee fully. By the end of the month I was able to do the locking in a continuous motion but the popping occurred. I went for a 2km run in the real world (not on the treadmill) this month and it was OK. I find it much easier to run on the treadmill as there is less change in level of where your foot lands.

I saw the knee surgeon for my 4 monthly check-up. He said that the popping is normal and it is most likely scar tissue getting in the way. He said over time that should go away but it is possible that it won’t . However, he said as long as there is no pain related to the popping then there is no issue. As for the other pain when putting a change of direction pressure on my knee as I mentioned last month, the doctor said that was likely still bruising healing, maybe from the original injury. He said that would go away over the next few months.

The surgeon told me to go see the physio to get some agility training started.

Three Months 10 Novemberr 2009

Over the last month my knee has been feeling pretty good. The pulling inside my knee has gone away just near the end of the month. However, something different started happening, when extending / locking my knee fully I get to a point where it can’t go any further. Then, it pops and I can go further with the locking. Once I bend my knee it is like it resets and the same thing happens again. It doesn’t hurt when it pops, it just feels odd.

I don’t really have any pain in my knee except occasionally when I change directions quickly or put a twisting motion on the knee. Then I feel a sharp pain in there that doesn’t really hurt bad but I can still feel it.

My quads are starting to gain strength and I am feeling much more confident. Going for lots of runs but wishing I would have the time to work out more frequently but work has been blocking that.

Two Months 10 October 2009

Over the last few weeks my knee has felt more and more normal. I have been building my muscle by riding my bike, climbing stairs and doing my exercises, including balancing on one foot, extending my leg on the ground and then doing the same with a towel under my leg. I have also been doing stretches as much as I can. I have also gone for a 10 minute run and that didn’t cause any pain.

The only thing that doesn’t feel normal is that things still feel a little stiff inside my knee. I feel a bit of pulling the middle of my knee when I fully extend my leg and then go to bend it. I don’t feel the pulling then I bend it normally, only the first bend after a full extension, or lock of the knee.

The physio said there was no swelling left in my knee and that it is looking good, even for a LARS treatment. She said if I keep up what I am doing things will feel 100% normal in about 2 months. She suggested I do leg squats at the gym and continue riding my bike. As long as I don’t get any pains or swelling I can keep pushing harder. My goal over the next month is to get my quad to a similar size to the right leg.

Six Weeks 21 September 2009

I saw the physio on Tuesday last week and he told me I was ready to start biking 40 min / day and running for short periods as well. The only problem is I have been too busy with work to go for a ride until Saturday. When I finally did go for a ride it went well, at least until I was riding up a steep skinny laneway that had block-outs at the end, the ones were you have to make two very sharp turns to get through on a bike. I was in too high of a gear and didn’t have enough momentum to get up the hill and started to fall. I put my left foot down hopping along and then decided I didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on my knee so I just let myself fall over. The only problem was that I landed right on my phone which was in my back pocket. I dented the phone and had a huge bruise on my ass for the next few days. The phone didn’t break though!

Otherwise, the leg feels great! It is starting to really feel normal, now I just need to build my thigh muscles back up again so I can regain my confidence.