A little bit of everything

I don’t have anything profound to say. But I have a little bit to say about several things. So this is like the “kitchen sink” of blog posts!

On being sick

I have been sick for 11 days now. Not just sniffling sick, but real sick where I have moments that I wonder what part of my brain is being eaten because I feel so terrible. It’s a virus that’s going around, apparently. It takes weeks to get over, apparently. It sucks pretty bad, apparently. I typically pride myself in not acting sick when I’m sick, but this is some bullshit. That’s all, just had to complain about how sick I’ve been, because my kids and husband are tired of hearing about it. 

On the obnoxious cold

It turns out that my knee is NOT a fan of the polar vortex cold weather. The second I step outside it aches and throbs and I limp when I walk. Somewhat disheartening but my PT says it’s:

a) normal 

b) to be expected 

and 

c) going to be this way for a long time

We also had a “bomb cyclone” blow through here which made walking terrifying fun. It wasn’t as bad as crutching in the snow, but still. 

And in all seriousness, why are we using the word bomb cyclone?  Can we call it a snow storm?  The drama surrounding this seriously annoyed me. 

But I digress. 

I’m looking forward to warmer temps this week, if for no other reason, my knee will hurt less. 

On being 9+ weeks post-op

The knee is doing really well. 

It gets more and more normal looking, and I’m a little more functional every day...or at least every week. 

I had my first PT session with Michelle. She’s no Marty, but she is good. And being a woman, she’s telling me to use my pelvic and core muscles to help drive my hips and knees in the exercises I do. 

I’ll be doing all the same exercises as I would have with Marty, but she’ll have different ways of getting me to do them. I’m not particularly fond of change, but I’m trying to be open to this being an example of building character within the process of rehabbing my knee...which is already supposed to be building character. Whatever. 

I was cleared to go to the gym and use the stationary bike WITH resistance for the purpose of a cardiovascular workout. 

Woohoo!

So I went today and after 10 minutes felt like I could be on the bike for an hour. Then after 13 minutes couldn’t believe how hard it already was. I’m reminding myself to be grateful for the ability to do cardio at all, and am listening to my knee when it tells me I’ve had enough. But I’m honestly bummed about how tiny the increments of progress are. 

Overall not a bad workout. 

But I was still annoyingly disappointed. 

On my goal of being able to do ONE pull-up

So after I biked, I did my PT exercises and some arm weights and some planks. I walked over to the pull-up bar for the first time and decided to see how close I am to actually being able to do one. 

Prior to today I’ve been afraid to even try. Something about someone watching me hang there like a sack of potatoes had me too afraid to even go near the bar. 

The reality is that no one there gives a shit about me or why I’m hanging from a bar. 

But it’s hard to go from doing something I was confident in and comfortable with (running) to a whole lot of “what the F am I doing” as with pull-ups and weight training and pretty much everything else. 

So I got on the box and held onto the bar, and was essentially a sack of potatoes. I stared at my arms, willing them to miraculously bring my chin even an inch closer to the bar. And I barely moved. I mostly hung there feeling like a wimp. 

BUT...

I got on the bar. 

And hung there. 

Something I wouldn’t do last week. 

Progress is progress.