Moving Forward...life before, during and after a meniscus transplant

So I exercised today!   I mean, really exercised!  I went to the gym and did a total-body strength/weight circuit, and then cardio. My heart rate was elevated, and I was a sweaty mess, and it was exhilarating! It’s been a week or so that I’ve been “allowed” to. Marty (PT) only recently told me to trust my body and how I feel and move forward with cardio exercises. Obviously I have to stay within my knee restrictions still, so I can only do certain leg exercises...and biking is really the only cardio I can do right now, but still! Of course though, this past week since being given the “go ahead” to exercise has been completely nutty (although I feel like most weeks feel that way anymore) and I haven’t had time. Weights and my knee exercises take a LOT of time, and then add cardio and I need like 2 hours at the gym.  Who’s got that kind of time? So today I chose a good (I hoped) workout over sleep.  This was at the end of my workout. And I felt SO good! I did weights a...

Saturday was my 4 months (by calendar) since surgery anniversary. Or 17 weeks plus a few days. It’s funny because I noticed that I’ve stopped focusing on Thursdays (the surgery was on a Thursday) as a measure of time for me. Thursdays have meant (leading up to the surgery) “x number of weeks left until surgery” and since surgery Thursday has been my post-op count up. Count up to what, I have no clue (biking, swimming, walking around wherever I want). I think because the milestones seem so spaced out at this point, I’m losing interest in the counting.  Last week was a frustrating week. I had this weird lateral posterior L knee pain that came out of nowhere on Monday. No weird twists or turns, slip and falls, no extra walking,etc. to explain the pain but damn if it didn’t hurt like hell! I took the whole week off of rehabbing the knee, everything I tried to do hurt, so I just rested. Rest helped. When I saw Marty on Friday for PT he suggested it was hamstring strain from the leg...

I went to PT this morning and got sent home after 6 minutes on the bike. It sounds like I’m being reprimanded for being bad or something!  No, I was having too much pain. And my knee is swollen even though it was first thing in the morning. So I got sent home.  I’m not even sure what I did to it. It being my knee.   PT lady said it could be the weather which has been fluctuating between high 50’s and winter cold with snow showers seemingly every other day. Regardless, I woke up today feeling sore in my knee and thigh, and my first step down the stairs hurt like hell. So I am icing it, and resting (as much as a mom rests), and pouting, and will try PT again Thursday. This is a really weird space to be in, physically and mentally. Still in the upside down I guess. I’m really trying to focus on the progress I’m making, but the progress is frustratingly slow and microscopic...which is what I was told this would be like. But being told how something is going to ...

In more ways than one, I feel like my mental/emotional self is finally catching up to the idea that this is going to be a long recovery. My first several days post-op were somewhat disorienting as I felt significant improvement every 24 hours. In my mind, I felt like “if I keep this up, I’ll be feeling 100% in no time at all.”  Magical thinking, maybe.  Necessary thinking to get me past the first week, probably.  I’m just one day past the 2 week mark (POD15) at this point. There is no longer obvious daily improvement, which is ok, and there have been no setbacks, which is amazing.  Ever since my post-op appointment, I’ve had a hard time with the idea that my next “milestone” is a month away, at my next post-op appointment. I reached out to Lisa (the amazing PA working with Dr. Z) yesterday, because I was struggling mentally. I asked her for some clarification about the protocol which pointed to some changes starting at the 4 week post-op mark. Yes, in fact there are ...