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March 17, 1998
The results of my second Cybex test
last Friday look great. I am now at the minimum 70% strength across the
board required to start the running
program of my rehab, with one odd exception. As I almost expected,
the high torque, low speed numbers shot up considerably as a result of the
intensive weight training I put my left leg through, with the results
(surprisingly) more than doubling over where they had been 10 weeks ago.
But what I didn't expect was that the low torque, high speed results would
drop off from last time, with the relative quad strength dropping by 18%
and the relative ham strength dropping by 7%. But even though I'm below
the 70% minimum for low torque, high speed quad strength, my PT, Jenny,
has decided that those results (since they dropped from last time) are
probably a fluke and has released me to start the running program.
Jenny is also going to let me gradually move from the first phase of
the return to sports to the second
phase. In addition, I'm also OK to start some more serious cycling,
that is no more being stuck to the saddle. I can now stand on the pedals
for hill-climbing and building speed. Finally, I'll be working out of
phase one of the return and through phase two, and then, in a month or so,
get set-up with an athletic trainer to begin working on the final steps
toward a full return to sports.
At 18 weeks post-op as of today, I can't say how good it feels to
finally be this close to calling myself recovered. It's been a long, hard
road so far, and I'm certainly not kidding myself that the next few months
aren't going to be equally tough. I'm ready, though. If anything, the
last 5-1/2 months since I've injured myself have prepared me for this
final push.
I know now that there's little I can't do, as long as I tell myself I
can do it, and then never forget that fact. I've developed a sense of
patience greater than I've ever known before, and learned, by one of the
hardest ways possible, that good things truly do come to those who wait.
And, most importantly, I've learned that at some point in everyone's life
God sends something their way to test their faith and courage, and this, I
believe, has been my test. I can only hope that I've passed, but deep
down I know that I have, so far anyway. And I have no doubt whatsoever
that I will pass the final part, too.
March 20, 1998
Yesterday, I went running for the first time in nearly six months.
And I found out just how out of shape I am. I wasn't able to run more
than two laps on a 170 meter indoor track. I wound up running two laps,
walking two, running two more, then walking two. After stopping to
stretch, I walked two more laps, and finished by running one lap.
Psychologically, it felt great. Physically, my knee felt strong and
there wasn't any pain until I was nearly done with my last lap, then my
knee started to feel sore, but it quickly went away when I did my cooldown
stretching.
I know that this doesn't follow the running protocol set out by my
rehab, but I thought that since I didn't run a half mile in one stretch, I
should do a little more.
April 1, 1998
Boy oh boy, have I been a slacker in more ways than one. It's been
way too long since I've updated this journal for one thing. But much,
much worse I haven't been putting much effort into my rehab. I've only
been doing the minimum to get by and haven't been running in at least a
week. My academic advisor has been pushing me for a rough draft of my
Master's thesis and that's been taking up most of my time the last week.
Tomorrow I have to get back to the gym and spend some time on the running
track as well as in the weight room. The only up side has been the fact
that I've been doing a lot of walking and biking to get around lately.
And the whole issue of time comes up again for this summer. I'll be
working a job tht requires 50 to 60 hours a week, plus being on call 24
hours a day. Somewhere in there I'm going to have to figure out how to
squeeze in time to exercise. I'll probably have to get up early to work
out and then try to squeeze in more work out time after I get done at the
office in the afternoon and before I go back in the evening. I'm still
not sure when I'll sleep.
The one thing, though, that my return to running has emphasized is
just how out of shape I am. Not being able to do more than two laps on a
170 meter track is a bit of a downer. I think part of it is also that my
leg is still relatively weak, compared to what it used to be.
The real downer, though, is how slow my progress has become. There's
no noticable improvement anymore, especially not like it was in those
first few weeks after surgery, when I could see changes even over the
course of half an hour of rehab exercises. But the difficulty I have with
running gives me something to measure myself against, and now I'm going
back to my rehab with a whole new vengance.
April 3, 1998
The dim, flickering candle at the end of the tunnel is finally
becoming a bright, blazing fire. At eight days shy of five months
post-op, I challenged my knee today, and it came through with flying
colors. It was anything but intentional, though.
When I was running at the gym I noticed that the b-ball courts were
pretty much open on one side (the running track looks down on the courts).
To make a long story short, I checked out a basketball and intended to
just shoot around for a few minutes before hitting the weight room. Well,
a few minutes turned into an hour, and involved a bit more than just
shooting around. Once I got started, I just kept going a little farther
and a little farther.
For the most part the bit more wasn't anything I'm not supposed to be
doing as part of my return to sports rehab, the only real difference was
that I included a basketball. OK ... so here it is: Side-to-side
dribbling (similar to lateral shuffle), backward dribbling (back pedal),
and running half court laps and dribbling (jog curves). But I also did a
few things I probably shouldn't have (but only a little bit ... honestly).
Things like pivot and shoot in the paint and a few short drives to the
basket. But no jump shots or jumping up to rebound. I even had a little
fun, tossing up about half a dozen half court shots and actually putting
one through.
The bottom line is this: As I sit here tonight typing this, my entire
body aches, with the exception of my knee. When I got done, my knee felt
great! No soreness or pain, no stiffness, no weakness or buckling. It
felt great afterward, I didn't even need to ice it. The best part,
however, was that there were times out there on the court when I hardly
even thought about my knee, and the knee felt strong and stable the whole
time.
The other good news (great news!) of the day is that when I saw Dr.
Mott this morning, he told me he wants me to go in for another Cybex test
along with functional testing in four weeks and then see him two weeks
after that. He said I'm probably about ready to graduate, that is be
released for sports.
It's looks like I'm on my way into the home stretch. As Vince
Lombardi was fond of saying, "Tomorrow, we start the big push." (Read
Jerry Kramer's Instant Replay for a better understanding.)
April 10, 1998
After running at the gym today, I headed down to the basketball courts
again, and shot around and did some dribbling drills, same as last week.
Only this week I could feel the workout in my knee. There were some
sudden, slightly sharp pains but nothing that made me stop for more than a
few seconds. I was on the court for over an hour and felt totally free.
Afterward, the knee felt OK, but once again the rest of me was pretty
sore.
April 16, 1998
I set up what should hopefully be the last testing on my knee. I have
an appointment to meet with an athletic trainer on May 4th for strength
and functionality testing. At the same time I'll be working with her to
set up exercise programs to carry me through the rest of my return to
sports as well as the rest of my life. Then I meet with Doctor Mott on
the 15th and that should be my "graduation" day, that is the day I get my
release back into sports.
I was in the gym again doing a some weight work followed by a little
running and stretching to cool down. I did the usual leg presses and ham
curls, as well as a few laps of jogging and quite a few walking on the 170
meter indoor track.
April 17, 1998
Today I decided to forgo my usual Friday hoops and work in the weight
room after running instead. I did 6 sets of 20 leg presses at 165 lbs., 4
sets of 15 ham curls (with the left leg doing about 2/3's of the work) and
2 sets of 20 hip abductions on each leg. I know it's not too smart to do
weights two days in a row, but right now I have to squeeze in workouts
whenever I can fit them into my schedule.
April 18, 1998
Biking today has taught me one thing above all else, my return to
sports is going to be tougher than I thought. I can't ride on the road
more than half an hour before my legs get sore and tired. It's going to
take a lot of work to get my legs back into shape after a six month
layoff.
April 22, 1998
I have to offer an apology for my journal not being available for so
long, but it seems my ISP made some changes in its service and Internic
(the organization that registers such things as IP's and URL's) took its
own sweet time getting those changes recorded and logged. I have been
writing entries all along, but I wasn't even able to log into my ISP's
server to upload them, but now they are, and my journal is back.
May 1, 1998
Basketball today was more rewarding than ever. I started doing some
pivoting and jumping. Everything felt great, even though my knee is a
little stiff tonight, it doesn't hurt in the least. The rest of me hurts
pretty bad, though. I guess that comes with the territory (in this case
the territory being an hour on the b-ball court). I'm still not playing
against anyone, and I think I'm going to wait till sometime in August or
September before I get on any kind of court with other people. That may
be a bit conservative, but I feel like I'd rather be safe than sorry.
The other big event is that Monday I'll be spending an hour-and-a-half
with one of the athletic trainers in my clinic. She'll be testing my
relative leg strength and functional abilities to see if I'm ready for a
full release to sports. Be watching this site Tuesday morning, as I'll
have my results posted by then. In addition to the training, she'll also
be going over (what hopefully will be) my final exercise regimen for my
return to sports. One of the major things I'll need to go over with her
is a "compressed" exercise program for this summer. One that I can
squeeze into a half hour in the morning before I head into the office
where I'll be working, followed by another quick half hour in the evening
before a grab a quick dinner and then head back to the office for a couple
more hours of work. But, with a good program and some dedication, I
should be back on the courts full-bore by this fall.
May 4, 1998
My third Cybex test shows that the
strength in my left and right legs are now starting to become more equal.
These numbers are a big change from the numbers of my last test, but
Amy, the athletic trainer I was working with, said that Cybex numbers can
vary from test to test but that my results today are still very good. So,
now I'm a lot more interested in things such as what I can do and what my
endurance is like. My focus from here on is going to be on my overall
functionality.
The other part of my time with the AT today was to take a look at
where I am functionally, and from what she saw, things are looking pretty
good. I also worked on the next phase
of the return to sports progression. But more importantly, to figure out
what and how I can squeeze a daily exercise program into 30 minutes a
morning this summer, since my time is going to be so limited by the fact
I'll be working so many hours. The bottom line is that the phase 3 part
of the return should work out just fine and I should also be able to fit
in 45 minutes or so of cycling in the evening before dinner and my second
round at the office.
Finally, I also learned some very important lessons today. How to
run, decelerate, jump, land and cut on the court to protect my knees in
the future. For instance, on a turn, planting the outside foot farther
out to cut and turn leaves the knee open to a greater chance of a torn
ACL. The better way is to round the turn more, and plant the inside foot
and pivot through the turn. This eliminates the sudden deceleration of
planting the outside foot to make a sudden cut.
There was one thing, though, that I didn't want to hear. While I was
icing down after being run through my exercise program, Amy told me to
expect my knee to hurt and swell more often now that I'm getting into a
more full-blown exercise routine. It is a bit of a relief, though, to
hear that this is pretty typical and nothing to be too worried about. She
said to remember that ice is my friend and be willing to use it whenever I
need it.
Well, next stop is next week Friday (the 15th) when I see both Dr.
Mott (my OS) and Jenny (my PT) for what will hopefully be my "graduation."
May 11, 1998
Six months post-op as of today. Nothing else to say, just wanted to
make note of that fact.
May 15, 1998
Today was a big day! I saw my OS this morning and he told me
everything is looking great. He was happy to hear that my knee isn't
giving me any problems and doesn't hurt and isn't stiff, except
occasionally (which doesn't concern me too much since it was stiff and
sore from time to time before I injured it). He was also pleased with the
results of my last Cybex test and said it looks as though the strength is
coming back really nice. The bottom line is that he told me to come back
in six weeks and that he'd most likely "graduate" me at that time (i.e.
give me my full release).
Then a little later in the morning I saw my PT, and she cut me loose
with the advice to stick with the advanced return to sport exercises.
After asking how things were going and how my knee was feeling, and
finding out Dr. Mott was also ready to cut me free, she said I could
probably start to slowly work my way back into sports participation, as I
feel both physically and psychologically able. The best feeling was Jenny
telling me that I was one of their "real success stories."
Back in the "dark days" of November, right after my surgery, I never
thought this day would come. I remember lying on the couch in pain,
unable to bend my knee very much. For about a week every time I stood up
there was a tremendous burning pain in my shin. I couldn't sleep at
night. My quads, what little was left of them, were about the consistency
of Jell-O. Being dependent on others to go places or for things as simple
as having a glass of water with me while I was watching TV.
Today I still remember the progression of my rehabilitation and
recovery, but it only seems like I do in snippets (the milestones are what
pop up). I can remember being overjoyed at eight days post-op when I took
my first shower. I can remember the disappointment of not doing very well
on that first Cybex test at eight weeks post-op. I remember my first bike
ride back in the first week of March, that was my first truly liberating
experience. I remember coming back in mid-March and kicking the Cybex
machine's butt. I can remember the sheer delight, the idiot's grin
plastered across my face, when I took that first lap around the track back
in March. I remember that first day back on the basketball court, when a
few minutes of shooting around before hitting the weight room turned into
an hour and resulted in all of me being stiff and sore except my knees.
But most of all I think I'll remember this day, because now I think
back on the day of surgery, while lying in the recovery area, and remember
thinking, "What the hell have I just gotten myself into?" Thinking that I
was an out-of-shape weekend warrior in his middle thirties who should
forget all this nonsense about getting my ACL reconstructed and just
settle into a nice peaceful middle age. But then as I worked through my
rehab I started setting goals for myself. I want to learn how to ski this
winter, I want to learn how to sail next summer. And now, more than ever,
I want to get back onto a volleyball court and prove to myself that I can
still do it. That I'm not afraid of coming back.
Stayed tuned.
Rehab: Six Months Plus
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