I have my surgery scheduled for the 20th of November. The doctor said that it isn’t be a rush for surgery but I want to schedule before the end of the year because I know I have paid days off through work and I want to limit as much PTO as possible! I also know that my sister has time off around this time and she will be around to help me as I will definitely need it.
It has definitely been a change going from working out and being active every single day to not being able to really do much at all. Up until this week, I haven’t wanted to do anything. I know that my leg is the only part of my body that doesn’t function as normal, but I think that I was bitter because my life changed so abruptly and I couldn’t do my normal workouts. I was thinking about how all of my hard work this past year was going to be for nothing. I had this picture in my head of me slowly gaining weight again and the thought scared me. I assume it was a part of the grieving process but I finally let my bitterness (and stubbornness) go. With the encouragement of many friends and family, this week was the first week going back into the weight room. Might as well work out what I can and not lose it all, right? My volleyball girls were doing their daily pre-practice workouts and I just did my own thing. It was still hard to accept and I was discouraged at first because I felt weak, but I continued to push through.
One of my players came up to me yesterday and told me how much she admired me for continuing to work hard even though my circumstances limited my abilities. She said it makes her want to work harder because if I can do it and I’m injured, than she can do it too. I believe that God knew I needed some encouragement and I don’t think she knows how much her kind words meant to me.
Since this injury happened I have been reading everyone’s stories and blogs about their experiences. One of the things I kept coming across was “pre-hab”. The point of pre-hab is to strengthen before surgery to help with the recovery. I asked my doctor about it and he said that was a good idea once the swelling was minimized. It has been about 2 and a half weeks since the injury and I have really been working on getting the swelling down. I sit with my leg propped up on a filing cabinet at work and ice on and off all day long. When I am home, I lay with my leg on the back of the couch to keep it elevated and above my heart. I also have an ACE bandage that I wrap for compression every now and then, and I think that really has been helping too.
My doctor recommended riding a stationary bike and starting with only about 10 minutes or so and I figured I could add this on to the exercises I have been trying to do for my upper-body and abs. I was so relieved to hear that I could do something for my legs but 10 minutes seems so little! Yesterday was my first day of doing a leg exercise and it felt so good. I still don’t think that 10 minutes seems like it would do anything but when you go from doing nothing on that leg to riding a bike, let me tell you my leg was tired. I didn’t want to push it too much and I started feeling it so I stopped around the 8 minute mark. It is crazy to think that my leg became tired so quickly. I wasn’t even trying to do anything to special! I was going so slowly and I don’t even think my heart rate really raised at all but I guess it is important to work on range of motion at first.
Today I have had a little more range of motion. I can straighten pretty much all the way now and when I bend it, it goes just a little past 90 degrees. The swelling at the top of my knee is still limiting the bend but I am happy with where I am at. I am going to continue to keep staying motivated to prepare for surgery because I want the recovery afterwards to go as smooth as possible!
saltandlight1513 