Tomorrow I get to try the regular stationary bike instead of the recumbent one. Range of motion hasn’t been an issue for awhile, but I still can’t bend my leg all the way back without it getting really tight. I can get to almost 150 degrees.
I notice that I’m starting to do things more normally, like bringing my leg up to tie my shoes instead of awkwardly leaning down to do it. Going up stairs is fine, but I still have that initial worry when I go down them. In Raleigh, just about everyone asked me about why I was limping, so I definitely have more progress to make in terms of walking normally.
At PT they are adding in more rigorous exercises for my hamstrings and quads and increasing the weight each time. My leg looks like it is getting better, but it still is pretty small. Every day I still do my normal free weight routine in the morning and do almost 30 minutes on the bike and elliptical later. I’ve been adding a couple minutes a week to the elliptical/bike routine and it seems to be getting easier. The bike doesn’t hurt my quads as much but it still leaves me more sore after 15 minutes than I would have been before the surgery. I figure about Thanksgiving I can move to the resistance trainer for my road bike and soon after I’ll have enough stamina and leg strength to hit the roads for real. The only problem with the road bike is my habit of crashing into the injured body part, making it worse. I really don’t want that.
It’s interesting to watch the progress of everyone else at PT. A lot of people have had knee replacements or surgery on their knees and appear to be going through a similar rehab process as me. Today there was someone I hadn’t seen before on crutches and was using the same passive range of motion machine that I had used for the first couple weeks. It made me think how far I’ve come and how that guy will go through all the stuff that I’ve done and eventually be walking again. A girl that’s been in there a lot when I’m in there went from not doing anything to using the stair climber and elliptical, and is now doing the walk/jog on the treadmill. A lot of the older patients with knee replacements I see gradually do more on the bike, but haven’t done the elliptical or the stair climber. The physical therapist probably tries to match their rehab with their ultimate recovery goals. Running probably isn’t something you can do on a knee replacement.
At this point I think I could just do most of the machines and exercises on my own in the rec center after biking or the elliptical. However, I would need some guidance as to when to try the road bike and start running again. From those that have made it back running successfully, they seem to start back at four months at the earliest and usually five months or more after the microfracture. I could go off that. I do know that I’ll have to do the old walk/jog routine and probably wouldn’t do it every day either. I would also have to get some idea of how far I could work up to runningwise until it would be considered risky. These are all things to keep in mind as I progress, but I still have a lot of time left before I get to them.
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