d_p_pank’s BodyBlog

I’m happy with my progress so far. Swelling is manageable. Function is getting better. Activities for cardio is now expanded to include the ArcTrainer. I was getting bored with just the bike and recum. bike. I also found that the way my functional brace grabs my calf and quad, standing at a concert for almost two hours is not the best of ideas.

I bought the tickets a month before surgery and figured it would be a good progress step. Luckily I had a little group of friends around me to make sure I didn’t get bumped into by drunken concert goers. Talk about a balance challenge especially since the venue had a wet floor due to their leaking roof.

Oh along the progress lines, doing the steps to serve the Xmas day dinner was just as good of a workout. I’m in the pack-it up immediately to minimize the lingering and overeating at the dinner table. It works well since most people go home with an extra day of food.

 On the good side my spinning class that is never full was full this morning and I didn’t get a bike. I’m not sure if it was extras showing up for the holiday or people waking up to work off the Christmas dinner. It made my shoulder workout much more focused since I wasn’t drained from the cardio.

I can’t complain, basically I’m one month out and doing well. The overall joint is functioning well. My daily life type activities are rather normal. I’ve cut the work wardrobe down to 4 pairs of pants with wide legs and have been known to change into shorts in the afternoon for some ice therapy/elevation at the desk.

I’m somewhat used to my functional brace, but still like having at least 2 or 3 ice breaks throughout the day. As of this weekend I’m up to a complete 45minute spinning class, sitting on my bike with even a 2 or 3 click tension. I will follow that up with the required stretches, extension exercises, and all the fun strait leg raises I can handle. I’m glad this is going well.

I need to remind myself to just follow the protocol and take it easy. I must say the biggest challenge for me so far has been the mental part. When I coach I have to sit on the side and present the situation to my players as if they are remote controlled video games. That’s tough for me.

This is going to be a 3 times this week PT session. My goal is to add a little more bike time each day, increase the extension and get to the point where I’m allowed to add some weight. My Right quad is shrinking and the brace that i’m walking in kills my calf. But as I’ve been told it keeps the graft protected.

Here’s to sticking to all the machines for my upper body for another week. Need to continue avoiding complex movements even one such as picking a dumbbell off the rack, since I’ll have to walk with it at some point.

Mentally it really isn’t that bad except for when I take an ice break at work. Sometimes I just need to take the brace off and bust out the shorts.

I guess that beats the other alternative.

I’m starting to get back to normal. Just started official PT yesterday. The ROM stuff is pretty good, but very frustrating realizing that there is some muscle mass that needs to be worked on again. I knew this was part of the plan so I will take it easy and let things happen as they do.

Anyhow, I got to do the rec bike yesterday and never thought 15 minutes at level 1 would be so much fun! It happened so I’m excited one more step in the protocol. Once I get the cardio back to normal times I can go back to my long term goal of dropping some more weight.

Along that topic I have a box of veggies to chop tonight for my veggie soup for the week. I must say this step helps keep me full so I can cut back on extra eating or bad eating.

I definitely am scheduling my time off now so I don’t overtrain any body part now that I’m stuck on a limited number of machines and save my lower body for PT.

Officially this is week 1 of about 3 or 4 where I have to stick to a no dumbell/barbell workout. Nothing like using all the machines in the gym to work on various body parts. I guess the good news is I have a full technogym and strive machine set at my gym. Anyhow the whole recovery/range of motion/functionally getting around part is down. Next week is the real week as I go from doing straight leg raises and aerobics class abductor/adductor exercises to PT.

I finally got back to the gym. Using the weak part, the Strive 123 room skipping all leg machines and cutting the weights way back. I just couldn’t lay around anymore. I’m sticking to the make sure your ass is on a bench plan. The same one I stuck to for about 2-3 weeks after my scope this summer. I’m also working on walking with a normal stride. This is the fun part. I’ve cut back greatly on the Advil and the Ice is really keeping the swelling down. Call me Mr. Freeze.