Bend that knee

One guy's ongoing discussion with his left knee

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

A geek torch is passed

Well, a knee geek one anyway. Met Lynne in person today, one of the frequent posters on the knee internet board I read. She and I had similar injuries (both flag football) and similar ranges before surgery (20-70ish). Only difference is she was smarter and found Steadman after her second surgery quickly, whereas it took me 3 surgeries and a little longer. Good news is Dirk got her leg straight and flexion up to 125! Way to go Lynne!

She also officially passed the kneegeek torch as the latest knee geek to visit Steadman and on the way to good knees. Dirk even mentioned both our kneecaps were stuck really badly to start. It was cool to see someone who was in the same spot I am at one point and doing well, even though everyone is different, at least it's feasible. I laughed at her comment - "I was always jealous of everyone else's knees while I was in therapy here. I'm glad someone is finally jealous of my knee!" The shirts she made are AWESOME! Everyone should get one and I'll probably get some for Christmas presents later in the year. We plan to check tomorrow to see if we can put one in the Howard Head PT office, and then all future knee geeks can sign it. We're not all world class athletes, but Steadman and the PT folks treat us like we are. We figure we can have a 'signed jersey' there too! The three of us grabbed dinner - it's suprising how similar our injuries and progress are and hopefully I can follow the same path. Thanks Lynne, my fiance and I really appreciated the shirt and the thoughts. It was great to talk with someone face to face. We should plan a kneegeek convention or something.

After one week of therapy, things are decent, not good, not bad. My flexion is consistently at 112/113, after some warmup, only the part from 90-110 hurts. Extension probably starts around 15 and then is ten or less after PT. Dirk mentioned today that my whole knee is still tight. Hopefully the JAS brace will help that over time. The knee is still really stiff through any part of the range at this point, and I'm still concerned about the swelling and heat that are still around the knee. It's ironic - When the knee is so cold it hurts a little, I'm a little grateful since that means my knee isn't hot enough to "overcome" the ice! If the swelling will actually drop and then the range and fluidity will hopefully develop, I think we'll be good. If not, then I think we'll have problems. That's why I'm here for a month, so if it goes bad, Steadman is around to intervene if necessary. Tough to believe I've done over 40 hours of therapy since the surgery. Set up my first week of Aug with Dirk, Kim, and Zach.

As for today's activities, nothing new. Started on the bike in the morning for 15, did some patella mobs and then wall slides (only for a couple minutes, so only to a 100) Dirk then rotated my leg around the patella tendon area while sitting on my foot, to try and gain a little more flexion. He then put my upper leg at 90 and we were able to bend my knee to 109. A few more wall slides, although I didn't put it that hard. 5 minutes of quad sets and then straight leg raises (still couldn't get these off the ground). Stretch my hamstring by raisinng my leg to 90 and doing a quad set, and then Dirk massaged my knee in the prone hang position, using a gel that was a combination of arnica and something else. Inside tendon is still really tight, but he applied some downward pressure to help extension as well. 30 minutes of the JAS brace (which I backed off again) and then 20 on the GameReady.

Afternoon was much of the same, except we skipped the wall slides and the patella tendon rotation to focus on extension. Plus, we stopped for a Slurpee at 7-11.

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