Sarah Kingdom ACL Rehab Blog – Weeks 7, 8 & 9

Week 7

My follow up appointment with my surgeon Mr Elliot had me a little nervous. I had no idea what he was expecting. I’d been led to believe that there’s a possibility that at this stage, the graft can be particularly vulnerable to tears and damage, so I was bracing myself for a set back. As per usual, I was worrying about nothing! He had a good tug and wiggle of my knee and may as well have patted himself on his back for a job well done! “oh, it’s stronger than I thought. Good!”. He proceeded to tell me that he doesn’t subscribe to the ‘six week post op weak theory’ and to carry on doing what I was doing, and to see him before I plan to get back on the water in late April! Between Mr. Elliot and Tom, what a team! The down side to all this, was that I was now fit and ready to go back to work, so the end of that honeymoon was definitely over!

Going back to work had the sting taken out immediately as I found myself arriving on the day of the new gym grand opening! Every piece of equipment Tom needed me to use was ready and available for my first lunch break gym session. Now I was really on the road to recovery! It was going to be a slow slog, but getting in the work gym for forty minutes every day at work was going to make a massive difference in a very short time, so I’m hoping!

My knee range meant I could go on the bikes, low resistance, and more sliding on the rowing machines kept bending my knee a bit more each time. Then leg presses, well, not as good as I’d hoped, but we’ll get there. I’m still nervous about hamstring curls after Boxing Day, so we’ll see how we get on there.

Week 8

I postponed seeing Tom for a week as my brother and his family were over from Sydney and I wasn’t going to miss a second of them for anything! However when I did see him, he was pretty pleased with progress, but on hearing about the snowball fight, which I regretted the moment it slipped from my lips, he warned me, “don’t get cocky”! In true Tom fashion, he moved me up to the gym do demonstrate exactly how weak my leg still was. After flailing around one legged on a balance cushion, catching a rugby ball being launched at me and doing one leg dips on the step box, it was abundantly clear that I still had very little muscle mass to protect me if I was to fall. So I was well and truly told! But despite the ticking off, I was assured that I was on track, and Tom wasn’t expecting more than my state of progress at this stage.

I was told to get back in the gym, to work hard, being careful not to strain my knee at risk of creating a new problem. But I was to really concentrate on getting a core strength in place as a 4 month post op strength assessment was imminent at the end of March. Thereafter, he would give me a further month to really work hard at regaining muscle mass. I really want to get my ‘Grrr’ on, but the reality is that I’m going to have to do a little and often to get the basic core strength in place as there’s simply not enough muscle in place to work! But as much as I want to, to really get my muscles working, NO RUNNING. At least I can get to the gym for about forty minutes every day that I’m at work and make sure I get a Promax shake in me to help rebuild what muscles I’ve got!

After my ‘telling off’, making snow men with my brother’s kids was a slightly less enthusiastic affair! But when you’re in the presence of a 2 year old who’s obviously never seen snow before, it was great to just sit back at let her do all the mental running around!

Week 9

I’m already bored with going to the gym in my lunch breaks! The only saving grace has been that the new kit has an ipod docking station so I can drown out the God awful music they play in there. I want to go to the gym, not the under 14’s disco! But having said that, I’m VERY guilty of getting into the Twilight books, so the disco is probably the most appropriate place for me! But there’s nothing like a few chapters of Vampire teen angst to wile away the time on the cycling machine! I managed over half an hour at my top (allowed) resistance without even blinking! So to make the gym less dull, I’m allowing myself to get very distracted with the ongoing dramas of Edward and Bella! I’m hoping that at this stage of my feeble muscle development that these long toning sessions might just get me to the core strength place I really and quickly need to be.

The Great Outdoors

I had an awesome afternoon with my brother and eldest Nephew down in Padstow at the weekend. After the arduous 5 hour drive to North Cornwall I was instantly greeted by my 6 yr old nephew begging me to go on a bike ride with him and his dad! The weather was just stunning and it was late afternoon so off down the Camel Trail we went! It was the route of an old railway line so an awesome flat easy long stretch! We must have gone miles, at one point being chased by a very enthusiastic Jack Russell with rocket launchers in his feet! All the while my legs and knee felt great, maybe because I was distracted by my brother’s hilarious attempts to scrape the dog poo from his son’s back wheel, only to load up the front wheel with a nice fresh one! Cycle rides on the Cornish coast beats a stuffy old gym anyday!

Friday 05 March 2010 | Permalink