Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

K+59 days post microfracture surgery

100 reps of strength exercises with weights and 30 minutes on spin bike.

Follow up appointment with doctr tomorrow along with physical therapy. We will see what he thinks progress wise.

K+60 Days (wow 60 days has passed since surgery!)

So, today was 60 days since I had surgery.

This is what my day looked like. 

5:30am - Wake up and hit the spin bike. Did 1 hour on spin bike with the last 30 minutes adding a bit of good resistance which made me work a little cardio and actually break a sweat. This was harder then normal but it felt good to have to breath and sweat a little. Yes, the PT cleared me to start doing this a little more.

6:40am - 100 straight leg lifts, 100 side leg lifts, some stretching and range of motion work

7:30am - Time to clean up and get ready for physical therapy and doctors appointment

8:00am - Take off to PT

8:15am - Physical Therapy (2 hours):

    - 15 minutes of heat pad on the knee to loosen things up

    - 5 minutes of heel slide range of motion work

    - PT checks things out and decides it is time to add a few more activities to my routine

    - 10 minutes of quad flex exercises and more leg lifts

    - 10 minutes on exercise bike with higher resistance (working harder and sweating again!)

    - 10 minutes on the elliptical, a new but somewhat welcome addition. I am not a big fan of the elliptical but I was able to get my heart rate up to 125 range for this 10 minute period and no real pain to speak of. Again nice to do a very small amount of cardio.

    - 10 minutes on a strange machine, kind of like a stair step machine but only sitting down. I could really feel this working the quads so this was good as well because they still need a lot of work.

    - Dr. showed up and visited and checked things out. Things look good overall. However, he was a bit surprised that my quad has not responded to all of the work I have been doing faster. He said I have some major muscle inhibition going on. For now not much to do except keep working hard.

    - 45 minutes or so on the weight machines and sliding squat torture machine. A total of 10 different exercises doing between 30 and 50 reps on each.

10:15am - Change and off to work all day. It is at least getting easier to go up and down stairs now. I can actually do it half way normal just in slow motion. No real pain!

Home from work for dinner and family time until 8:00pm.

8:00-9:00pm - More spin bike and leg lifts.

That brings me to now, time to ice the knee and go to bed so I can start it all over again tomorrow. However, I cannot complain because I have to many blessings in my life to do so. This is just one hurdle to continue to overcome and it is a small burden at that!

Enjoy life and remember to be thankful for the blessings in your life!

K+61 Days

Same old routine different day.

1.5 hours on bike with resistance again and working pretty hard towards end. Also leg reps with weights.

Nothing exciting today except I had a good day overall. This was the first day that the knee did not seem to get very stiff at all even towards the end of the day. In the past as the day progressed the knee would stiffen up and things would get worse. However, today it felt pretty good all day long and even tonight it is still doing pretty good. Hopefully this is a sign that I am turning a corner with the leg strength issues.

:-)

K+62 Days

1.5 hours on bike and more leg strengthening exercises. Not a bad day today but not as good as yesterday. Knee was back to feeling a bit more stiff today.

Tomorrow makes 9 weeks since surgery. So 2 months down and at least 2 months to go before I can even dream about trying to run again. I guess the optimist in me sees it as half way there, hopefully! 

K+63 Days (9 Weeks post microfrature surgery!)

1 hour of spin bike and 100 leg strength reps at home

Physical Therapy: 2 hours with highlights below

10+ min spin bike with a 5K covered in 10:27 on level 7 resistance

10min on elliptical machine covering 0.9 miles

10min on strange sitting stair step type machine

Then 10 different weight strength exercises on the machines I am up to 70, 85 and 100lbs. I started at 40, 55, and 50lbs and this was tough so the left leg strength is getting decent.

Added a new balance exercises which was very tough on the left knee. 120 reps total which was very hard.

So the PT does not need to see me for 4 weeks now. He said I know all the exercises he can teach me for now and I am on my own to get the leg stronger for the next 4 weeks. I guess this is a good thing but it was nice having the PT to talk to on a regular basis. I am putting together a new training schedule for next week that should be good.

K+64 Days

Busy day. Managed 1 hour on spin bike and some strength exercises but not as much as normal. 

 K+65 Days
 

Another really busy long day. On feet all day long so used the leg a lot. Only managed to get in an hour on spin bike. However, being out and about all day was a good workout for the knee. Pretty tired by the end of the day.