and it's not just mine! The Florida Gator Football team lost its 5th player to an ACL tear this offseason. This includes 2 starters and a couple of guys who were going to be fighting for playing time.
I know bad things happen in threes so I am hoping this is it; Tiger's ACL, my ACL and now 5 Gator ACL's.
As for my rehab; this week started off really well. On Tuesday morning I was able to bend my knee to 125 degrees and we have now integrated in some weight training on the legs. My leg looks almost normal, as some definition is returning to the quad, but there is still some swelling.
I have a big appt. with the surgeon on Friday as we are 5 weeks out and he wants to take a look. There is a chance he will want to drain the knee due to the swelling but hopefully not. Next week is a biggie because I get my first 'post surgery strength test' on that g-d awful Cybex machine. If all goes well I will be jogging Sept. 4th - which happens to be the opening night in the NFL, very nice!
Showing posts with label ACL reconstruction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACL reconstruction. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Rehab Update
Just got out of my Monday morning session with Mark and I am psyched.
I was able to get my knee bent to 122 degrees and Mark removed the final 2 or 3 stitches that didn't seem to want to come out. This happened at the end of the workout when his Assistant rubbed in some cocoa butter ointment and massaged the incision areas to start breaking up scar tissue. After months of rehab now (2 months before surgery and 3 weeks after now) I have been waiting to get these awesome massages that everyone around me seems to get, but no, just a little cocoa butter stuff around the knee; at least it wasn't Mark rubbing it in :)
Today in the workout we added a new element to all the other crazy stuff I am doing. Mark hooked me up to a weight belt that is attached to a 10 foot or so bungy cord. He made me drag him around the gym both forwards and backwards as he kept trying to pull me back. This was the FIRST time I felt like I was doing 'real' work again. One of the therapists was cheering me on and was pleased I could do so well 6 weeks after surgery, to which Mark smiled and said, "it's 3 weeks Shannon". :)
I am psyched and am seeing so much progress. Except for a little swelling and the still noticeable limp I have I feel pretty normal. There is always the steady uncomfortability/borderline pain, but nothing like last week. Ten years ago I was still immobilized in a boot and working from home with the left knee. It still amazes me how far science has come. Say want about sports, but from a medical perspective, big time sports has paved the way for these advancements. Teams need their athletes on the field as quickly as possible from a financial and competitive standpoint and surgeons like Dr. James Andrews have heard that loud and clear. The cynic in you might say, "shouldn't that be doing that with cancer, etc..." and the answer is of course yes, and they have, see my friend Steve's blog on my blog roll for evidence of that and yes, more research money needs to be thrown at everything. I can only speak from my 10 year experience between knee reconstruction surgeries.
Lastly, in the gym, with Mark's back turned I almost thought about trying to do a light jog in place but opted not to push my luck. I have heard from everyone who loves me not to overdo it and I am trying hard to listen :)
I was able to get my knee bent to 122 degrees and Mark removed the final 2 or 3 stitches that didn't seem to want to come out. This happened at the end of the workout when his Assistant rubbed in some cocoa butter ointment and massaged the incision areas to start breaking up scar tissue. After months of rehab now (2 months before surgery and 3 weeks after now) I have been waiting to get these awesome massages that everyone around me seems to get, but no, just a little cocoa butter stuff around the knee; at least it wasn't Mark rubbing it in :)
Today in the workout we added a new element to all the other crazy stuff I am doing. Mark hooked me up to a weight belt that is attached to a 10 foot or so bungy cord. He made me drag him around the gym both forwards and backwards as he kept trying to pull me back. This was the FIRST time I felt like I was doing 'real' work again. One of the therapists was cheering me on and was pleased I could do so well 6 weeks after surgery, to which Mark smiled and said, "it's 3 weeks Shannon". :)
I am psyched and am seeing so much progress. Except for a little swelling and the still noticeable limp I have I feel pretty normal. There is always the steady uncomfortability/borderline pain, but nothing like last week. Ten years ago I was still immobilized in a boot and working from home with the left knee. It still amazes me how far science has come. Say want about sports, but from a medical perspective, big time sports has paved the way for these advancements. Teams need their athletes on the field as quickly as possible from a financial and competitive standpoint and surgeons like Dr. James Andrews have heard that loud and clear. The cynic in you might say, "shouldn't that be doing that with cancer, etc..." and the answer is of course yes, and they have, see my friend Steve's blog on my blog roll for evidence of that and yes, more research money needs to be thrown at everything. I can only speak from my 10 year experience between knee reconstruction surgeries.
Lastly, in the gym, with Mark's back turned I almost thought about trying to do a light jog in place but opted not to push my luck. I have heard from everyone who loves me not to overdo it and I am trying hard to listen :)
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
2 days to go - I met my new surgeon this morning
I liked him, which is a plus. We went over my MRI and he checked out the knee and we talked about the procedure. He went over the 2 methods he does (hamstring and cadaver) and he let me choose. I stuck with the hamstring even though he told me he had harvested a nice tendon from a 35 year old guy (if he told me he was a former NBA player and I could dunk after surgery I would have chosen that option) but I was pretty set on the hamstring.
His only concern is an area on the outside of my right knee. In the injury I banged the 2 bones out there really hard and there is a bone bruise that is still visible on the MRI. His worry is that the cartilage might not be salvageable. In that case, he would remove it and then poke holes in the bone where it was in hopes to regenerate some new cartilage. The only drawback here is that I would be off my feet for 4 weeks on crutches as opposed to 1 week and then starting rehab. There's nothing I can do except wait and see what he finds...
Sitting and waiting seems to be the order of the day as tomorrow night will last forever and I don't even get to the hospital until noon for a 2:00 surgery on Thursday! No food after midnight on Wednesday, can you guess who will wake up groggy and hungry after surgery?
If I go 'dark' her for a few days hopefully that will mean the hydrocodone is working and I'm sleeping...maybe one more quick post tomorrow if something interesting happens.
I haven't talked sports in awhile, maybe we can chat about the great championships we have seen the last few months.
Also, quick shout out to my boy Marc Wolpert who survived the 'killing fields' of Day 1 at the World Series of Poker MAIN EVENT. He's a bit of a short stack headed into his Day 2 but I'm rooting for him to survive and cash!
His only concern is an area on the outside of my right knee. In the injury I banged the 2 bones out there really hard and there is a bone bruise that is still visible on the MRI. His worry is that the cartilage might not be salvageable. In that case, he would remove it and then poke holes in the bone where it was in hopes to regenerate some new cartilage. The only drawback here is that I would be off my feet for 4 weeks on crutches as opposed to 1 week and then starting rehab. There's nothing I can do except wait and see what he finds...
Sitting and waiting seems to be the order of the day as tomorrow night will last forever and I don't even get to the hospital until noon for a 2:00 surgery on Thursday! No food after midnight on Wednesday, can you guess who will wake up groggy and hungry after surgery?
If I go 'dark' her for a few days hopefully that will mean the hydrocodone is working and I'm sleeping...maybe one more quick post tomorrow if something interesting happens.
I haven't talked sports in awhile, maybe we can chat about the great championships we have seen the last few months.
Also, quick shout out to my boy Marc Wolpert who survived the 'killing fields' of Day 1 at the World Series of Poker MAIN EVENT. He's a bit of a short stack headed into his Day 2 but I'm rooting for him to survive and cash!
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