Celebrating small wins
One of the things that has made my recovery (so far, it’s still early days) has been keeping low expectations then being pleasantly surprised when things are better than I expected.
I am 20 days post op. I expected miserable pain and near zero sleep for the first 14 days. It hasn’t been nearly that bad.
I’ve been absolutely religious, and I mean devout, about my PT, icing and elevating routine. A few big wins today at PT:
- my extension is at -3, matching my non surgical leg
- my flexion is at 90 with minimal pain (I can’t go past 90 yet bc I had lateral meniscus repair)
- I can walk with one crutch (a free hand!)
- my PT said my quad is coming back nicely and he can see a major difference in my muscle engagement and tone
- I am tolerating the electro stim machine well and we moved to a protocol to stimulate muscle contraction to 30% of my non surgical leg
- my swelling is still present in the joint but my knee resembles a knee and not a softball
I have had some down days since this injury and today felt like a nice step forward in the process. I felt some true optimism for my future. Thought I’d share in hopes to inspire the same in others (and just feel good typing those wins out!)
Sending good vibes and PT rigor to all!