I wasn’t going to write another post until after my Consultant appointment in a couple of weeks’ time but few things to update so may as well post them now rather than one mega post after that.
At the time of writing, it’s the day after Facebook kindly reminded me that it is 7 years since the RevACLr officially failed, giving way when I slipped on ice on a night out with my other half to celebrate his birthday. It was the event that was the catalyst for starting this blog in the first place. At that point, I thought I was facing another Revision ACL surgery - that hasn’t happened (yet) but after quite the wander around different routes, here I am nearly 4 months post HTO instead.
Three weeks after my last update, the key themes are probably still trust, mobility and back into the unknown.
The knee hasn’t reacted badly to getting back on the bike and I’ve built up from 5 minutes at zero resistance to 20 minutes at 8-12/15 resistance. On the positive side, it’s good to finally be up to a point where I can break a sweat again and burn some halfway decent calories (shouldn't care about the latter but I do so 🤷🏻♀️); on the downside, by heck it’s boring! Never been a fan of cycling and could really do with getting into it. Various people keep trying to get me to give spinning a go but, while I’ve had the okay from physio to do so (under certain conditions e.g. no standing and no sprints on low resistance) I can’t quite bring myself to go… yet. I’ll probably end up being one of those really annoying converts who goes on to evangelise endlessly about the benefits over the next 12 months or so but, right now, I’m not feeling it 😂
I’ve also been doing more walking. My Tuesday walks with a friend are back on and we’ve done a couple of off-roaders now. Good to get out, have some fresh air and take in our glorious countryside while setting the world to rights. I'm being careful when choosing the routes that we’re not going somewhere that’s likely to be slippery or have steep slopes (not without vegetation to hold on to, anyway) but if I stop to look back, I’m SO much stronger and more mobile than I was just a few weeks ago so things are largely moving in the right direction.
With this increased mobility has come increased confidence and glimmers of belief that maybe this latest ‘fix’ will work after all but this last week has been a bit more up and down.
On Sunday, I was helping my youngest with his homework and just leaning on the table when my knee well and truly hyperextended out of nowhere. It had been feeling a bit looser over the last couple of weeks but I just put it down to being more mobile and being tested a bit more in different planes so there would inevitably be some level of scar tissue breakdown. It didn’t give way altogether, thankfully, but talk about a heart in mouth moment! My other half took the youngest to a party that afternoon (couldn’t quite face any well-meaning questions about how things were going at that point) so I had a quiet afternoon icing again.
Next day it was a bit stiff and more sore than it has been for a while but I got a bike session and some basic physio in without real problems, which is good.
Next day I had a physio appointment and she confirmed that I have regained quite a bit of hyperextension. Bugger! I know the 10 degree bracing was a bit of an experiment - and part of that bigger picture of marginal gains - but it’s still frustrating that aspect doesn’t appear to have worked. Best hope the rest of those gains deliver the longer-term goods now.
Otherwise, physio went pretty well and I passed the tests needed to clear me to start loading. So, while the mainstay of my physio hasn’t changed much - two different kinds of single-leg bridging and star travels are constants - I do now get to try two-footed jumps as well. My knee isn’t tracking over my second toe quite so consistently as it was now that we’re adding a jump element - it is sometimes going inwards again - but hopefully some focussed mirror-practice will prove successful training that movement.
I also had permission to add yoga and even some treadmill-running (30s run, 60s walk intervals) to my cycling and walking so that was pretty pleasing.
Couldn’t resist having a go on the treadmill next day and by heck that was sobering. Thought I’d start at a slow jog (5mph) but my gait couldn’t cope with that at all and I ended up having to ‘run’ at my fast-walking speed of just 4mph instead. That was including holding on at the start of each interval to get some balance and control. With the pain (knee, not HTO) increasing with each interval, I had to call it a day pretty quickly and had grumpy knee for the next 48 hours to boot.
I guess it’s just too soon but I was quite side swiped by how p1ssed off it made me. It feels like huge progress over the last few weeks but such a long way still to go, and that’s if it all actually works.
Physio motivation is not great at the moment but I know I’ve got to keep chipping away at it so, after a day to lick my wounds, I’m back on it. Could really do with some more variety now to keep me focussed though...
…In the meantime, we had a night out to celebrate a friend’s 50th on Saturday and another, far more important landmark was achieved: Wearing heels!! I was still p1ssed off with the running problems so decided that sod it, if it was going to hurt anyway, I may as well wear the heels and feel like my old self for once. Knee was slightly sore the following day but not bad at all. That, at least, can go down as a win. And this IS Operation Change the Narrative, after all. Gotta finish on a positive!!
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