Picking up from where I left off last time, after a day or so processing everything, I basically decided that I have to suck it up and get on with it now and see where we end up.
The best chance I have of avoiding further surgery is to get this physio right. If it works, great. If not, I know what we need to do.
I don’t have any concerns about the osteotomy (HTO). The challenge lies in the ACL rehab so all I can do is give that my best shot again and cross my fingers.
I had a positive physio session the week after the consultant appointment. I mentioned the clunk on internal rotation to be met with an “oh no, please don’t tell me that” but after a few squats, jumps and an attempt at hopping, we decided to push ahead and if it goes, it goes, we’ll deal with it then. We also tried to use the anti-gravity running machine to help the return to running: Small shorts are just too small. Medium shorts are too big and let the air through. It’s like blinkin’ jeans shopping - always between sizes. Please can designers of these things bare in mind the female form, just occasionally? #invisiblewomen
Anyway, I headed back into the gym with instructions to try running again (30s jog, 60s walk, treadmill only) and to start adding hopping into my plan too. Elephants would probably more elegant attempting the latter at the moment but once I get these going, we can start to look at mutli-directional work, then things get more interesting.
Three weeks on and progress has been good. My first run (10 x 6.6kph jog, 5kph walk) was much better. Yes it was very slow. Yes, I could literally walk quicker, but getting moving without hanging on to the handles and taking time to work on my gait felt like a positive step forward.
My knee was a bit uncomfortable at times. It also tries to collapse inwards when it gets tired, but a couple more ‘runs’ the following week and I finally started to feel the spring coming back into my step (literally and metaphorically) so I extended the time out to 30 minutes with no real issues. Zero cardio impact but so good to feel like I’m getting back into it.
I had quite a bit of anterior knee pain the following week so had to space out the running sessions with my other physio (strength work and box jumping with quarter turns) but that’s to be expected as we build things back up, I’m sure. Just got to get the balance right.
Last week I managed to up the running speed to 7kph, then 7.5kph, and I’ve also balanced the intervals to 45s walk, 45s jog now in an attempt to get my lungs to expand just a little bit. I have to remind myself to build it up super slowly and remember that this is about rehab, not cardio fitness - at this point anyway…
Weights-wise, they’re improving. I can now do single leg extensions (I started with double leg, then trying to get the bad leg to take most of the weight on the descent). My hamstrings are definitely getting stronger too. It’s just leg press causing a few challenges as I’m getting a lot of anterior knee pain when doing these single leg (I was at 40kg but have dropped it right down to 20kg to try and build up again without pain).
Agility wise, the only issue is when I try to put more energy into the box jumps (either travelling further when turning anti clockwise, or landing when turning clockwise). I can feel my knee shift a little on take off for the former; and I’m subconsciously protecting it by not putting my full weight through it when landing on the latter.
I discussed it at today’s physio session and she agreed it looks wobbly so we’re going to take those down a level to really focus on form, balance and drilling my brain and muscles with the right info now so they hopefully get the hint and form new habits before we push on.
No appointment now for five weeks as physio is off to New Zealand - lucky so and so - so I’ve made myself a daily programme to keep me on track: mixing up running, strength and jumps; cycling, strength and hops; and agility, jumps and hops.
If all goes well, I can start to add different directions to the hopping and I’ve got a plan in place to increase the running intervals and decrease the walking too, so hopefully I’ll be up to running five minutes at a go by the time she returns (it doesn’t sound a lot but I’m being very careful - it’s a long term project and I need to get it right).
I’m also adding walking lunges and single leg squats again to try to tackle this anterior knee pain. Patellar tendons were mentioned and, having seen my OH’s kneecap in the wrong place when he blew his in Cornwall during Covid, I will do almost anything to avoid that! I haven’t had any more hyper extension episodes (yet) but the clunk is still there so we work with what we’ve got.
Five-week plan, let’s get going. Wish me luck 🍀 💪🏻 Heading up to the Lake District in a few weeks so next update will most likely be from there. One year on from when it blew out again last year and triggered this whole 'Operation Change the Narrative' phase 😬 ⛰️☔️
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