Another two weeks go by as I hit my 8 weeks mark post surgery. The routine continues – work and more work. Two of the most hectic weeks I have had work-wise in the last few months. On the rehab front, things have been progressing well. The physical therapist added some hamstring and calf exercises. Just can’t believe what a couple of weeks of inactivity can do to your leg. The quads and the calf have really gone down and the strength one loses is incredible. In any case, the calf became extremely sore for a few days. However, in a couple of days after I started these hamstring and calf exercises, my gait dramatically improved.
Just after the six week mark, the scar tissue was becoming more prominent. The PT mentioned that the body starts to ‘lay’ the scar tissue around this time. This was interesting to know. He ‘dug’ into the scar tissue and massaged the heck out of it. It was incredible to see that the scar tissue – more a ‘blob’ – just disappeared after that visit. I started to massage the tissue perpendicular to the cut every day now. The scar tissue related pain comes and goes.
I also learned that the time between the six and nine week marks is critical. I forget how I got this information, but I learned that the allograft basically loses all its strength (about 50% that is) around this period as the body begins to grow its own tissue/cells in the graft. It will be another month or so before the graft starts to come back to life. That I thought was quite interesting. The swelling has subsided tremendously –though there are good days and bad days – and I can almost walk normally now.
In the mean time, my physical therapy at home has gone down to once a day now. Just not enough time to do it twice anymore. I have been biking about 20mins followed by walking about 1.5miles a day – four to five times a week. Schedule permitting, I would like to walk every day, but has not happened yet. My typical physical therapy includes 20 mins biking (stationary); 30 mins walking (around the neighborhood); heel slides for 20 mins; work on hamstring for 10 mins; quad tightening - 30 of them - about 5 mins; 30 straight leg lifts with 5lb cuffs - about 10 mins; squats (no weight) 2-3 sets of 10 each for about 10 mins; hamstring raises (standing straight and flexing the knee as much as possible with 5 lb cuffs) for about 5 mins; steps for about 5 mins; calf raises for about 5 mins; for a total of about 2hrs.
The surgery is a dream now! I can’t even start to imagine how smooth the whole process has been. If this is normal, then, people should just do it and not look at other non-surgical options. I may be over-simplifying this, but, I can unequivocally say that the two months prior to surgery were more painful and more discomforting than the two months post-op (except that time when I had to wear the brace at all times).
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