Pause

I'm taking a weekend in la London so the blog will take a break for the weekend. Will try and do the mobility I'm supposed to do, but we'll see how that goes. A lot of walking lies ahead so all fingers crossed that the knee will hold up.

Have a great end of the week and I'll see you back in this space Monday eve!

x

Thursday

First time for twice in a row for strength this week as I'm heading to London tomorrow and won't have time for the gym then. It felt good. I still had 24 hours rest so no biggie really, but thought it'd be harder, tougher. Once again, I'm suspecting I might not be giving it my all (unintentionally so in that case!)

10 mins cycling
Leg press: 7+7+7 (10 reps)
Leg curl: 7+7+7 (10 reps)
Balance: 3x1 min
Lifters
----
One-legged squat: 3x10 (this hurt like hell!)
Lunges: 3x10
Ski jumps: 3x20 (best one so far I think, even if the last 10 were really really tough)
Squats: 15+15+15 (10 reps) (finally got the hang of it! For today at least)
Interval cycling: 3x 6x30 secs

No breakdowns, however some severe pain. I'm still writing it off as normal post-op sensation. It is quite a big operation the knee's gone through. Also realised that if I stop waiting, stop counting, then maybe it will feel better. Living now, today, this moment rather than plunging in an anticipatory future which will come either way. There are a lot of gym sessions to be done, a lot of sweat to be sweated, and probably more tears to come - but that will all come in due time. As for now, I've done my share and can look forward to 4 days away from the gym, and a holiday.

Temporary calm.

x

Buh-bye!

Had my last (voluntary) gym session at Nordic Club, a.k.a Useless Gym today! What a relief! No more random figures instead of actual weights, I'm rid of builders and sweating in a construction site - and I'm back in CJ house as of Monday!

However, if I'm to be completely frank, I've had a good last two sessions. This is typical me. Once things draw towards their inevitable ends, I tend to appreciate them more; find my place more and so on. I was getting along with the bikes a lot better today and yesterday and the leg press might not be so bad after all. Nevertheless, I'm glad these three weeks are over and I can't wait to go back to my old gym.

Pat on the shoulder for me for making it through in one piece.

x

More success

Today's gym session went well! Or, whenever it feels good I suspect I did not give it my all. If I'm not in tears at least twice and hyperventilating three - can it be a good work out? Anyway:

10 mins cycling
Leg press: 7+7+7 (10 reps)
Leg curl: 6+7+7 (10 reps)
Balance 3x 1 min
Lifters
----
One-legged squat
Lunges
Ski jumps
Squats: 10+15+15 (10 reps)
Interval cycling

Same strategy as last time; set shift indicated with ----. One-legged squats were horrible today - pain, pain, pain! -, but interval cycling went ok.

x

Week 8 finito

Week 8 has come to an end and thereby marks 2 months since surgery. Where are we at?

- walking more or less normally (after training)
- able to use equal strength in left/right knee in leg press (see image)
- interval cycling
- swelling is gone
- heat difference is more or less gone
- full extension
- almost full flexion

According to web sites I'm supposed to have 100% mobility range now but I'm not too happy with mine. More work required! Other than that, looks like I'm on schedule.

x

Calling for stories!

If anyone out there is or has been touched with an ACL rupture - please e-mail me your story! Reconstruction, first or second, or did you choose not to do the surgery? Maybe making the decision right now?

Please send to:

ladypretentious@gmail.com

I love hearing how other people view the process!

x

Pain!

As usual when I feel in a good mood about things, it goes wrong. So, accordingly, when knee felt alright after a walk in town and after some cycling and mobility work, it fell apart again.

At the moment having some pain spasms on the inside of the knee, or the medial part. This pain is slightly disconcerting as the doctors before have said unanimously and without a doubt that I had torn my medial meniscus as well as the ACL. MRIs and manual observation have led to this conclusion. But when they went inside, during surgery - in two cases with two different surgeons - they found that the meniscus was intact. Now I'm no drama queen (keep telling myself that at least) but this feels wrong.

2 weeks until I see Mr Physio again.

x

Gymming

Today in its bright success:

10 mins cycling
Leg press: 7+7+7 (10 reps)
Leg curl: 6+6+7 (10 reps)
Balance: 3x1 min (with movement)
----
Lifters
One-legged squats
Squats
Lunges
Ski jumps
Interval cycling

Had a new strategy today. Did one rep of interval cycling straight after warm-up, thereby gaining two things: a. one lap of that horrible exercise out of the way straight; b. proper proper warm-up. Then I split the rest of the session into two sets (indicated by ----) and did interval cycling in the middle and finally at the end. Walked away tired and beat. I win (this time)!

x

Tip!

To all recent ACL surgerees out there! Here's a tip on how to keep the scarring down besides the obvious ones (keep out of the sun etc): moisturize! And not just any old moisturizer no - I can definitely recommend Body Butter Duo from The Body Shop (above). Out of the 4 'flavours' I think Macadamia is absolutely terrific. Possibly the best scent of all times!

The 'For dry skin' side is perfect for new scars to keep them soft and prevent them from breaking and chapping etc. For older scars/other body parts, there's the 'normal' side of the jar.

Now on sale in Sweden and at a decent price (£12 I think) in the UK!

x

Befriending the Builders

Gym went ok today actually. I think the lower expectations, the better the results. But that wasn't the major news today. As I've told before, they are refurbishing the gym - all over the place, everywhere (and they love to do it in the particular place I need when I need it). Anyway, today I was in the group training room alone doing my lifters as a builder walked in. He said 'Hi' (surprisingly: we're usually quite reserved here in Sweden) and spotted my knee.

"Recent surgery I see," he said.
"Well, two months," was my reply.

He came towards me and rolled up the leg of his trousers. A scar. Just like mine but faded. It turns out he'd torn his ACL playing floorball a while ago - surgery done by no other than KEN! And of course it wasn't fully healed yet. And he'd done same as me - patellar reconstruction - and as a builder he obviously didn't feel 100% kneeling down and stuff. I told him my story of how Ken messed up. He was 30-ish years old and had not been able to play floorball since.

I have seen the future.

x