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State of the Knee
Mar. 26th, 2010 08:42 pmIt's been more than six months since I had knee surgery to replace the ACL in my right knee.
I have a fair amount of discomfort in both my knees (the left one's knee surgery is a year older). A lot of it is related to my current job location, which has me doing a lot of standing and a lot of lifting and shifting heavy boxes. If I stand for more than an hour or so, my knees start aching. Well, it's hours and a job, so I'm taking it. I'm also taking a lot of aspirin/ibuprofen/Tylenol--daily, a lot of the time two-four times a day. I'm trying not to use narcotics much, though they're the only thing that knocks the pain away for a significant amount of time once my knees start hurting.
This makes it sound horrible, but it's not that bad, really! I've got almost all my range of motion back, and the little bit of bend I've lost may be gone forever, though I'm still doing all my stretches. I do knee therapy exercises for flexibility several days a week (they're easy), but I'm getting lazy and not doing the strength-building ones so much. They're time-consuming. Also, I can get a lot of the same benefit from biking.
I'm able to do stuff! I'm biking to and from work almost every day, and it doesn't seem to aggravate my knees at all. I've signed up for a Shaolin Kung Fu class beginning in a couple of weeks, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes. My knee brace showed up in the mail a couple of days ago, and I'm approved for full activity levels as long as I wear the brace for another year. This is great, and wonderful, and also scary, as I am terrified that I'll run down the stairs and I'll blow my knees out. Or I'll chase after a bus and.... Or something will startle me and I'll swerve and.... Or I'll jump down from a chair and.... Or I'll be doing Kung Fu and.... Or I'll play tag and.... Or I'll try volleyball/capture the flag/basketball/anysportatall and....
Mostly for my own future reference--quad exercises! Do them! Squats, leg presses, lunges.
Conclusion: Nervous as hell, still dealing with pain issues, but happy to be approaching normal activity levels.
I have a fair amount of discomfort in both my knees (the left one's knee surgery is a year older). A lot of it is related to my current job location, which has me doing a lot of standing and a lot of lifting and shifting heavy boxes. If I stand for more than an hour or so, my knees start aching. Well, it's hours and a job, so I'm taking it. I'm also taking a lot of aspirin/ibuprofen/Tylenol--daily, a lot of the time two-four times a day. I'm trying not to use narcotics much, though they're the only thing that knocks the pain away for a significant amount of time once my knees start hurting.
This makes it sound horrible, but it's not that bad, really! I've got almost all my range of motion back, and the little bit of bend I've lost may be gone forever, though I'm still doing all my stretches. I do knee therapy exercises for flexibility several days a week (they're easy), but I'm getting lazy and not doing the strength-building ones so much. They're time-consuming. Also, I can get a lot of the same benefit from biking.
I'm able to do stuff! I'm biking to and from work almost every day, and it doesn't seem to aggravate my knees at all. I've signed up for a Shaolin Kung Fu class beginning in a couple of weeks, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes. My knee brace showed up in the mail a couple of days ago, and I'm approved for full activity levels as long as I wear the brace for another year. This is great, and wonderful, and also scary, as I am terrified that I'll run down the stairs and I'll blow my knees out. Or I'll chase after a bus and.... Or something will startle me and I'll swerve and.... Or I'll jump down from a chair and.... Or I'll be doing Kung Fu and.... Or I'll play tag and.... Or I'll try volleyball/capture the flag/basketball/anysportatall and....
Mostly for my own future reference--quad exercises! Do them! Squats, leg presses, lunges.
Conclusion: Nervous as hell, still dealing with pain issues, but happy to be approaching normal activity levels.
