Weeks 7-8.5

Stage 2 started with a trip to the hospital for appointments with my surgeon and a physio (unfortunately not my usual hospital physio, as he was on annual leave).

The appointment with the surgeon went really well (and was really good for my ego). He wiggled my knee around and declared himself pleased with the outcome, and said he knew I’d be a textbook patient. I asked the million-dollar question (“Will I be able to get back to running very long distances very slowly?”) and he responded as if this was a silly question: “Of course, that’s the reason why we did this”. He then told the head physio, who was attending the appointment, that I was an “elite athlete”. I don’t think of myself as any sort of athlete, but didn’t object. Standing on both feet felt really strange (my right shoe being in my rucksack rather than on my foot didn’t help), and I decided to hop rather than walk my way up to physio.

The physio appointment was less positive. The computer system hadn’t allowed the stand-in physio to access my notes, and I’m guessing I got put on a normal middle-aged woman (rather than an elite athlete…) protocol: two and a half weeks of walking with crutches around the house only, some basic exercises, no driving and no cycling. And the timescales for getting back to driving and walking normally were worryingly close to our holiday in 5 weeks. Walking was uncomfortable and very slow, and it took a lot of willpower to walk rather than hop out of the hospital.

really not sure about this walking business…

Being able to put both feet on the floor was big progress, but it was still a long way from normal. In particular, still having to carry things around in a rucksack rather than my hands was a pain. On a particularly frustrating day, I announced that I was fed up of being like “***ing Dora the ***ing Explorer”. Sleeping proved problematic again. Without the brace, I moved around too much and kept waking up in discomfort. After 2 very disrupted nights, I was seriously considering starting to wear the brace again at night, but thankfully it got better quickly after that.

The flexion in my knee increased pretty rapidly; however, I tweaked various muscles in my leg trying too hard. I also annoyed my calf by absentmindedly walking down the last step of the stairs normally (in the middle of the night while composing stressful work emails in my head…). I was meticulous about following the no weight-bearing instruction for the first 6 weeks. However, I was less rigorous about the 2.5 weeks indoors on crutches, given that the surgeon had said that his only restrictions now were no deep loaded squats and no running. We went for several very short (0.25 mile) walks with crutches outside, and around the house I sometimes took a few steps without crutches when it made things significantly easier.

Weeks 8.5-11.5

The next appointment with the stand-in physio went much better. I deliberately wore one of my most ‘not an average middle-aged woman’ race T-shirts. Nigel also did his part. His 145 degrees of flexion was declared “phenomenal” (full flexion for normal, non-hypermobile, people is 135 degrees), and we were cleared to drive, wean ourselves off the crutches and then gently push Nigel's limits. Most of the new exercises I was given were really easy (glute bridges, standing on one leg), but single-leg heel raises provided some much-wanted challenge.

trying to look like 'not your average middle aged woman'

I left the hospital on a single crutch, which I ditched within 24 hours. I embraced my newfound freedom and went (on my own!) to a gong bath, and also into the office for the first time in 2 months. Walking was initially very slow and uncomfortable, but over two weeks I went from being able to do 1 mile in 25 minutes, to 3.5 miles in an hour (my usual ‘comfortably fast’ walking pace is 4 mph). I also managed a short walk on the moors to say hello to some sheep.

sheep and a trigpoint

Now I was 'back to everyday normal', we got the house back to normal, including packing away lots of books and completed sewing. The leg ache from the overenthusiastic hamstring curls eased, but my calf became very tight, and I started getting discomfort on the outside of my knee on initially putting weight through it. If felt similar to what I experienced pre-surgery, so part of my brain screamed “ahhh, the repair has failed already”. However it's eased and I think/hope it’s just a sign of a tight calf muscle.

2 non-mobile months worth of reading material, a cushion cover and the first 3 (of 20…) panels of the next project

Stage 2 ended with with an appointment with the original hospital physio. He was impressed and surprised by what I was managing to do, to the extent that I was worried that I'd misinterpreted the stand-in physios instructions. But since I'm not experiencing pain, and Nigel isn't swollen, it's all good. Apparently it normally takes 5 months to get to where we are. For now there are no new exercises but when I get back from holiday in 2 and a bit weeks time the gym work starts.