Post op- Day 3

Day 3- 

Pretty impressed that this gammy leg hasn't interrupted my sleeping. I've been taking some co-codamol before bed, and not had to take anything else until late morning so far. Today I've had some Ibuprofen at 11am, and that's it (it's.... just gone 6pm now). Sweeeeet.

Knee swelling is still the same, but overall pain is minimal today. Lots of bruising and swelling around my (c)ankle. Eww.

Really good day today. Real productive. It's looked like this;

Exercises

10 x 3 Knee flexion drills

5 x 10 Straight leg raises

2 x 10 Hamstring strengthening contractions

3 x 5 min Knee hangs

Felt reeeeal good doing the exercises today. Especially the knee flexion drills. I wasn't wimpering in pain and it didn't feel super tight over the stitches like yeseterday. I managed a 95/100 degree bend which I'm super happy with (as it can take up to 14 days to achieve this).

Knee flexion comparisons

Day 2- approx 90 degrees

Since surgery, I have been using a dinner tray to reduce friction along the carpet, and help slide my leg more easily.

As mentioned before, doing this exercise yesterday was immensely uncomfortable. 

Day 3- approx 100 degrees

I managed about 3 sets of 5 throughout the day, and hated every minute of it. 

Compare that to today...

Where I managed a much larger degree of bend. About 100 degrees.

 It felt much easier to achieve (even without the tray). I could pull it in, in one smooth motion, compared to the jolting I was only capable of yesterday. WIN.

Icing (for 20-30mins)

9:30am

11am

3pm

5pm

9pm

Trying to get rid of my swollen cankle

It may well be the use of the cryocuff all of yesterday that had helped me achieve so well in the exercises. It really is incredible, and I'd encourage anyone who experiences frequent knee injuries/soreness to invest in one.

Inbetween icing today, I have been practicing my walking. I even managed to tackle some stairs today without injury/death. Weight bearing has been much easier today, and as mentioned above, I have managed to hobble a little without crutches- something I won't attempt again until I am a little more balanced. The main point I'm trying to make is I'm not experiencing any pain when putting weight through the leg (something which is fairly common).

It's still super early days, but if I keep progressing as I have been, I'll be a happy Shebeast.

End.

Post op- Day 2

Day 2-

Another good night of sleep. Lying around and playing Mortal Kombat must be exhausting me..

I took of my tubey grip and had a nosey at the state of my knee today. Mainly because I'm a rebel, but also because, as mentioned yesterday, I couldn't feel the cold of the ice getting through to my knee. 

Side note: My iodine stained leg looks freeeeakin' nasty still. Despite having a shower this morning, I swear. Oh yeah, the shower was interesting. I decided I'd stand (because only old ladies sit down in the shower), which made for a terrifying ordeal. I reckon I'm about 70:30 in terms of weight distribution. But I thought I might trip and die. But I didn't. Hooray for me.

Post tubey grip wrinkle-age

Today has largely been a day of rehab exercises and icing like crazy.

Exercises:

2 x 10 knee flexion (aka holycrapthisistortureflexion)

5 x 10 minute holds of passive knee stretch

3 x 10 straight leg raises 

I've focused more on hyperextending my knee today. I've read so much literature before the surgery, and the fastest recoveries followed the regime of; get the swelling down with heaps of ice (check) and reduce swelling ASAP in order to be able to regain full ROM faster.

Despite what mummybeast says, I don't think the swelling is as bad as I had envisaged;

Thin (ish) vs. Fatty

However, the front of my knee has felt very tight today. I've managed to get a 90 degree bend again, but it was more challenging than yesterday. I feel like I'm about to blow out all the stitches when I try to get a 90 degree bend. Not an enjoyable experience. So I did them, but not as many as I did yesterday.

Despite hands on my hips, my face is more like "AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOHHGODDDDDD"

So yeah, hyper-extensions and leg raises today. I should probably mention that when I'm not doing the exercises, I look like this;

Looking down on leg, but I swear it's raised to chest level with more height under the ankle

Icing regime (each for 20mins):

11am

2pm

6pm- Introduced cryocuff (see below)

9pm

At about 5:30 I sent some minions over to collect a cryocuff from my coach Darren. It is the most incredible, beautiful, thoughtful creation in existence. Ram some ice in the top, a little cold water, pump it up and let the coolness flow round. It's lusssshhhhhh.

I approve

In addition to the exercises, I've also been practicing my walking- whilst wearing the sexy brace. Post ACL surgery you're encouraged to fully weight bare as soon as possible. As I can stand up unassisted, I figured I'd be walking pretty soon. However, putting all my weight on the operated leg feels horrrrrrrible. Not painful or anything, just, weird. I'll be taking it super steady, but I'll be practicing 4 or 5 times a day.

I'm trying to avoid developing any bad habits in reference to using the crutches too. I'm walking super slow, and making sure I bend my knee, and placing my foot down heel-toe.

My brother (she..bro?) had an MCL reconstruction in December last year, so has some experience in how to get back to walking properly. He's my walking guru.

He has more holes in his leg though.

Extra side note; Whilst we have had different ligaments reconstructed, his involved a hamstring graft, and mine is a patella graft. It will be interesting to compare when we are both fully healed, as I've heard conflicting opinions on each graft. 

Ah, I've also remembered I've bought some supplements to help fix me. Along with my usual whey protein (that I usually drink post workout, but am currently drinking pre bed time) I've bought this stuff:

Ta-dahhhh!

So ligaments are made of collagen, collagen is in this lemon bon bon flavoured thing, so I've had a serving today and may start having a couple of servings a day.

Pain has been on and off today. Yesterday I alternated ibuprofen with co-codamol and felt fine. I've tried to ease off today and I've only had one serving of each. I am feeling it though. Again, not so much in my knee, but the stitches and actual wound hurts (probably from the compression of the tubey grip and the painful-bending-death exercises).

Pain-o-meter- probably a 4 or 5. Most painful thing today has been accidentally dropping a bag of frozen peas on my knee, and having a trapped nerve in my bum when standing up earlier on.

All in all, an improvement on yesterday, even if only a little.

End.

I'm doing this from my phone..

Alriiiight.. I'm intrigued as to how this turns out.

I'm also going to keep this as the briefest blog ever, as my auto correct is already driving me mad..

Updates:

I am getting back into photography. Well, attempting to. More specifically, fighting photography. The last set of serious pictures I took were at ADCC in Nottingham a couple of years ago (see blog entitled ADCC). But now, I'm trying to do it on a more regular basis. Here are some shots I've taken recently at training at Fightworx Academy: ok, I've attached pictures but have no idea where they will appear. Whatever. There are also some pictures of some Forca Luta t shirts. It's a new and upcoming MMA brand owned by one of guys I train with. So check them ooouuut.

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Second update. After some (polite) nagging about the lack of women's bjj stuff in UK mag Jiu Jitsu Style, I currently find myself in the process if writing an article about women's jiu jitsu in the UK and world scene. It will be in the next issue of Jiu Jitsu Style, so keep your eyes peeled! />


And finally, both my sponsors have some amaaazing stuff due out really soon. Scramble are in the final stages of releasing their much anticipated Vale Tudo shorts which look siiiiiiiick. They have also found a good quality bjj belt manufacturer and so they aim to start producing scramble belts very soon (they've been talking about this for a while,and have received a few samples from other companies, but the quality wasn't up to scramble standards- so you know these will be the sheeeeet- see sample pic I've attached, somewhere).

And, Pony Club Grappling Gear are looking to release 3 different t shirt designs along with their funky yellow and black spats, all at the same time (see pic). The t shirt designs include statements like "No bullshido, hespect", as well as glittery gold "I heart jiu jitsu". Ny favourite, which I'm VERY excited about is the Genki Sudo T shirt. Face it. Who wouldn't want one of those?

Oh, and superfinally- I'm on instagram. Find me. I'm "shebeastbjj".

Right, that's it. I have mobile-phone-texting-hand-cramp.

End.

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