Post op- Day 7

Day 7

And on the seventh day, I FREAKIN' walked. Not far, might I add. But I'm confident enough to not need the crutches. Something must have happened in my sleep man, because I was wobbly as hell yesterday. I've even left the house (by MYSELF) and gone for a short walk/hobble around the park. Felt a bit achey afterwards but I've been elevating and icing since and overall I'm feeling gooood.

Check me out;

Exercises

3 x 10 knee flexion

3 x 5min knee hangs

3 x 10 quad strengthening

3 x 10 resisted hamstring pulls

15mins slow paced, old man style stroll

I've sacked off the straight leg raises as they're easy enough to do now. Knee flexion drills feel great, no tightness around the knee or stitches (again, hopefully due to the reduction in swelling). There is a slight pull (like when a bone catches a tendon, a little bit?) when I pull my knee to 100-110 degrees. I was aware of it yesterday too. I've been stopping right before I feel that pull, and will ask the Physio what they think it is when I see them on Tuesday. It may well be something catching as it'll be inflamed and swollen in there still. It's not painful anyway, just, weird.

 Knee hangs are still feeling good. Think I might be getting closer the a slight hyper-extension. Swelling is visually reduced again (my bad knee is only slightly larger than my good knee). There was also a feeling of numbness towards the outside of my knee, which seems to be regaining feeling again. I've read it's fairly common to lose feeling close to the main incision site after arthroscopic surgeries.

Icing (30mins)

10am

12pm

3pm

6pm

So... much... icing. Will continue to do this, along with taking ibuprofen as it seems to be doing the trick nicely. It's helping my swelling, as well as keeping any post exercise aches at bay. Very happy with the results of the icing.

Well guys, that's day 7. I'm expecting to continue progressing, but at a slower rate. Slow enough that there won't be much need to warrant a daily blog. So at this stage I'll make 2 announcements;

1) The post ACL surgery blog will become a weekly blog.

I will summarise each day still, but in a weekly release. I'll mainly use it to highlight any milestones/dramatic changes in my recovery.

2) Shebeast blog will soon become WWW.SHEBEASTBJJ.COM

The BJJ community is the best. Not only have I had people from all over message me wishing me the best of luck in recovering and sending me links to instructional DVD's to watch. But I've also had someone very very experienced offer to help transform this blog into it's own website. An improved layout, easier to access, and just a whole lot awesomererer. This is something I'm very excited about, so I'll keep you updated on any developments regarding that one.

Right, back to Ryan and his deepy hawf stuff. See you in a week!

Oss.

                

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.

/>
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.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9