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ACL Surgery Recovery - Day 14 (physical therapy)

June 11th, 2003 - Oh yea... it's a good day in the world of ACL recovery. I had my first session with the physical therapist and man I feel better. I got 3 massages today, one by hand, one by electrical stimulation, and one by ultrasound. It was great. I got to lay there for almost an hour getting 3 types of massage. I got a warm blanket during the electrical stimulation massage and I took a 15 minute nap.

The physical therapist answered a lot of my questions today, which was a big relief. I found out that the werid pains in my knee and occasional feeling of the knee locking up are normal. Also, he told me exactly what muscles are weak now and how I can go about rehabilitating each area. We compared the size of my right and left thighs, and that was depressing. My once powerful left thigh was just a former shell of it's old self. On the positive side though, the therapist said that I was progressing along really nicely and that I was ahead of schedule due to my good surgery, young age, and good muscle tone before surgery.

I got a little packet of about 15 different exercises I can be doing to help regain the atrophied muscle in the left leg. This is just what I needed. Also, the therapist advised me to get in the pool or hot tub as much as possible, massage my knee and leg as much as possible, and to start riding a stationary bike at the gym. I took him up on that last piece of advice at the gym today, and man did I struggle. I ended up riding the bike for 30 minutes, but the first 10 minutes felt like my leg wanted to fall off. Eventually though, as the leg loosened up a bit and I got more comfortable. I was still in a good deal of pain at the very end of my 30 minutes on the bike, but I could position my legs so that the pain was minimized. I felt so good after I got off of the bike too. It felt like those muscles that had shrank were finally getting some work and gaining mass.



I tried some of the exercises that the physical therapist gave me tonight, and I think that this program is pretty easy. The only one thing I can't do right now is the quad bend, which kills. I got one of those big rubber bands to help me bend my leg, and I think I can get about 110 degrees of flexation using it, but it really really hurts. Tomorrow I will try to push it a little harder.

I have another session of PT on Friday afternoon... I am looking forward to the massages :) I got fitted for my metal brace about a week ago now at the doctor's office, hopefully I can get that in so I can stop wearing the immobilizer. I really want to start returning to a normal walking motion ASAP. I guess that means hitting the stationary bike and the pool every day. I can't say that I can complain though.

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