6 weeks and change

I am just over 6 weeks post op. I already mentioned how I'm cleared to walk and weight bear, and the brace comes off in 2 weeks. The same day as my appointment, I went to physical therapy, which was great. I got to do a lot more stuff because i was finally cleared to weight bear. My knee is starting to look like a normal knee, the scars are starting to fade.

In PT, I started doing some exercises with those stretchy rubber band things, started doing step ups, and some other stuff that I can't remember. There was a PT student at the time as well, and my therapist was just running through some basics about the knee, using me as the example. He explained to her what the different scars are from, and was telling her why he likes his job so much, because you can really see people get better. Apparently, I was "really bad" when I came in fro the eval, I only had about 15-20 degrees of extension, and saying I had 60 degrees of flexion was being generous, and my knee looked like a balloon. Well, when I was there for my first eval, he told me that the swelling wasn't that bad, and I had "decent" range of motion. You know what his response was? "If I told you the truth, you would have just been disappointed, especially because you couldn't do anything at first". Gee thanks. But he probably was right, I was already not exactly depressed, but definitely blue after the surgery because I couldn't walk, couldn't go outside, it was really really tough at first, and if I had been told that I had more swelling than normal, it may have pushed me over the edge.

The best part? He measured my flexion again at the end of the session on Wed. On Monday, I got to 120, and that was the number that I went to the doctor with. On Wednesday, he remeasured me at 125 on my own, and 130 when he pushed it. I have no clue how I got that much improvement in 2 days, but I'll take it. On Monday, I get to go on the treadmill for gait training, because I really forgot how to walk. I walked a bit without the brace in therapy, but I think my muscles either shrank up so much, or they just forgot how to walk. I think the other issue is that I got so used to my knee being loose, that I had to compensate before the surgery, and that's how I'm used to walking, but I don't need to walk like that anymore. I don't know, it's complicated. But hopefully on Monday, I'll get to start relearning how to walk.

The other exciting thing was getting cleared to drive. I had an interview yesterday about an hour and a half from home. The program paid for a hotel room the night before, and so I drove out there after therapy on Wed. Wed was a busy day, right? Well, i got there fine, and crashed as soon as I got into the room. Thursday was a long day with a tour that involved lots of walking. I took the crutches for that, since I didn't want to walk that much right away. And then i had to drive back home, which took about 2 hours with traffic. By the time I got home, my knee was sore, swollen, puffy, and about 3 different colors. But, it's better today, so hopefully no long term damage.