I think the word is freedom

Today was a huge day! I took my brace off!!!! The big ole clunky brace came off my leg, and I survived!! Technically, the brace should have come off tomorrow as that is when I am officially 8 weeks post op, but I had been walking without it at home, and I figured there isn't much difference in a day, so I went to the mall, and bravely left the brace at home. My knee feels so stable, that I'm not quite used to it. I'm used to my knee always giving way on me, every step being wobbly and shaky. Now, I still have a limp because I still haven't quite figured out this walking thing, but I feel so much more secure, my knee doesn't feel like it's sliding around. By the time I came back to my car, my knee was feeling quite a bit sore, and I did have more swelling than normal, which is to be expected. But the soreness is not in the same place where I was having pain before the surgery, most of the soreness now is around the quad tendon area, before a lot of the pain was on the medial side of the joint line, and I think the soreness is just from weak muscles. Tomorrow, I plan to walk into PT wearing my yoga pants which are a little bit more figure flattering than the baggy pants that I've had to wear because of the big brace.

On the bad side, I was sick all weekend, laid in bed for about 3 days straight. I didn't do any of my home exercises, so my knee feels very stiff now. I tried to work it as much as I could earlier before I went to the mall, but I'm afraid that when I go to PT tomorrow, it just won't bend as much as it did before. With this rehab, it seems like if you miss a few days, you fall behind pretty easily. My leg definitely feels weaker than it was on Wednesday, because I haven't done any leg lifts, no quad sets, no exercises with the theraband. I guess it's true if you're just lying in bed for 3 days normally, but I guess I noticed it more because of the atrophy in my leg. Hopefully it won't be too bad tomorrow.