My New BFF....

Wow, lots of excitement in this past week. School, volleyball, PT, doctor appointment, Wal-Mart, yes even Wal-Mart was squeezed into a busy week.

First of all, I survived the first week of school. My classes have been pretty good. I already have my favorites, but don't tell anybody! The day goes by very, very quickly with only 4 classes and getting done at 11:40. For the rest of the afternoon, I am coaching and/or working out. As soon as class is out, I eat lunch in my office. After lunch, I head up to the gym and workout from about 12:30-2:00. Then, softball practice is from 2:20-3:10. After softball, I have a short break, then it's back to the gym for volleyball practice from 3:30-5:00. Finally, around 5:30 I make it home safe and sound, nearly 12 hours after beginning my day. We did lose our volleyball game this week, but my team played very, very well. We have a tournament on Saturday and I am expecting nothing less than another trophy!!!

I had a check-up with my doctor on Tuesday. Tomorrow will be 12 weeks since my surgery. WOW! I cannot believe it has been 3 months since surgery; it seems like only a month ago! Two weeks ago at my check-up, I had some swelling in my knee and had lost some movement (flexion). This week, my swelling was down and I have re-gained full flexion. Also, I now also have full extension!! I'm excited about that because for the past 10 weeks I have been lacking full extension and my doctor told me I may never get it back. But, somehow I have managed to get it. At my last appointment, he took me off of the elliptical machine due to the swelling. Since it was down, he said I should get back on it. That made me so very excited. NOT! I dread getting on the elliptical and would much rather ride the bike, even though the elliptical is a harder workout. So, Wednesday at my workout I worked up the nerve to get on it again. I set the timer for 30 minutes, knowing I wouldn't make it anywhere near that, but I wanted to challenge myself. Twenty five minutes later, I stepped off with an amazing workout. I could not believe I lasted that long, especially since two weeks prior I had to push myself to make it 10 minutes, and hadn't really done any cardio since then. Today, I decided to push my luck and guess what- I made it the entire 30 minutes and felt like I could do 15 more. So, I have made peace with the elliptical machine and we are now BFF's- at least until my knee swells again, LOL. I am still doing as many of my other exercises as possible- leg press, leg curls, squats, etc. and upping the weight as much as possible. I was able to squat a 45 pound bar this week, even though last week I was just at 20 pounds! Most people (who follow the rehab strictly) are able to start running at 3 months post-op. However, my doctor says I need to wait a few more weeks- due to this being my 2nd surgery and the use of a hamstring graft. Mentally, I don't feel ready to run because of the doubt I still have in my knee and leg strength, but I am working on it each day. I still have a little swelling and popping in my knee and ankle that I need to work on getting rid of before I feel like he will let me start running. He does not know where the popping is coming from, but feels like it is scar tissue that is breaking up. I do feel good about the fact that my doctor and physical therapist trust me to do my rehab on my own. I do have an athletic trainer at school, but I have been doing my own thing and just going in for ice after my workouts. One more knee item- I have stopped wearing my brace to school. I still sometimes wear it to volleyball and/or softball practice, but for the most part I have ditched it. Once I get back into sport specific activities in my rehab, I will begin wearing it again, but for now my knee is strong enough that I don't need to wear it for daily activities.

I mentioned Wal-Mart earlier. Somehow in all the commotion this week, I ventured out last night for food. Boy, was I in dire need of it! I had to pull up on the curb in front of my apartment just to unload all the goods. My cabinets were bare, but now they runneth over! It's a good thing too, because all of this work has made my appetite skyrocket!

Well, I had better get to bed. I've got 2 long days of volleyball ahead of me.

Keep working hard,
QB13