'Twas a good day at PT on Monday

Had a great day at PT yesterday - not kidding! The massages are starting to hurt a little bit less, and it's probably because Ben has been helping me out at home and doing some of the massage and stretching with/for me. I ended my PT session last Friday at 121 degress flexion, and starting out today after only one flexibility exercise, I was at 128 degrees - proof that the boring, painful, at-home sessions actually do work! I was able to do some different types of exercises today (in addition to the normal and customary ones) including "squat" shuffles with a resistance band, a one-legged (bad leg) modified squat on the total gym, calf raises (straight leg and bent leg) and then some hamstring curls. Oh baby, the burn feels so good!! When you haven't done anything remotely close to exercise in two months, you crave it. Brandi watched me walk and said each time I go in it's better and better, so that's encouraging. My extension today was better too, and it's taking much less work at the start of a PT session to get my leg straighter. Still, when she pushes my kneecap straight down, I feel like I want to cry! But, in the end, all things considered, I can't complain about yesterday's PT. If I can be this positive about it, I think I can follow through and end up with a successful rehab program.

We didn't do much this weekend, as I was still focusing on RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation). My swelling is still there, but gradually improving. Brandi thinks that maybe I can ditch the compression sock starting next week - I hope so!!! It's so hot and uncomfortable. On Saturday, we did go to a friend's BBQ, and had a really good time. I was getting sore and having a hard time finding a good position (stand vs. sit; or both...), so we left around 9, but it was good to see our friends for a while. I feel like I say no to a lot right now since I can't possibly go to a bar and stand for four hours. On Sunday we went to my cousin's baby shower via internet camera (she's in North Carolina) and had a great time. She looks so cute!!! I can't wait to see her newest one. They are naming him Owen.

Last night for dinner Ben and I made some grilled ginger chicken, with cucumber and red onion salad for dinner. I also tried this recipe from Rachel Ray that was lemon chive noodles, which was so good (whole grain noodles and all). Ben even liked it, and he is P-I-C-K-Y. After dinner I rode my bike - a serious woo hoo is needed here.....I never realized how much I needed that damn bike. I never got the mountain bike bug, but it's been a lifesaver before and after my knee surgery. Ben and I even contemplated selling it earlier this spring, and I am so glad we didn't.

I have my first follow up with my surgeon today. He was out of town after my surgery, so I'm super interested to hear what he has to say. Brandi told me to ask him if he did any microfracture repair since I'm still pretty sore in one certain spot when he did work on my medial meniscus. And she is dying to know why he put me in a straight leg immobilizer - she's never seen one of his patients come to her with one of those on. I will post more after I meet with him this afternoon.

Wade, an attorney I work for sent me this article about knees - I'm getting a label as the knee girl!! But I can't complain since the articles I've read so far that people have sent to me are really informative. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_9595969

Adios for now.

Monday/Tuesday: rain and cold; today: much nicer!

Yesterday's weather sucked! It was so nice on Sunday, then Monday it got worse, and Tuesday was the same. But it's getting nicer today and tomorrow should be awesome - 87 and sunny! Good weather just in time for our kickball tournament to start. I am planning to be the best dang cheerleader out there since I can't play :( We are playing the other ALPS team - who we lost to the first game of the season - can you say redemption!?!?

I rode the bike last night and for the first time I got all the way around on my bad knee the first rotation! Just pedaled and pedaled away.....and it felt so good! Surgery is one week from today. Kinda nervous, but I'm doing fine. I filled out my presurgery questionnaire online, which took forever, but at least it's done and I don't have to worry about it at the hospital. Ben took the day off work so he can take me and be with me the whole time. He's wonderful - I'm very lucky to have him. Mom and Kari are lined up to come over the rest of the week so he can head back to work. I've DVR'd a ton of movies and shows, plus my friend Kelly from work loaned me tons of DVDs, so I think I'll be fine for killing time. My boss, Missy, is going to set me up to work from home as well, so once I'm feeling well enough, I can check emails, do scheduling, etc., without having to get ready and drag myself into the office. The goal is to be back at work on Thursday, June 12, one week after surgery. Even if it's for a half day, I'll be happy to be out of the house, I'm sure.

Tanner is acting pretty weird this week. He wants to play, but isn't showing much interest in food the last couple of times we've fed him. And normally he LIVES for his food. Not sure what his deal is, but we'll watch him. We actually think he's a little bit stressed out from having that many people and three other dogs over for 12 hours on Sunday, so hopefully he'll bounce back soon. He hasn't given up the desire to chase tennis balls though, so that makes me think he's okay. Once he isn't interested in playing, then I'll start to really worry. So for now, we'll play it by ear.

I think that's it for now. On tap for tonight - leg exercises and working on my arms (I've been seriously slacking in that aspect), laundry, and packing for Estes Park. Connie's 60th birthday is this weekend, so we're heading up there to celebrate. My doctor originally wanted to do surgery today, but we'd been planning this Estes trip for a few weeks, so I was able to delay surgery for one week so I could have one more nice weekend beforehand. Hopefully the weather is nice up there. Who knows when I'll be venturing outside again!

Delayed posting, sorry!

My mother-in-law kindly reminded me (thanks, Mary!) that someone actually reads this thing and I hadn't updated since last week, so here you go...

Memorial Day weekend was great! Friday night we went to the new Indiana Jones movie with Mom and Kari. My advice - wait for it to come out on DVD. I hated the ending. Harrison Ford is old. Karen Allen is annoying. Enough said.

Saturday was yard work and cleaning house. We were planning a BBQ for Sunday, so we worked on stuff around the house and yard, did the grocery shopping for food and picked up a keg at Argonaut Liquors. For those who are curious, it is cost-efficient to get a keg vs. picking up cases of beer - seriously!! And as it turns out, we really needed that keg...

Sunday morning, make french toast and turkey sausage, start setting up for BBQ. People start arriving about 2-2:30 p.m., more people filter in between 3 and 4 p.m., party is really going by 4:30. Appetizers on the grill (hot wings and kielbasa sausage), tons of chips and dip, and of course beer. Boys playing polish horseshoes, girls relegated to bean bag toss - thanks guys. I promise to post a photo and brief description of polish horseshoes later. Brats and burgers on the grill about 6 p.m., and then....the keg is gone by about 7 p.m. or so! Yes gone, completely gone. I didn't think it would be possible, but it happened. So off to our neighborhood 7-11 to get some good old fashioned 3.2 beer. (I feel truly old buying that stuff.) Dark rolls around, boys are still playing polish horseshoes (they even set up a tournament bracket), girls chatting and laughing. Then some people move inside to the ping pong table and start playing beer pong. Yes, more drinking games. Oh yea, almost forgot the karaoke crew - again, I'll post some videos and photos from that, it was classic! Alas, Ben missed some of the more funnier parts of the night, as he was passed out in our recliner, smack dab in the middle of the party. But he did get some good laughs in Monday when I rehashed what he'd missed. All in all: no food left + no beer left + everyone home safely = awesome BBQ! Thanks everyone for coming. P.S. - on Monday morning, I let the dog out and our yard looked like a frat house yard. Not kidding. I'm pretty sure our neighbors hate us....well, not really, but close.

Now, for the real stuff on this blog - exercises and bike. Only biked once this weekend, but I will get back on tonight for my requisite 20 minutes. I did do my leg exercises though, which caused me to get REALLY sore. I did some at work on Friday during my lunch hour and I sure was paying for it Saturday. I haven't iced my knee in about two weeks, but all I could think about Saturday was getting some ice on it (multiple times). Weird, but I guess at this point, nothing could surprise me with my knee. Surgery is now less than 8 days away - gosh, where does time go? I'm not any more nervous than I was before, but I'm sure as the day gets closer, Im sure I'll feel the nerves begin to creep up again.

Tanner's nemesis and bike night

I guaranty this will make you laugh. Since Tanner has his staples until Friday, we can only walk him for now. Believe me he misses his tennis balls, but I think he really does enjoy his walks with us more and more each day. So this morning, I'm walking him before work and Tanner spots a metal garden bunny sitting in a neighbor's yard. He gets all tall and stiff, begins to walk slower, keeping his right eye squarely on the bunny, then VERY slowly begins to approach it like he's stalking it. When he's about 5 feet away, he starts to lower himself closer to the ground, lowering a little bit further with each step, until he's about a foot away from the garden bunny and literally about two inches off the ground, not touching the grass with his belly. Without moving his feet forward, he stretches out to get closer, and then whines - yes whines! So I laugh, which spooks him, he retreats about 5 feet back, and then we start the process all over again. Stalk, get low, stretch and whine. He does this about 4 times, then gets all wild and crazy and begins running around in circles, tail tucked between his legs. I'm all by myself, laughing hysterically (the neighbors must think we are nuts). Then all of a sudden he stops running like a mad man, gets really close to the bunny again, down on his front paws, butt in the air, and barks at the bunny like it's literally trying is murdering him. I just could not stop laughing! He must have barked at this thing like 20 times. So I walk up to the bunny, shortening Tanner's leash so he's right next to me, and I reach down and touch the bunny so he sees it's not moving, nor trying to kill him. Apparently, Tanner was a bit concerned that I might get murdered by this bunny as well, because he let out this awful doggie scream/bark, at which point, I thought my stomach muscles were going to explode (I haven't laughed that hard in a long time). At this point, I decide to stop torturing poor Tanner, and we start to walk away, but Tanner is still mesmerized by this bunny. I am literally dragging him down the street, and he's turned halfway sideways, one eye on the bunny and one eye on me, because obviously this bunny is going to come to life, chase us down and kill us! Like I said, this made you laugh, I know it. Here's his nemesis:

I rode my bike last night and for the first time, I was exceedingly sore and tight. Haven't been that way since like the first week I hurt myself. Not sure why. So I get on the bike and it takes me about 15-20 attempts to get my right leg able to fully go around (usually it takes at most five tries). Then about another 3-5 minutes to get loose enough where I don't come close to stopping at the top of the rotation on my bad leg (usually about 1-2 minutes). After that first 5 minutes, I'm good to go and just pedaling away. All in all, felt pretty good when I was done. Ben and I took Tanner for a walk before bed and did turn back a little bit sooner than we normally do, so I know I'm more sore for some reason, just can't figure out why. Tonight: leg lifts and heel slides, here I come.

A nice Monday evening and MRI images

Got home from work and Ben took Tanner for a walk (no playing due to the staples he has). I made dinner, and we ate outside since it's been so nice here. We had mojito marinated flank steak, campfire potatoes, and grilled asparagus. Can't get much better than that for a summertime meal! Then Ben cleaned up, and I took Tanner for another walk. I came across the cutest old man on my walk, Gilbert, I think. He introduced himself to Tanner and I, and then walked a few blocks with us. He was cutting flowers and such from all of the neighbors yards, fully admitting that he didn't live in any of the houses that he was "stealing" from. I guess all the neighbors know him around there and don't mind. So he was getting lilac bushels and the other ones that are white (don't know the name). And then eventually, I turned around to see if he'd come out of another yard where he'd stopped, but I didn't see him again. I guess maybe he found his own yard eventually! Tanner usually doesn't like strangers, but he immediately loved this cute old guy.

After the walk, Ben and I wanted to finish the Everest show we'd started the previous night. So I slid my bike away from the wall and hopped on. It's amazing how stiff and sore I am when I start to pedal. I can barely make it all the way around to the top and then start around again. But once I get warmed up (about 3-4 minutes), I can just pedal, pedal, pedal. Then when I get off, my knee is all loose and feeling really good. Ben got (or should I say, fought with - it was a rough 10 minutes Sunday evening...) a road tire on there instead of my mountain bike tire, so now you can't even hear it! It's awesome. Before it sounded like I was riding across super spaced out, really puckered cobblestone. I am only supposed to do like every other day, but I feel so good doing it, I might do a little bit every day. I wasn't able to do any exercises last night, I was a tad sore from the previous night, but I'll do them tonight and see if I can't get Ben to be annoyed again. Ah, the simple joys in life....

On a side note, I've had a couple of people ask me to post some of my MRI images. I don't have the CD anymore and couldn't figure out for the life of me how to save images when I did have it. So I found some photos online that really do look like what I saw on my MRI (again, this is not my actual MRI).

Here is normal ACL (notice the solid black band,

on a diagonal between the two bones):

Here is a torn ACL (no black band, lots of loose looking white/gray material) -

this is what mine looks like almost exactly:

Regular meniscus (all black within the area the

arrow is pointed at):


Torn meniscus (see the small sliver of gray within the

black area - that's what mine looks like):

Oh well, we fix, we rehab, we move on.

Day 2 of blogging and still at it - good start!

So here we are with day two. Got up this morning and rode my mountain bike for about 15 minutes. Doctor says to do at least 15-20 minutes 3-4 times per week. When I first start it's super stiff, but warms up pretty fast. I have it propped up on a bike trainer (thanks to Tom and Colleen) like the pros use for rehab and for warming up before big races. However, since I have mountain bike tires on it, it's fricking loud! So I'm going to get a road tube and tire today at the bike store after my girls' final soccer game. I will post later how the game goes. The season has flown by. We are doing a little end of season pizza party after the game, which should be fun for the girls. More to come...