ACL Reconstruction & Recovery: 5 1/2 weeks Post Op

It’s been a week and a half since my last post.  My wife has reminded me a few times that my blogging has been pretty lame for a while.  I admit it.  I’m not in a great routine right now as I focus on rehab and upper body workouts.  I got the green light to use the elliptical machine again.  I forgot how much I enjoy this as a workout.

Over the past week, I’ve been sprinkling in P90x and 1-on-1 workouts.  I’ve recently completed Just Arms, Diamond Delts and Shoulders & Arms (from P90x).  I can do all of these with no problems.  I don’t have a problem bearing any weight on the new knee to do things like shoulder presses, etc.    This morning I was doing crouching bicep curls and I got a shooting pain in the back of my knee (near my hamstring tendon).  Not sure why that happened–I haven’t felt it before.  But it was fleeting and didn’t affect any of the rest of the workout.

Since I can work out again, I have my workout buddy again.  We’re doing about 3X’s per week.  The other days I’m trying to incorporate some cardio (mainly riding the bike and the elliptical).

The knee rehabs is progressing.  I’ve been able to do lots of my rehab exercises interspersed during the day at work (I’ll sneak to the back room and do wall squats) or practice stepping up on a stool in front of the television in the evening.  I’m making progress and can see a considerable improvement in my quad strength from when I tried steps only a week and a half ago.

None it really hurts.  It’s  a little sore after I work it out hard, and I’ve noticed that it’s been quite achy when the weather is nasty.  Overall, when I am just sitting around, the knee feels just like the “normal” one.

Someone asked me recently how recovered I am. This is a loaded question considering what “recovered” means.  He specifically wanted to know how I would do if we were to go out and play 1-on-1 on the basketball court.  Basketball-wise, I’m probably 5% recovered.  I can’t run or jump.  On the flip side…if I were a 70 year old man, I’d say I’m about 100% recovered.  I can do most anything that a 70 year old man could do.  That doesn’t really make me feel good, however.

After a hiatus…I’m back. Here’s what happened…

Ok, so my P90X Round 3 progress has hit an abrupt snag. I blew out my knee playing flag football almost four weeks ago.  I had an MRI on found that I had an ACL that was “torn pretty badly”.  This happened only days before our daughter Lillian was born.  What a crazy few weeks! 

The official diagnosis is a full rupture of the anterior crucial ligament (ACL), a medial meniscus tear, a lateral meniscus tear and a strained (not torn) medial collateral ligament (MCL).  In layman’s terms, my knee is a shredded mess.  A surgical reconstruction is in my future, but not until the end of January.  According to my orthopedic surgeon, the modern protocol is to take time to allow the swelling to decrease, the range of motion in the knee to be restored and the trauma surrounding the area.

So, for now my P90X Round 3 progress (and overall fitness program) is halted.   I am doing “pre-hab” twice a week.  So instead of doing Plyometrics, Core Cardio workouts or single-leg wall squats, I’m lying on my back trying to bend my knee.  It’s pretty boring and kind of depressing.  After a few weeks of basically doing nothing, I started working out 2-3 times a week again.

Any “hard” workout must consist of Abs and Upper Body.  So, I’ve been doing ISO Abs, Killer Abs, and Ab ripper X.  I’ve also started cycling through the P90x and 1-on-1 Upper Body workouts including On One Leg and Back & Biceps.

My schedule is now dramatically altered, and likely will be for the next 7-8 months.  I will have little opportunity to do much cardio.  But I am comitted to staying in shape and working hard, nonetheless.