A follow up on the earlier installment of “As the knee turns…”
…. ouch. Don’t day “as the knee turns….”
In the video I showed two weeks ago, I raised my upper leg to the level at which my lower leg more or less dropped of its own accord perpendicular to the ground. I then extended my lower leg using all the abilities my quad muscles had at the time.
In the following video I do the same thing, but with the brace on, so my quads are working against the weight of the brace. In the first video, that extension was very very weak. Had there been a headwind, I would not have been able to move the leg at all. This time, not only do I raise the leg farther, but I can tell you that there was more strength in the move. Not a lot more, but some.
Starting tomorrow, I get to exercise that muscle a bit more.
The knee is still very swollen, which is partly why I can’t bend it very far. But I can now get in and out of the passenger side of a car very easily. Well, clumsily and it hurts, but at least I can get in. Pain levels are about the same as two weeks ago, and the mysterious bump continues … I’m starting to think it is one of the knots from the ropes that were used to tie the tendon on. If so, it must have slipped down the patella a bit, which is strange, but, well, it’s holding. There is no sign of it going away, so there’s a chance it will have to be cut out.
I’m hoping, thought, that it is a piece of extra patella bone. It would be cool to get a bit of one’s own bone. Make a hash pipe out of it or something.
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For a true viking, the only bone suitable for making a hash pipe out of is the skull of a worthy enemy.
Aside from that, congratulations on the progress.
How long until you can take a walk?
Take a walk as in get up and go outside and, say,take the path down to the creek behind the police station, or drive to the cities and walk around the lake once, or stop at Whooping Crane Medows or Crow Wing Park and walk for a half hour or an hour around and back to the car?
Maybe four weeks from now? Five?
I can walk across the room now, but it’s slow.
I’m glad to see your starting in on a more mobile phase. I have blown my own knee out 3 times (the most recent Jan 2, 2010) and have had surgery once. It’s nothing compared to breaking one’s knee cap but it still included a long recovery. Soon you will start to see improvements in leaps and bounds (however you may not be leaping our bounding still for quite sometime.) My heart goes out to anyone on crutches or with a knee brace, especially in the winter.
Isn’t bipedality cool?
Jared, yes, but most people are comparing it with quadrupedality, rather than monopedality.