6 months!!

Yesterday was exactly 6 months since I tore my ACL. I can’t believe it’s been that long. Sometimes it seems like just a few days ago and sometimes it feels like forever ago. Either way you look at it, I am definitely getting stronger, droopy leg is un-drooping and my scars are as impressive as ever. Here’s the deets:


PT: still twice a week, but then I’m down to once a week after next week. I don’t know what I’ll do with all my free time! PT at home is the correct answer.

Bend: I’m up to about 115degrees. This has been very challenging. When I hit 90, I was able to start weight-bearing so we didn’t focus on my bend very much after that. I am still making improvements every time, but not as much as before. BUT, having John force my leg to bend beyond its capabilities for an hour and until I was in tears was not that fun. So glad to be beyond that!

Straighten: I’m still having to work at this every day. It’s straight, but doesn’t want to hyperextend like my left leg. I have a feeling I’ll be working on these for a while.

Exercises: This is fun again! We are doing “monsters”(squatting and taking diagonal, forward steps with the band around my ankles). Side steps with the band. One legged squats while throwing the ball against the trampoline. Bosu squats with weights. Hamstring curls on the ball. Leg press. And my least favorite- steps (literally stepping onto and over a step). This week was the first time I was on the elliptical! And also on the stair stepper- backwards. Its pretty pathetic how out of shape I am. But it’s progress!

Pain: I’m definitely sore after a hard day of PT. And of course when I push my knee to bend or straighten more than it wants to.

So what’s next? I got good news this week from my vascular surgeon: my blood clot is officially harmless. It’s basically glued itself in there, has smoothed over and shouldn’t cause me any more problems! So, I officially gave up my stupid compression socks- just in time for the nice weather, too!

I still have another month or so of physical therapy. I have another month until I can start straight-line running. I expect I’ll make it about 500 feet before collapsing, but it’s a great goal to work towards. I can ride my bike now, though I’ll need to switch out my clip-ins for a cage pedal before that happens. I think I might actually go un-freeze my gym membership!

Rough Life

Since it's been a while since I last shared with the world how adorable my puppy is, here you go:

Lucy's new trick

Life's Little Mysteries

Today was a bad day. I learned my stupid blood clot is back. This is really hard news to take. Even though the pain isn't as bad as the first time, I don't think I can escape the self injected blood thinners. Yes, that's right. 2 shots. In my stomach. Every day. FML.
This whole experience- the injury, the blood clot, the surgery, recovery, physical therapy and now the return of the blood clot- has been absolutely exhausting. And I feel like it's never going to end. I thought the clot was gone, I thought once I had surgery I would be making improvements every day. It hasn't been like that. I have struggled in physical therapy, pushed myself to tears, and still feel like I'm failing. Now my clot is back. I feel like my body is failing me and I just don't understand it. 
I know it could be worse, and I'm trying hard to focus on the good things: the clot isn't going to kill me, I am making progress in my recovery and I have a great fiancé to support me when it's good and especially when it's bad. But I'll say it again: today was just a bad day.

Post Surgery Recap

Well, it's 10 days post-surgery and things are getting back to normal. Ok, not normal at all. I can't walk, I have to shower sitting on the floor, I haven't shaved my legs in 11 days (ok, that's not completely abnormal), and I haven't swiffered in 2 weeks.

My new leg!

The surgery went ok. Dr. Montgomery found that my meniscus was also torn, which sucks big time. My leg has to stay locked straight for an extra 2 weeks. But the nerve block, which is what I was dreading the most was no big deal. They gave me happy drugs which made me feel super drunk and I didn't even notice the giant needle in my groin. I did notice when my leg started uncontrollably spazzing though. That was bizarre. Next thing I know, I woke up in the recovery room. That is when the fun started. Since the nerve block only took to the inside of my leg, I was having pretty severe pain already, so they gave me some medication in my IV. Well, that immediately made me sick and I spent the next hour attempting, mostly unsuccessfully, to keep the water and crackers down. I was finally able to get dressed and they wheeled me out to the car. The next few days were a blur of sleeping, taking percocet religiously and trying to contain the nausea from said Percocet. After day 3 I couldn't stand the nausea, so I stopped the Percocet completely. The pain has been pretty intense, but it's much better than being sick 24/7.
I had my post-op appointment yesterday with the surgeon and he said everything looks good. I start physical therapy next week, which will mostly just entail getting my quad to fire again and slowly start to bend my knee. I'm also going back to work next week, too. I'll be working from home for a couple of weeks, then back to work as soon as I can drive.
I am so very thankful my Mom and Mark have been here to help me. I cannot imagine doing this alone. They have been a great emotionally support and also there to bring me food and wash my hair and refill my ice machine. If Mark ever gets hurt or sick, I'll be there to repay him.

The countdown has commenced.

Well, it's the final few days until my surgery and in an attempt to thwart off my ever-growing nerves, I have spent the last 2 weeks cramming enough crap to fill 2 months. Apart from getting my work projects wrapped up, all the pre-op prep and gluten-free recipe searching, we took a trip to Colorado to visit my family and lock down some wedding details.

In 2 days we managed to book the caterer and pick all the food, book the florist and decide on all the flowers, meet and book the photographer, visit the venue and pick out the ceremony site, test cupcakes, interview 2 DJs, get my brother and Dad's suits, get snowed in and go to a John Denver tribute concert. Here are a few shots from our trip: (p.s. this blog site has the most infuriating picture formatting.  So, sorry they are all over the place)



Freezing our buns off outside the concert hall

fail 1

downtown Denver



our venue!



fail 2



ACL surgery

Guess who finally got cleared for surgery?! This girl!! Claude isn't gone, he has taken permanent residency in my leg, which will need attention down the road, but for now I've been cleared for surgery!! woo!

This is an awesome video ( rated G, don't worry) of my upcoming surgery.  I was pleasantly surprised how simple the surgery seems. Well, I hope it is anyway.