Gearing Up

Tuesday 23rd October - Twelve weeks since going under the knife.

I wasn't sure how to feel going into the appointment. I mean, I know there have been breakthrough moments in the past three months, but there have also been worries. "Should this hurt?", "Should that movement feel so difficult?" "Should I be further along?". These questions could only really be answered by Mr Church himself. He knew how I should be feeling, what I should be doing and what still requires more time and patience to achieve.

Upon arriving at the clinic I had two x-rays, a front and side (bent) view of the knee. These were to be compared to my old x-rays that we had, both in June and immediately after the operation.

The appointment went how I expected it to. Questions, analysis of movement, reviewing my x-rays and finally, what to expect in the upcoming weeks and month.

- Movement -

My range of movement is coming along well, with some minor details to work on. One big thing that needs to be conquered before running is the single leg squat. Mr Church has modified this exercise slightly to make it more effective for the muscles that I need to build. I feel a new found confidence in this exercises already. Single leg squats don't seem quite to scary anymore.

Also the popping, crunching, cracking, locking and just about everything other unpleasant sensation that can happen in a knee is no more! I now have a knee that glides smoothly on the correct tracking line. Can I get a hallelujah!?

- X-Rays -

Mr Church couldn't help but be impressed with his own handiwork. The knee cap now sits at a normal height and is comfortably sitting in its new position. The screws are imbedded nice and deep with the bone now growing around them to hold them in place. If I do say so myself, it looks like a pretty great knee.

- Concerns -

I went in with a couple of questions and concerns for Mr Church.

First of all I was having some trouble with walking down hills. He advised me this was just because the knee needed to building up a bit more strength for this sort of movement. He said within a matter of weeks this shouldn't be an issue.

The area around where the screws were is also feeling tender. Again, Mr Church assured me this was normal and it was due to the bone still healing and forming. It may still be a few months until this tenderness goes down, but it is nothing that would prevent any sort of activity of movement.

My final question for Mr Church was what restrictions still remain or my crop up in the near future. I wanted to be ahead of them before they even had chance to become an issue. His answer was "Running."

- Running -

The big one. The thing I don't let myself get too excited about, but also the thing I catch myself thinking about countless times on a daily basis.

When?...

Well, a confident single leg squat should be mastered in a matter of weeks. The next step after that is working on having matching strength in both legs. Once these are done, running follows. Before you get too excited and think this is going to be me flying around the track doing split 500's, I have been advised that my first session on the treadmills is one minute of steady jogging. But I can tell you now, that one minute is going to feel like the biggest and best achievement in the world.

It's still a little way off, but hey, its' been 398 days since I last ran at all, I will happily wait another 30 or so.

I came out of the appointment beaming. The big goals are getting closer, and I'm more than excited to start to take them on.

I am my own worst critic and I expect a lot of myself, which I why I sometimes struggle to be happy with the little things and not question the process. This journey since my surgery is helping me to slow down and be happy about the smaller things. Success doesn't always have to be big. It can be tiny, and it still matters. Success is success, don't question it.