Last Wednesday was the twelve week mark since my knee surgery
In some ways, I'm surprised it has been twelve weeks already. You get into a rhythm with things like the physical therapy and the exercising. It seems like just yesterday that I couldn't get up and down the stairs without holding on for dear life. But those initial challenges are overcome and things go back to a semi-normal state.
But as I look back over my exercise log (Thanks for the idea Gail!), the progress becomes more obvious. Stuff I couldn't hardly do initially, I'm now cranking out multiple reps of without a problem. The knee bend things are the most obvious, this is where you lower yourself on the bad knee and back up. I was initially doing it on the stairs (seven inches), when that became to easy, I moved to the bricks around the fireplace (12 inches). Before I would have to struggle and go slow to get the 10 done before resting. Now I crank out 15 and move on to something else.
Its also been four weeks since I started back at TKD. The plan was to start slow with one night a week, but that plan went out the window pretty quickly. I went twice the first week and am now going three times a week. I really enjoy going and my knee honestly feels better afterwards. It also really helped that everybody at the Do-Jang has been incredibly supportive and willing to help me adapt to the knee restrictions. The benefit of the lack of kicking is that my punching is getting better (slowly).
I saw my surgeon last Thursday and I'd hoped he would green light me to start kicking again. But he wants me to wait another month. (6/20 is the date!) He was impressed though, especially with my strength and flexibility. I could actually see the surprise when he was pushing and poking, checking for limits. So the plan is to start kicking with light contact in four weeks and after another month, start with full contact. I hope I can still remember how to kick…
My surgeon wouldn't commit yet about when I can plant with my hurt knee and kick with my other leg. (That is how everybody hurts themselves, the planting and twisting.) I might get the OK in August (six months) or he might make me wait until September(seven months). But for now I can start moving more normally and doing things like light jogging.
The other thing the surgeon said is that I can drop down to seeing the physical therapist once every other week, mainly so I have check points to keep me on track. I had expected this actually, so it wasn't a big surprise. I have found the routine of doing the exercises every other day works well. I only double up with TKD and exercises on Wednesday night that way. I'm also going to try adding some more stretching activities to the mix.
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