Recovery - 21st Jan. 2013

Recovering And Living Life, As Such

Physio started to interest me.  I was constantly learning how so many muscles and movements affected the mobility and strength that I could bring through my knee.  I had 2 A4 sides worth of exercises that had to be done every 2 hours, which you can imagine would become quite repetitive after a week or so but it was something that had to be done to get my knee back to it's original state and to keep my thighs working while my knee clearly wasn't.  You may think that a knee injury would only affect your knee but it changed so many things and the list would be as long as my arm if I was to post each and every noticeable difference on here, although most will eventually be mentioned in the next few blog posts anyway.

One thing that it majorly affected was of course my mobility.  I was still on crutches but gradually relying on them less and less and it did take me a while to get used to them as i'd never used them prior to this injury and operation.  After around 10 days I was allowed to walk freely without my crutches which was a relief to be honest as i'd become frustrated using them and the attention they brought too.  I couldn't go anywhere without being questioned on my injury, although it's nice to know people are interested and that people care, telling the same story 50+ times, as you can imagine, becomes quite annoying, maybe I should have made a sticker or badge explaining? Haha!

We got the Megabus down to Wembley on the day, quite early morning.  Even sitting on the bus for around 4 hours was quite painful as my knee would easily seize up if I didn't keep my leg out straight and then walking was increasingly painful until my leg had relaxed again.  Then we had to walk around London, from the bus station to the hotel, which was around 4 miles but felt like an age before we got there as I couldn't walk anywhere near my normal speed and had to stop for a rest a few times just to let my muscles calm down but with my obvious love for football, going to the new Wembley for the first time was all worth it, such an amazing place and brilliant piece of architecture.

Wembley - England .v. France - November 2010 (Taken By Me)

After returning from London, it was time to get my head down in the gym, the place that I would basically be living in for the near future.  My Grandma & Grandad deserve some credit for that, they picked me up and dropped me off each weekday as I wasn't able to drive, even if I had a license I wouldn't be allowed anyway.  I was still at Uni too but had a week off following my operation as I wasn't in a fit state to do much apart from sleep and sit up in bed doing my knee exercises.  The gym involved some frustrating tasks to be honest.  I just wanted to run about, swim around and do various cardio exercises but none of this was possible.  I had to stretch to keep my leg muscles working and also used a balancing cushion on a daily basis as my balance had significantly dropped due to the power and strength difference I now found in my legs.

Pushing The Knee Down Into A Towel, Simple But Effective Movement Exercise

The static bike or spin bike would become my new best friend.  I'd never been a keen cyclist, or even a moderate cyclist, I'd had a bike or two when I was younger, like everyone else really, but bikes had never been something I was into.  This was something I could use in the gym to keep my legs pumping and to keep myself active without the pain or instability of trying to run or use the cross trainer.  I began to enjoy the spin classes, doing them on a daily basis from Monday to Friday, enjoyed them a lot more than I initially anticipated and I was under orders from Mr.Shah to keep my right leg working and to build up the muscle again as it had basically wasted away over the 10 days when I was using crutches.

My leg ached, constantly, even without the spin classes.  I was dosed up on painkillers constantly, the maximum amount.  It was a strange pain though, not a sharp one, just a constant ache that was uncomfortable and sometimes even made me feel ill.  My next operation was only around the corner though as I just found out.  The ACL construction was officially booked in, the date, January 22nd 2011.....