6 Weeks Post Op in Review

Another week down!

I had my last chiropractor session for a few weeks. He says everything looks good. I have almost full flexion and full extension. One thing he mentioned was my inner quad (vastus medalus). It doesn't look like it's "firing" properly until fully warmed up. So I've been focusing on that muscle before every workout.

Physio continues 1-2 times a week. I've been told to push myself harder which I'm glad to do. The Scar tissue under the skin has gotten smaller but it's still there. I have 2 bumps outside the kneecap which I massage daily. I can also now religiously do 15 one-legged quarter squats on the bosu ball without falling over. My leg is usually shaking at the end, but it's worth it! I have one issue with the bosu lunge. I can do it easily if I send my injured leg forward, but sending my non-injured leg forward causes my left leg to shake. This might be a result of weak hamstrings which leads to...

I did hit one roadblock which I finally overcame: Hamstring Curls. I can do them with no weight, but I tried the curl machine at the gym and 10 pounds was too much! Considering before surgery I was up to 80+ pounds per leg, 3 sets of 8 I was a little shocked. However, this is somewhat expected as they did take parts of the hamstring tendon to redo my acl. There's no pain, but it feels like I'm about to "pull" the hamstring muscle when I do them. So on Wednesday I decided to bite the bullet and give it my best and just deal with a strained hamstring if it occurs. Booya! After 3 sets of 6 of the 10 pound weight I was fine! Each curl felt like my hamstring was about to snap but it didn't. It's great that I can finally use this machine and see actual progress over the next few weeks / months.

Although swelling is almost a minimum, I still have inflammation of the bursa sacks around my knee. Not completely unexpected but I was hoping both knees would look the same around this time (minus the muscle diff).