Day 0 – post surgery

I’m about 12 hours after surgery and I’m not feeling too bad. I think the nerve block in my leg along with the pain meds are doing a good job at this point. So far 1 pill every 4 hours seems to be just about right. Leg is propped up  (toes above nose!) and being iced using the polar cube. My butt keeps falling asleep and I want to move around.

First day progress…

Pain – TBD. Using meds before the pain levels dictate that I do

Time on Feet – 5 minutes every 4 hours. Just standing with light toe touch on weak side.

Exercise – “Gas Pedal” flexing 8-10 reps every 30 minutes.  Leg lifting every 30 minutes.

 

Night before the surgery

 

I’m posting this the night before the surgery. It’s 10:30pm and I have to leave for the hospital in 6 hours and expect to be home in 12 hours. I can’t turn off my brain and sleep at the moment.

Meeting with the ortho today, I was told that I probably won’t be running for 5 months. Swimming and stationary bike will be within a couple of weeks. The issue with running is the length of time that the mircofracture cartilage repair will take to heal.

What is microfracture repair? Well, basically holes will be drilled into the bone under the torn cartilage and stem cells will ooze out into the area encouraging regeneration of cartilage like material. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfracture_surgery

Here is the MRI showing the torn ACL.

I’ll post an update tomorrow. Good night!

What’s the plan, man?

My surgery is planned for June 27th. It’s the Wednesday before the 4th of July week and I’m hoping that gives me the most bang for my vacation buck.  Basically, I’m spending my planned July 4th vacation this summer healing up instead of going rafting and tubing in Georgia with the family.

12 days from surgery to returning to work. The ortho says driving is okay as long as I’m off the narcotics. I hope that I only need them for a few days, they tend to make me feel sick.

I would love to Netflix and heal for a week and then drive to GA to get a couple of days with the family, even if its just watching them have fun (or argue). That’s the best case scenario, my “A” goal.

July

PT – It will probably be some horrible torturous exercises that i will grudge through. Stay tuned for that.

Swim – I’m hoping that within a couple weeks after that when the stitches come out, that the physical therapist clears me to get back in the pool. The fact is that like swimming the least of the activities I do, however I’ll take what I can get.

Gym – Around the 3rd week, I can probably get into the gym and do some upper body machines and core.

Yoga – I should be able to start returning to the hot yoga studio and just sweating in the heat. Breath in, breath out.

This is all based on what I think is possible from having conversations with other people and online research.

 

 

Story begins here, sort of

This blog starts on the day I found out that I will need knee surgery to repair some damage sustained from a non-training related injury. I want to document this journey from today until the day that I can cross the finish line of my next major race (If there is one). Hopefully, I will capture the things that I do right (and wrong) during the next 6 months to a year so that other people can learn from my experience.

What is a non-training injury? Well basically, I slipped getting out of the shower. This was just 3 days before a half Ironman triathlon that I had trained for over the past 6 months. My orthopedic surgeon reviewed my MRI and found a torn ACL, medial meniscus tear, and “cartilage shearing”. He is recommending surgery to repair the issues, this seems to be straight forward for the ACL and meniscus, however this “cartilage shearing” thing sounds worrisome. The repair was something about possibly drilling lots of little holes to force my body to build up new material. If that is the case, then there will be a 6 week period of not being able to place weight on my right leg.

This knee surgery most likely will put an end my summer ’18 triathlon season. Maybe. I’m doing the math and it’s possible if my body heals without any issues that I could squeeze a late season event in. I am 42 years old, am in pretty decent shape and take care of myself reasonably well. I’m hoping that helps.

I hope this is entertaining and useful to someone out there!