March 12th - It's been one week...

Today marks one week out from my surgery.  Recovery is progressing nicely, but as the weather keeps getting nicer, its getting harder to stay positive about this whole thing.  I want to be out there pounding the pavement and turning the cranks with everyone else who is gearing up for the tri season.  It probably doesn't help that I spend my days watching ESPN and Fox Soccer Channel. 

I went to PT early today after doing my strength/ROM (range of motion) exercises.  She gave me 2 more new ones to do at home home which brings me up to 6 exercises at 50 reps each. Doing them twice a day takes a little bit of time, not counting the 15 minutes I am supposed to spend on the bike and the push ups, pull ups and abs routines I put together on my own.  I moved up to 15 minutes on the bike at PT today and noticed that I have much more swelling than I've had in the past few days.  Dr. Karen says that is to be expected, and I'm hoping that I won't have to go have the swelling drained. 

A couple things that are keeping me positive are that Dr. Karen wants me focusing on walking normally around the house WITHOUT the brace, I can see the results of the exercises and therapy, and I am already nearing the amount of knee flexion that Dr. Baker wants to see a month from now. 

I get a break from PT tomorrow, but I'll still need to do the exercises twice on my own and ride for 15 minutes on the trainer as well as do some core work.

Here's what I did today:

PT - 15 min on the stationary bike
2 sessions of strength/ROM exercises
5x20 push ups (non-modified)
5x12 pull ups