7 weeks

It's been seven weeks since the operation. Potentially 30 weeks to go. If I do well. Woo hoo! No, seriously (and when am I ever not serious?), apparently I'm making good progress. Saw the nice physio today and she prodded and rubbed and made me stretch in ways that I didn't want to, and she said it was looking good. Hoorah!

I've actually been to the hospital twice this week, and I'm still trying to work out why. I was booked in for this Tuesday immediately after my operation, apparently to see the main consultant dude. But obviously he was too busy and important so I saw a physio, who also prodded a bit and said that my scar was healing nice and lovely, and showed me an x-ray of the bits of metal that now live in my knee.

But then I saw my usual physio on today (though it seems like last week for some reason, think it's because I've been TOO BUSY of late), who I'm sure could have done exactly what the other physio did on Tuesday. Good old efficient, money-saving NHS, eh?

I've been given some more exercises to do. You'd think they would have run out of different things to do with the knee by now, but no. I've got some more stretches, more bends and more balancing stuff to get on with, and I can start to work towards running and swimming and all kinds of all-action SHIT like that, man.

The physios said that I'm to massage my leg to help the numb patch on my shin, and to help the scar heal good. Any offers?

Physio

These are the knee and leg exercises I've been given to do. Nice drawings, eh? I love his big hair. Taken from the rather lovely blue physio book the hospital gave me. The exercises below are for the first two weeks after the ACL reconstruction operation.

Calf stretch. "Move the foot up and down from the ankle to maintain good circulation in the leg." Easy-peasy.

Extension exercises. "Sit on a firm surface and fully straighten your knee. To help the knee go straighter, tighten the front thigh muscles. Pull your foot towards your face and at the same time brace your knee down onto the floor. Hold for 5-10 seconds." This isn't as easy as it looks / sounds.

Knee bends. "Slide heel up and down a firm surface, bending and straightening the knee." This isn't all that easy, either. To begin with, my knee didn't go much past 90 degrees, and it still doesn't go all the way, I think because of the swelling and general stiffness.

Standing knee bend. "Stand upright, bend operated knee, bring heel to your bum. Lower the foot slowly back into a straight position." I was told not to do this one striaght away, because there's no support for the leg. Frustratingly, I can't currently get my leg past 90 degrees, and I feel tightness in the front thigh, knee and hamstrings.

Static hamstring stretch. "With the knee very slightly bent, push the heel into the floor and hold for 5-10 seconds." I feel this one in my now-puny hamstrings.

Thigh co-contraction exercises. "With your knee bent over a bottle [preferably a full 2 litre fizzy drink bottle or something, mine's Sainsbury's own brand cola. Nice] wrapped in a towel, push the heel down into the floor, and push the knee down into the bottle at the same time, keeping the pressure on the heel. No knee movement should occur. Hold for 5-10 seconds." This involves contracting the quads and hamstrings at the same time, and is a bit difficult at first...

Exercises

It's pretty boring, this staying-at-home-and-waiting-for-your-knee-to-get-better lark. For those that want to know about these things, my knee is pretty stiff, but not too painful. I can put weight on it, which actually makes things more frustrating - I've been told I need to rest it properly, so I can't go gadding about into, err, Swindon.

They've given me some exercises to do, which look a bit like these, but with better drawings. Basically, they involve sitting down and contracting my fast-disappearing leg muscles. The new ligament is apparently at its strongest immediately after the operation (cos it's still got oxygen pumping around it or summat), but then it gets weaker after two weeks, so I'll need to make sure I don't overdo it.

I'll see the physio in two weeks and then step up the exercises, and go back to work. All the stuff I've read online seems to suggest I'll be playing football again after about 8 to 12 months. It seems like ages away, but I'm determined to turn out for the Street before the year's out. In the meantime, I've got a whole lot of tedious swimming and other physio-crap to be getting on with.