KTee-- Good luck with surgery

[hottubpam]

Hi Kelly,

I absolutely LOVE the video!!!!!  Yep that could have been me, except we were surrounded by humpback whales, not orcas while fishing and for only the 2nd time in 40+ years of fishing we had GLORIOUS sunshine, instead of the usual rain, rain, rain.  I will look for a link to Juneau so you can see why a functional knee is so important - it is built alongside a couple of VERY large mountains, it makes San Francisco look like flatland.

I got home at 1:30 a.m. due to flight delays and am exhausted, but trying to catch up on knee forum.  More later.

Hope you are continuing to improve!!!

Pam

[KTee]

I guess it’s about time for an update, where did the summer go??

I had my 8-week check up a couple weeks ago and it went really well.
My left quad was measured at 3 cm smaller though, so Dr. Steadman wants me to build it up.  He thinks it will help my gait.  He told me to work up to 45-minute sessions on the stationary bike with medium resistance and a one-minute sprint every five minutes. 
He also cleared me to ride my bike outside – yea!

In physical therapy I have been doing a lot of work on the Pilates reformer, and I just started single leg squats to help me walk down stairs without support.

Molly is getting more and more nervous these days to ask me how my weekend went…a couple weekends ago my knee was feeling really great so I decided to test it out to see how much I could do.  I decided to give rollerblading a try!  I went to a nearby skate park, which has four outdoor hockey rinks attached to it.  I figured there was no way I could hurt myself in a hockey rink—it’s all flat.  I skated a couple of laps, but the surface was really slick, and I didn’t feel like my knee would be able to handle a sharp turn or sudden stop.  I felt like a beginner, it was so weird.  So, my knee obviously isn’t ready for inline skating, but I had to at least try so I could know for sure.

Of course Molly freaked out.  She told me that if I had fallen, she wouldn’t have been able to treat me anymore, because she would have had to KILL me! 

Oh well, at least she didn’t react as dramatically the following week when I told her I went golfing!

My gait is still not perfect, but it’s getting so much better.  I’ve been walking two miles around the park every afternoon.  The other day I asked a woman walking toward me if she could tell me how noticeable my limp was.  She said, “What limp?”  That made my day! 

My plan is to go back to work sometime in November.  Dr. Steadman said that we’d make the decision in two months as to whether I can go back to flying.  (I’m a flight attendant.)  If he doesn’t think I can handle the demands of the job yet, then I will take a temporary desk job in the company until he thinks I’m ready.  I’ve been off work since March 2004 and I really miss it.  I’m definitely happiest when I’m at 36,000 feet!
 
Well, that’s it for now…I’m off to Hawaii next week for some R&R! 

Kelly

[hottubpam]

Hi Kelly,

It sounds like you are doing GREAT - rollerblading and golfing!  Congratulations.  Keep posting your progress, we fellow arthrofibrosis sufferers need all the good news we can get.

Have a great time in Hawaii, hope you get to take advantage of the warm salt water, it is very therapeutic. 

Take care,
Pam

[tri-sport]

Kelly-
I'm SO happy for you! That's awesome about your job.  I just knew going to steady would do the trick.  See I told you you were on the same path as me-- triathlons next summer girl!    And it takes frikin' forever for that quad to come back!!!  My right quad was still over 1 cm smaller in May (over 8 months after my last surgery & 3 month of training for my tris!)  So does Steady think you're done with surgeries?  What's your ROM?   

I'm coming back out sometime in Oct/Nov. Maybe we can meet up.  Hope you had fun in Hawaii.  Let us know how you're doing.

Lynn