It's been exactly one year since my surgery so I guess there's an anniversary or something in that.
Give or take a few minutes past midnight...
I don't have much to add from my last update but I guess I'm doing pretty well right now. My knee doesn't seem to give way much these days so I think my hard work is paying off. I still feel some weakness sometimes but it isn't bothersome like it used to be and I always recover easily. Stairs are going more smoothly, both up and down...but I still don't feel confident going down so still like to hold on when possible.
Exercise is still the same and the effects are becoming more obvious after seven months of full time fitness. The weight is finally dropping off a bit more quickly and the improvements in my quads/hamstrings/glutes is becoming much more obvious. I am even able to squat down on my heels for a while, which I've never really been able to do for long before....even when I was young.
Even though it's going pretty well right now, I will mention some negatives of sorts...mostly for the benefit of anyone trying to compare recovery.
I still find my knee usually tires pretty suddenly once I've done a certain amount of activity. I find I don't have much warning before it starts hurting either and I am slow to notice the signs much of the time. Ideally I just need to limit exercise/activity to prevent this but that's not always possible. I probably should also face that having just turned 48 and having arthritis in my knees, it's likely there will always be limits.
My knee still swells up sometimes...I don't notice this too much but in the past week I noticed my left knee looked heaps bigger than my right. Even right now it's feels like it's a bit swollen. I couldn't say for sure that it ever got back to the size of the other knee so maybe that's just how it is now.
I also sometimes get a painful knee popping feeling, often when I start exercising...sometimes it settles down but other times I have to stop what I'm doing. I haven't queried this problem yet since it isn't constant or even that regular...But it does worry me when it happens since it's quite painful at the time.
Kneeling is painful most of the time even if I have something to cushion my knee. I tend to shift weight to the right side and manage it for a short time...but it hurts too much to keep going for long.
Last thing is not exactly negative or positive...or perhaps more rightly is a bit of both. I have notice during my exercise that it's my right knee hurting more often than my left now. This is a switch after years of the left knee being so troublesome. I think it's fairly likely I will need the same surgery on the right knee at some point. Hopefully I can delay the need until next year.
I didn't mean this to be so long but did want to share details to help others who might want an idea of what they could expect at a year, particularly those who aren't that young any more like me.
And also those who started out unfit.
