what to do to pass recovery time?

[ehirsch83]

Hey everyone!
I am having knee surgery tomorrow and was wondering if anyone else has, and what you did during your recovery time.

I have already been off the bike for almost a month because of the pain and am starting to go stir-crazy!!
am I destined to be stuck doing upper body work only for the next couple weeks? or is there anythign creative to do.

[spindizzy]

Hope your surgery went well.

I guess recovery depends on what was wrong and the repairs made.
Ligament tears will take a lot longer to heal and require more physio than a simple debridement and trimming of meniscus.

I haven't posted in eons, wallowing in my own misery. Haven't ran since Oct, (killing me - was a beautiful winter to run!) but can bike and do elliptical (not painfree, but less pain) Anyway after a few months of physio, had an MRI. have a Baker's cyst, ganglion or cyst at my tibial plateau, an osteophyte, some medial meniscus degeneration and a tear of my lateral meniscus. First orthopod said "Audrey, as we age, it takes longer to heal; I'll put you on the list to scope you in about 5 or 6 months, so if in the meantime you wake up one day and the pain is gone, just cancel the surgery." grrrr! I went and saw someone else. Scope on the 19th - I anticpate a very long boring 6 weeks of recovery and slow progression to my glorious previous health. So my olympic duathlon dreams this year have been dashed, but in the big scheme of things, compared to people with life and death challenges - it is very small. Hopefully I can do my 100K fundraiser (bike) in September, maybe, just maybe, a sprint duathlon and make plans for next year. My GP said, "Don't be surprised if the orthopod tells you your running days are over.." ARGH! My husband and coach and new orthopod are much more positive.

Plan to do some (boring!!!) pool running if my orthopod says I can. I just hate
losing my cardio...And I really hate exercising in water...but if I must....

So keep your chin up, and take it easy, you want to be fully healed so that you can prevent yourself from being injured again.

[Wahine]

EH - your want to keep yourself busy with books, movies, scrapbooking - whatever you need to do to keep your sanity.

Ask to go to PT ASAP. The PT should be able to give you exercises to do right away after surgery. Often, riding a stationary bike is one of the early exercises. Many of my patients end up with an hours worth of exercises to do twice per day. So rest assured, you will have things to do.

I hope your surgery went well. If you would like, post the specifics of what happened with the surgery and I might be able to give more suggestions.

[LBTC]

While recovering from surgery of my broken humerus, I discovered photography. I hope to soon be making a second income from it.

If you already have a hobby, set yourself up with one of those nice projects that you've been meaning to do for a long time....and if you don't already have a hobby, listen to your heart and find one. You'll be glad you did !

Hugs and butterflies and fast healing,
~T~

[Kathi]

Last winter I tore my mcl and acl. My ortho told me the best I thing I could do was to ride my bike, on the trainer. He wouldn't do surgery on the acl until the mcl was strong again, so for 6 weeks I rode about 1 hr per day 5-6 times per week.

Pre surgery I had to use my brace, to protect the mcl. At first I didn't have the range of motion to use my clipless pedals so I used a flat pedal for the injured foot. When my rom came back I went back to the clipless pedal.

I was back on my bike 9 days after acl surgery. My LBS raised the handlebars on my bike so I could be more comfortable with a higher saddle. As my rom came back I lowered the saddle. I put flat pedals on both sides of the bike to balance my self out.

At 4.5 weeks I was allowed to ride outdoors but I was not permitted to use clipless pedals until 14 weeks after surgery.

PT and riding the trainer kept me sane. I also had a good bicycling base built up for the summer riding season.

Good luck with your surgery. It's been said that one comes back from an injury stronger than before. In my case, I'm 1 year and 1 month from surgery and have skied all winter, including bumps and powder, with no brace, and am looking forward to a strong cycling season.

[ehirsch83]

Thanks everyone!
Surgery turned out better then though,got in there and the small tear in the medial meniscus was so small he didn't do anythign with it.

the main probelm was the synovial tissues(fibers?). they had gotten aggrevated by something and had tightened and shortened. So when I biked, went up and down stairs, and other movement, they restricted the rest of my knee i guess and is what caused me pain. (about 7-8 miles into my rides I felt as if their was a knife cutting into my knee).

So anyways I am on partial weight bearing now, and should be full weight bearing in a couple days.
oh and i go back to the ortho in a week for my follow up.

It is a good thing I like to read though, and that lots of law and order has been on tv! My main hobbies are the bike and riding horses, and I can't do either right now. I also volunteer at the local SPCA wildlife care center, I am going to go over there tomorrow to do some work for the volunteer and developmental office work.


Thanks everyone! hope this made sense, a little sleepy from the vicodin!