Knee surgery

[Crankin]

Wow, it sounds like you are doing well!

[emily_in_nc]

Good going, Catrin! I am sure it feels good to be back!

[Catrin]

Yayyy Pax! I didn't get near a mile in my hike yesterday, at least I don't think so. Forcing myself to focus on time, not distance and I am slow...but not as slow as I was!

Congratulations on your walk yesterday! I hear you about that moms friends cousin amazing recovery, I must know someone who knows her as well. :-) All I can say is I know the challenge from a scope plus lateral release. Can't imagine what it must be like to recover from a full replacement!

[Catrin]

I DID go hiking this morning and actually tracked things this time [1.02 miles in 28 minutes]. That is right at half my normal hiking speed on a "no personality" trail (I'm a fast walker naturally/normally) but I will take it for a starting point! AND...that was without my brace. I didn't forget it intentionally but as that trail is close to a half-hour drive from my apartment I wanted to at least attempt it. If the trail had more character I wouldn't have attempted it at all. I won't do that again for some time to come but it was also encouraging. Every day I seem stronger, and I will take that! I actually didn't expect to get far without my brace, but those hiking boots rock - apparently my knee likes them even more than I new! They are NOT light hikers, true backpacking boots but they are not heavy in weight and my arthritic feet like them as well.

[Pax]

Woo HOO!! Impressive hike, congrats!

[Catrin]

Things continue to improve! My knee is grumpy today but yesterday I walked 2 miles round trip for a work meeting, had a PT session, and a scaled kettlebell training session. My walking pace is about 85% of my normal pace. I will take it 😎

[Crankin]

I bet you are glad you had the surgery.

[Catrin]

I bet you are glad you had the surgery.

You know, while I've still some healing to do that may take months to complete, I think that I am. Even if the knee doesn't get back to quite what it was prior to the fall, in some ways it is already better. The knee had no "margin for error" as far as resources from which to draw from to recover from the brutal fall and while I knew the knee was bad, I didn't know just HOW bad.

Winding Road and I just hiked for a little over 3 miles Knee feels great, though of course I do wear a brace for hiking. We didn't do too badly considering we are both recovering from surgery!

[OakLeaf]

Glad the healing is going well! Now don't tempt WindingRoad into overdoing it.

[Catrin]

Glad the healing is going well! Now don't tempt Winding Road into overdoing it.

We focus on not allowing the other to over-do things - we seem to be about the same place as far as what our bodies will tolerate so we are are well matched for hiking together. I'm amazed at how much she can do only 2 weeks out - she has actually been walking far longer (time-wise) than I've been.

[emily_in_nc]

Winding Road and I just hiked for a little over 3 miles Knee feels great, though of course I do wear a brace for hiking. We didn't do too badly considering we are both recovering from surgery!

Yay! Happy dance!

[Catrin]

To be honest, we weren't planning on going that far, it just worked out that way. She could have gone longer, my knee called an end to things.

I want to do much more hiking this year. I've still most of my thermal riding clothes and mixed with some good winter hiking boots it should be fine. Hoping for a cold dry winter rather than lots of snow but we will see.

[Crankin]

Ha, Ha, if there's lots of snow, than you will get snow shoes. Of course, you don't want to put too much strain on that knee, so you will get state of the art, light weight ones.
There's always some temptation.

[Catrin]

Ha, Ha, if there's lots of snow, than you will get snow shoes. Of course, you don't want to put too much strain on that knee, so you will get state of the art, light weight ones.
There's always some temptation.

Yes there is that being admitted, snow shoes aren't a temptation for me. New hiking boots ARE! I've some great hiking boots already so I will wait and see how things go. If it doesn't get that cold and I've lovely wool hiking socks then my current boots might be fine. At some point I will head inside for the winter so am not in a hurry to get more hiking footwear for my arthritic feet until I see if they will be used.

Today's hike was more challenging than expected, but the trail is a little more difficult. Normally I would consider it a very easy trail but this isn't a normal time for me. No knee buckling but there were several places where my quad/knee had problems working out what to do on the combination of uneven ground and downhill incline. I just took my time in those places and did what felt most safe even if that meant standing frozen in place while my body worked it out. Very thankful for my hiking stick, don't think I could have done it without it. A whopping 1.3 miles in 38 minutes but I'm pretty happy with that, all things considered.

[Catrin]

I've been released from formal PT to a home program - I see my Ortho in another 4 weeks. He says I'm doing great, though it may be another couple months until I've fully recovered (or recovered as much as is going to happen). He likes the kettlebells and hiking and wants me to continue with both. This is good...as I wasn't planning on stopping either. We did discuss how to increase my strength to handle down-hill hiking but he is still happy with things. I asked about using 2 sticks as some I've seen do but he very strongly told me to just use one. Good news, I will take it!