After I was done with all my physical therapy today I got the flexion and extension degree angles for my knee measured against the progress I had made last week. I now have full extension of my knee plus a few extra degrees of backwards like my right knee. I gained seven more degrees of flexion in my knee which leaves me 13 degrees before it matches the 151 degrees of my right knee. The physical therapists are happy with my progress and gave me the same exercises we’ve been doing at the PT office so that I can work on them at home on my off days. My PT said that this is where the progress is much slower, but at least now I can start working on rebuilding my hamstring that they took two tendons out of for the graft to replace my ACL.

Today wasn’t the beginning of my third week off of work as I had anticipated. It ended up being my first week back. I’m actually grateful that my Short Term Disability didn’t get approved for another week. I needed the change of scenery from my couch at home and to be able to see more people and do more things.

This morning was another physical therapy session that began with about 10 minutes on a stationary bike. That is a rough exercise to get my knee loosened up with in the morning after being stiff all night from sleeping. After that I got to work on Chuck Norris’ Total Gym, which I had the pleasure of doing once before I had my surgery. Some unassisted stair stepping exercises along with some ankle-weighted leg lifts were to follow.

There it is. I took this picture of my knee after seeing it for the first time (7/12) after surgery on Monday. You can see the two sets of staples over my knee cap and then the long set of staples and Steri-Strips on the inside of my leg just below my knee cap. No worries, I’m not bleeding all over the place, that is all dried. I get my staples and those Steri-Strips off on Monday. The two smaller “port holes” at the top are where instruments were inserted into my knee for the arthroscopy. There is another smaller hole farther up that you can’t see that didn’t require stitches or staples that they threaded my new “ACL” through and attached it down by where the longer incision is. That longer cut is where they did most of the work, cutting away and taking out my damaged ACL and shaving down and smoothing out my torn lateral meniscus. Everything is going well, my pain is at a minimal level and I began minor knee bending exercises as well as “walks” around the cul-de-sac to keep everything flowing well along with getting me some out door time and fresh air. Thanks again for everyone’s thoughts and prayers!