My Journey //
November 2024
A week after Surgery, the most important goal is to get the swelling down around the left knee and on the left leg, and to get pain under management. I tapered off the pain medication (hated that stuff, but it helped when the pain was truly challenging). My Physical Therapy sessions were about learning a mobility and strength routine that I could also continue at home. The sessions were tough but also brought a lot of relief and reduced the pain and swelling. Massage was key.
December 2024
1 Month on the road to recovery. My Physical Therapy team at Ivy Rehab are amazing and truly cool guys. They got me on the bike, even when I was still limping. They got me off the crutches completely by the 6 week mark and helped me overcome some mental block. Pain is getting significantly less.
How did I speed recovery? Working out at home, icing, and massage with vitamin E oil for scars and to prevent keloids (hard tissue). I also stayed mostly plant-based, very little sugar (just fruit smoothies with almond or coconut milk) lots of Vitamin C, collagen and B complex vitamins.
January 2025
There are good and bad days with some pain creeping in. I am working out in the gym again, upper body only and some PT exercises that I am confident about doing alone. The workouts are getting monotonous but I am consistent with my PT appointments and also continuing the exercises at home. I fell on the ice once and thought I had hurt my knee again, but it was just a minor bruise and some stretching and quad work had me back on track in no time. Quad work is going slow, but I can see that this is gong to be very important for full recovery, my left quad above the acl tear is soo skinny!
