Sunday Story...More Recovery

Now that I am 2 ½ months post-surgery it feels like I have turned a corner with my recovery. I no longer have much pain in my knee and what I do have is very intermittent and more like an electrical shock than a stabbing acute pain. Before surgery, I would wake up in the middle of the night in pain, that no longer happens. I still have some swelling in my knee and lower leg, but every day seems to be a little better.

Some movements are still difficult, and the knee hasn’t returned to full proprioception. In other words, it doesn’t always listen when my brain tells it to do something. Going up stairs, especially going quickly can be tricky as my right foot will trail without warning, and the next thing you know my face is heading for the floor. I’m still not jumping on a box. Many of the skills we use here are very fungible. That means they disappear if you don’t practice…toes to bar are a fitting example of this.

Besides certain movements the real problem is twofold. First, I’ve had a tough time getting my heart rate to stay in a narrow range like it did before. It will jump from 120 to 160 with no extra exertion or difficulty. It comes back down but it bounces all around. Second, my ability to push hard into the outside edges of my fitness has diminished greatly. In other words, I can go hard but I can’t go hard for as long as I used to.

At this point, I do 15 minutes of GOWOD mobility daily and another 30 minutes of physical therapy exercises as Dr. Amanda Anderson of Raise the Barbell Physical Therapy prescribed. She treats people here at the box a couple times a week. If you need some help, ask me for her contact info! Then I will do some weightlifting and work on some gymnastic skills (these are the most fungible). And then I finish with some Zone 2 training.

Slow and steady wins this race.

 

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogpost.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

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