Physical Therapy and Protein!

Family Update: My family could use some prayers and well wishes right now. It's been a bit crazy since May. My dad was rear-ended 10 weeks after his back surgery, and now he has horrible headaches again and new hip pain. Thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt. He also had an emergency laser eye surgery on his retina this week to prevent it from detaching from a hemorrhage in his eye. We aren't really sure what caused that. He started physical therapy this week too, which he likes, but it's leaving him pretty sore afterwards. My great aunt is in a nursing home recovering from a fall that resulted in a broken pelvis and broken wrist, both of which required surgery. My grandma has shingles on her face and in her eye and the medicines don't seem to be helping much, and my 6 month old nephew went to Children's Hospital for a horrendous case of croup that left his oxygen levels way too low. It's been one thing after the other around here since May, and we're all just taking it a day at a time. 

As far as my knees go...

Time Since Surgery: 15.5 weeks
Physical Therapy: I started "real" PT 3 weeks ago! I have therapy 2 times per week at the gym, and I have a bunch of exercises to do at home 2 times per day. Home therapy exercises include: leg raises, hip ab/adductions, glute bridges, 1 leg calf raises, the clam, balancing on one leg while standing on a pillow, mini air squats to 45 degrees, sitting on the counter and straightening my legs, and walking sideways with orange theraband around my ankles. It's a lot of work, but I can feel my legs getting stronger which is awesome! Also, I finally got the OK to get rid of quad presses. HOORAY!! I've been doing those every. single. day. since the day of my surgery, and discontinuing an exercise means I'm getting stronger!
Activities That Are Improving: shaving my legs, cleaning, shopping, cooking, obtaining items from low cabinets/the floor, my overall energy level, going up stairs, walking quicker, driving further distances, getting in and out of the car, getting up from chairs
Activities That Are Challenging: squatting, going down stairs, happy dances, speed walking, lifting anything heavy, getting up down onto and up from the floor

The past month has been jam-packed. My baby brother moved to Chicago, my baby sister moved onto campus and is starting college this week, and I moved out of my house and into an apartment with Kevin. I think my mom is having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to all three of us moving out within a 2 week span (very understandably so) since Nathan was home the past year and a half, I was been home the past 3 years for grad school, and Caitlyn had never left home yet. Luckily she babysits John Nathan 3 days a week, so I'm sure that's keeping her busy! Her and John Nathan have been visiting me at the new apartment a ton. It's a lot of fun :)

Hanging out with Greema and Aunt Maria

Moving Caitlyn into her dorm!!

Kevin and I have been down to Cincinnati 3 times the past month, too, one of which was for Aaron and Amy's wedding! Their wedding was a blast. I was actually able to dance quite a bit, and my knees held up throughout the night! There was a stage conveniently placed next to the dance floor, so I was able to sit and dance. I'm sure it looked a bit goofy, but it was awesome being able to join in the fun instead of just sitting back at the table. All of my siblings were there, which is always a good time. We had SO much fun.

The whole gang :)

Congratulations, Aaron and Amy!

Typically, I still have to use my crutches to do stairs, so I usually carry them around if I'm going to new places in case there are stairs. I had a very exciting day when I went up a whole flight of stairs without using crutches at all! It was the first time I had gone upstairs without crutches since the first week of April, so this was a HUGE accomplishment and I was thrilled!! I don't go up stairs without crutches all the time though because I don't want to over-do it and it kind of hurts sometimes, and I can't go down stairs without crutches at all yet.  

The first flight of stairs I went up since April without crutches!

I had my crutches at the wedding (which was before I did the flight without them), and when we were checking out of the hotel, the lady at the front desk starts laughing and says "Oh were the crutches a prank for the wedding?!" since I was carrying them and walking perfectly fine. People say stuff like that all the time, because I don't look like I need crutches at all. What's even more entertaining is when I forget to bring them and don't have them with me. Then, Kevin carries me up or down stairs with people who are around who don't know that I had surgery. I wonder what they must be thinking, but I've stopped worrying about it and have just decided to be entertained by their reactions instead. 

Another big event of the past month is that I started real physical therapy. I LOVE it!! It feels amazing to be able to kind of work out again and to see my strength start to come back. My knees have felt fantastic, too. It doesn't hurt (yet) like everyone said it would. My therapist said my range of motion is excellent, and that he can tell I've been working on the home exercises. My hard work is finally paying off! The main thing we're working on is strengthening both legs. My hips are apparently really weak and that can mess up your knees, so we're building up all of the muscles from my hips to my ankles. I have quite a bit of home therapy to work on. 

Last pics of my legs before PT

My legs are always exhausted and sore after therapy, but it's not necessarily painful. Some activities are though, like the first time I did air squats and the first time I did a one leg calf raise on my left leg. Those I could definitely feel in my left knee, and not in a good way. Overall, it's been great so far though. 

My dad said I was probably flashing my PT my underwear since my athletic shorts were too wide-legged and too short, so I bought some yoga pants to wear to PT. Dad was thrilled. 

In addition to the calcium + vitamin D and glucosamine + chondroitin, I've added protein smoothies to my healthy-knee-regimen. I've lost a bit of weight since the surgery from sitting around so much. I think part of it was muscle atrophy, and part was that my appetite shrunk from not being nearly as active. Since I've started doing PT and walking around a lot more, I'm so much hungrier all the time. I've added protein smoothies to try to build my muscles back up and maintain my weight since Kevin has convinced me it's nearly impossible to build a lot of muscle while losing weight. I've always thought eating extra protein was ridiculous and unnecessary, but we'll see it helps my legs. Every time I make a protein shake, I feel the need to say "Mmm PROTEIN!" in a ridiculous burly man voice, because I always just picture giant muscle builder dudes having protein shakes. 

I found some lactose-free whey protein! 

It looks a little weird since it's green, but it's delicious!!

I feel like my knees are slowly but surely getting better overall. There are way more "good knee days" than "bad knee days" lately, and I've been going non-stop with moving, unpacking, and getting the apartment all organized. I've been on my feet a ton, and my knees typically still feel good! They're sore at night and stiff in the morning when I'm really active, but it's usually not unbearable. 

As far as work goes, I'm hoping to start sometime in September. My PT says I should be ready to start part time by the end of September, but my surgeon wants me to wait until October or November. We'll see. It's a little frustrating having everything so up in the air, but I'm sure it'll all work out somehow. I can definitely walk better now, but I still can't really squat/lift patients at all, so I'm not totally ready for the physical part of being an occupational therapist in acute care. Each week I feel like I'm making gains though, so we'll see what September brings!

Jamesy-baby! He got to come home from the hospital, so lets hope his oxygen levels stay up!!