Here we are, nine weeks later

So physical therapy continues to be good, and I'm making real progress. My therapist bumped me up a pound on the ankle weight, from two to three, last Friday.

Progress stopped for a day. Heh. Seriously, you wouldn't think one measly pound would kick my surgically altered arse so badly, but I took Saturday off. Completely. No walking and NO exercises.

Sunday I did them without any weight, and didn't have any trouble at all.

Yesterday we dropped back down to the two-pound weight, and added a 10-minute warm-up session on the bike before we did anything else. That helped a lot, and I got through all the moves without too much discomfort.

One of the exercises uses a resistance band, and they're color-coded from easiest to ouch. I started at green. Since they were out of blue, they gave me two greens to use together.

Each time I've gone they've added something else, and yesterday I got to march in place. My husband informed me Richard Nixon worked out in the Oval Office by marching in place, so I guess I'm presidential. SNORT.

The good thing about marching is it makes me raise my knee, and the good thing about raising my knee is it increases flexibility in the operated leg, and the good thing about increasing flexibility is … I can put my socks on!

With difficulty and effort, but hey … PROGRESS!

This week I'm going to increase my steps per day into the 8000-range. I'm pretty consistent on the weekdays, but drop down to only a couple thousand on Saturdays and Sundays, so an additional goal will be to make sure I get 8000 steps every day, not just during the "work" week.

So that's it for this week's post-surgery report. I feel just as positive this week about PT as I did last. It's been helpful and motivating and just what I needed to really feel like I'm recovering my strength and mobility.

Still working on stamina.

Returning to normal

And … returning to paleo.

Not walking regularly, after many years of daily activity, has resulted in yet another unacceptable weight gain. I knew it would happen, I was prepared for it. I'm not happy about it, not at all. But at least I know how to handle it.

I wasn't willing to handle it as long as I was either

1. in pain, or
2. recovering from surgery.

Since I'm not experiencing neither of those, it's time.

I started last Monday. I'm not doing a Whole 30, but am following the no dairy/grains/sugar/legumes protocol. I'm going to take a day off every couple of weeks.

I have not followed through with light weight training, as I said I would. My at-home physical therapy plan also has fallen by the wayside. I go back to the surgeon for my final appointment on Tuesday, and I'm not looking forward to confessing that I'm not doing my knee raises, adductions, and backward extensions. They just seem unnecessary at this point.

Range of motion is not 100 percent, but it's getting there. I still have difficulty bending over while sitting (to tie my right shoe, for instance).

I also still run out of steam by the end of an active day. It seems to work best to alternate days when I take it easy with days when I walk outside, go shopping, or do some other extended activity. I'm certain that will improve with time.

And with weather. It's pretty darned easy to declare a rest day when it's cold/snowy/rainy outdoors. Spring is on the way. We're going to see temperatures in the 70s next week.

It'll be pretty darned hard to stay indoors on my ass when the sun is shining and it's warm outside.

Five weeks out

So one week walking without a cane and I've totally overdone it.

I'm a bit, um, competitive. I'm only competing with myself, but I really didn't need to more than double my steps/miles from the fourth week to the fifth. It. Was. Too. Much.

I didn't hurt myself. But I exhausted myself, and I'd just gotten back into a fairly good sleep routine. Now I'm all messed up again.

Here's what I don't know: I don't know if feeling so tired all the time is a normal part of post-surgical recovery at the five-week point. I think my energy should be bouncing back. I was tired of being tired before the surgery, so I totally expected that once the source of the constant pain was gone, I'd feel fine.

And I don't.

At least I haven't the past few days.

This week I'm going to take it a little easier with the walking, and concentrate more on the physical therapy-type exercises that will build muscle. I also intend to use some light dumbbells to work on overall strength, and limit my walking to no more than two miles a day.

I have no idea if this will help or not. But going from about 8 miles two weeks ago to 17 miles last week didn't help at all. 

I also need to ease back into eating more healthfully. I like carbs way too much, and I've been pretty self-indulgent with them. I'm not ready to jump back into a full-on paleo plan, but I think starting a food journal would be a good thing to help make myself aware of what, when, and why I'm eating.

Time to woman up, I suppose. (Can you tell I'm not quite ready?) Heh.

That went well

I feel the need.

The need … for some speed.

HAHAHAHAHA!

Not really. But wow, can I ever navigate my house better without a cane!

As both of you know, my post-surgery exercise regimen has consisted of some simple moves with the operated leg plus as much walking as I can comfortably manage.

Walking with the cane was certainly manageable, but very slow, and I ended up putting a lot of pressure on my left arm and hand (the one holding the cane, obviously). I couldn't walk for more than about 20 minutes without having to give it a rest.

Without the cane, I'm not walking for longer periods of time, because BORING, but I'm certainly walking more easily and efficiently.

I have no idea when my last 5,000-step day was. Probably September, 2015.

No pain. No discomfort. The transitions – getting out of bed or going from sitting to standing – are still the biggest challenges, but compared to four weeks ago? WOW.

I'm doing better with everyday around-the-house kinds of things, too. Like cooking. We still have a couple weeks' worth of frozen meals (what a great idea that was), but I've cooked from scratch three of the last four evenings and I made oatmeal cookies yesterday.

Yes, of course one could make oatmeal cookies if one needed to walk with a cane. I'm sure it happens all the time. But I'm such a messy cook. And I never remembered to put a hand towel on the counter where I was making a mess. It was just so much easier not to cook. Heh.

I'll be walking indoors for a couple more days, because the weather is bad here. Snow, rain, ice, you-name-it – it's winter. But we're getting a tease of spring toward the end of the week. I'm going to deliver some oatmeal cookies to my very kind neighbors.

On foot.