Fix My Knee

Quick update from PT yesterday...

Flex: 125°+! Dig my bad self, yo.
Leg Raises: 2lbs on my ankle
Hamstring Curls: 45lbs
Leg Press: 75lbs

Also did 10 minutes warmup then 40 minutes post-PT on the bike. Rock and roll.

I just received email from Christine, who at 13 days post-op is already at 150°! That's hardcore. Way to go, lady!

Yesterday I went for an actual walk. It was great! We probably walked about a mile. It was an absolutely gorgeous day here - in the 60s and sunny. My knee was a little sore and quite swollen last night, but it was so great to go outside and go for a walk.

Have PT tonight and Wednesday after work. I'm planning to stay and do cardio & upper body workouts after my sessions. Also, I'm going to get Melissa to measure my flexion. I've been having David help me out at home, and I'm hoping I'm past 120° by now. I'm probably starting some new stuff in PT tonight, like for balance I'll be not only standing on the half-cylindar, but tossing & catching a ball while balancing.

Today I read some interesting posts on the ACL board about depression. I'm far from depressed right now, but I was pretty bummed in the few weeks following surgery. I don't think I even realized the extent of it until recently I sent a link to this blog to a couple of friends I haven't heard from in a while. Both wrote back, "Wow! You've been through hell!" Hm. I guess the first week or two really sucked, but overall I feel great now.

Wow, it's been almost seven weeks since surgery. People keep telling me it seems like it went so fast. Not to me. That first week felt like a year.

A few updates. The new PT clinic is awesome. Melissa is awesome. Alison (one of the sports medicine assistants) is awesome. It's a high-energy place, and I have no regrets about switching. This morning was my second appointment there. We added hamstring curl with weights (30lbs) and leg press (62.5lbs). Melissa also put weight (1lb I think) on my ankle for the leg raises. And I'm now going fast enough on the bike to consistently break a sweat, which is such a great feeling. We tried walking down some stairs, and that tires me out and makes my leg hurt pretty quickly. I'll keep practicing at home, with the brace on. Before I left today, Alison cut me a compression sleeve to wear under the brace, which may help with the hives.

I saw my PCP today to get the PT referral. Had a physical, all systems go. Also got a flu shot. Oh, and I asked him about the potential brace allergy. He hooked me up with some Allegra, so I'll see how that works out over the next couple of days.

This week I've been taking the subway to work and cabs home. Tonight I'm meeting D after work, so we'll probably take the subway home together. I'm really happy to be returning to regularly scheduled programming in my life. I've even found myself forgetting a couple of times that I have to be careful - like, on Monday night, I started running for a cab. Oops. (Fortunately I realized very quickly that I can't run yet!) I'm still quite tired, but not having any after-work activities like tap dancing or kickboxing gives me plenty of time to go to bed early.

I think I might be allergic to the new brace. No, I'm not being cute. The past couple of mornings I woke up with hives all around my knee, localized to where the brace sits. Coincidence? I've never had an allergic reaction to a cream or fabric, and the brace doesn't seem to be made out of anything that radical, but who knows. I posted the problem to Bob's ACL WWWBoard and received an interesting response - it seems someone else had a similar problem with the Breg X2K.

I have an appointment with Dr. Nestor again on December 17. I'm going to try to stick it out with this brace until then, because if I do change I'll likely need another Rx anyway.

I started PT today at Pro-Fit in the Equinox gym on Greenwich Avenue. My therapist is Melissa, and she rocks. She did an evaluation (said my extension is good, gait is good, and again I made it to about 108° in unassisted heel slides), then started me with exercises. I have a bunch of new stuff to do now, which is fantastic. I started with the bike (10 min.) and leg raises, which I guess will be part of my repertoire through eternity. We moved on to:

• Wall Slides: I lean against an exercise ball against the wall, then slide down, keeping my back straight, in a modified squat position (2 x 15)


• Standing Hamstring Curls (using a small weight) (2 x 15)


• Balance: I stand on a half-cylindar with my right foot and balance (3 x 30 sec.)


• Step Ups: I step up with my right leg and down with my left leg (2 x 15)

After I finished these excercises she massaged the scar area, and stretched my leg for extension and flexion, as well as my hamstring. She said the flexion is fine, right where it should be.

In addition to PT, my insurance company is graciously providing me with many hoops through which I must jump! Switching clinics was not as cut-and-dried as I'd expected it to be. First of all, unrelated to insurance but still annoying, when I arrived at Pro-Fit this morning, Dr. Nestor's office still hadn't faxed the Rx for treatment. I called them and they were able to send it before my appointment officially started. Next problem: I need a new referral from my Primary Care Physician. Referrals are a pain in the ass. When I initially injured my knee back in September, I had to go to a doctor to get a referral to my OS. My PCP is on the Upper West Side, and since I was pretty immobilized at the time, I found a different doc in my neighborhood, who basically looked at my knee and told me to go see my OS. When I started PT at Park Sports, I don't know what they did for a referral, but somehow Oxford approved the visits and I did receive a letter with the name of my PCP as the referring physician.

Now, Pro-Fit needs a referral for their clinic. I called my PCP, who I haven't seen in over two years, to get the referral. His office said they couldn't give it to me without him seeing me. I understand that's standard, but without the referral today I'll be responsible for the full cost of this morning's appointment. Argh. They'll hopefully fax the referral today anyway, and I have an appointment to see the PCP on Thursday. Who is, of course, inconveniently located on the UWS.

Also, this morning, Melissa told me that I should plan to come twice a week, because she's pretty sure my insurance will run out before we've completed as much treatment as she'd like. I guess ninety visits is the absolute maximum, and they can deny coverage before that is reached. I went to Park Sports 17 times, and so far I've been to Pro-Fit once, for a grand total of 18 visits. That's $270 in co-pays, plus the initial home visit ($130).

Running total spent on PT: $400

This morning I rode the subway for the first time since September 21. For anyone reading this who doesn't live in NY, that's a LONG time to go without riding the subway in this city. It's good to be back.

Notice a theme here?

On Saturday morning I walked to PT, for one last session with Lena. It was a good one. I spent about 10 minutes on the treadmill and 10 minutes on the bike. Then went through the usual battery of exercises, and when it came time for flexion, she first put heat on my knee. It really helped. I made it to 113° on the heel slides. Lena told me I could put moisturizer on the incision spot (it was extremely dry, but I wasn't sure whether it'd be safe to moisturize it), and showed me how to push the skin together so it separates from the scar tissue. This will help me avoid having a "pulling" sensation around the scar when I bend my knee. Overall it was a good session.

However, I decided I'm going to try Pro-Fit. I stopped by on Friday to speak with a therapist and check out their facilities. I was sold. I spoke with a really nice woman named Allison (I think) who is one of the sports medicine assistants. The real selling point for me is that the clinic is located inside the Equinox gym on Greenwich Ave., and I'll have access to the gym facilities for an hour before and an hour after each appointment. And, that particular Equinox has a pool! So I'll be able to resume my regular upper-body training, and once I can start swimming, I won't have to pay for a separate facility.

I also checked my insurance over the weekend, and it provides for 90 PT visits per condition per lifetime, which is excellent coverage and more than adequate (I will be going 3x/week for six months total).

I've emailed Christine a few more times, and she's even reading this journal now (Hi Christine!). It's been great to compare notes with her. She's already past 100° - awesome, eh? - and is walking around. We're planning to meet up when I'm home at Christmas, and I'm really looking forward to it!

I've spent the past day and a half walking around, slowly but surely. I have to say, I was pretty efficient on those crutches after six weeks! But since I ditched them on Wednesday night, I haven't looked back. The leg is shaky, especially in the evening, and it swells up A LOT. But I'm moving carefully and so happy not to have those damn crutches.

Yesterday was my first PT visit since weight bearing. I WALKED there (woo hoo!) and Svetlana and Boris were both quite surprised that I was allowed full weight bearing right away. Anyway, I started, as usual, with the bike, and rode for 10 minutes at 10-12 mph. Then I did the leg press with my legs on separate pedals, which was very exciting. We lowered the weight to 50lbs each, and it was really challenging for my right leg. No quad, remember? I asked Svetlana to talk to me about stairs, and she said it's best to go one at a time on the way down, at least for a week, but that it'd be OK to walk up stairs in the usual fashion. We didn't do much else - the usual leg raises, and a bit of manual manipulation, most of which I could do myself using a yoga strap (or with David's help).

When I got home from PT, I took off the new brace, and my leg was really red and irritated in a couple of places, especially where the pads grip the sides of my knee. I theorized that the brace is maybe too tight and needs to be adjusted. This morning before work I went back to HSS to talk to Rolando in the Brace Shop about the fit. He checked me out and said that a larger brace would be too loose, and that it's tight because of the swelling. He advised me to keep it off at home when I'm just hanging out, and keep my knee iced and elevated to alleviate some of the swelling. Okey-doke.

While I was at HSS, I decided to swing by the physical therapy clinic they have on-site. At first I wandered into the spinal rehab clinic, and spoke to a therapist there, who walked me over to the sports rehab center. On the way we talked about my therapy, and he said if I'm not happy with what I'm doing, I should definitely shop around and not wait. When I spoke with the sports therapist, he was more neutral. I did get a chance to glance around the clinic at HSS (it's really big and nice), and I grabbed an updated list of HSS-affiliated PT clinics (the one Denise had given me was from last year). There's one at the Equinox on Greenwich Ave. that's run by a guy who used to work at HSS; I'm going to stop by there after work today to speak with a therapist.

My Toronto ACL friend called me last night when she was home from the hospital. It seems everything went well, and it wasn't even as bad as she expected. Luckily the optional meniscal repair didn't need to happen, it was fine, so she just had the ACL reconstruction. She sounded to be in good spirits. She has her first physio appointment today, and we'll probably speak after that.

Speaking of which, I have my first walking PT appointment today! Whee! I can't WAIT to walk in there, crutch-free! I've decided to stick it out at Park Sports for a few more visits, to see if things improve now that I can weight bear. It is, after all, ridiculously convenient.

I forgot to mention this, but when I was waiting for Rick to develop the x-rays yesterday, I noticed that the gonad protectors are Figleaf brand.

Hilare.

This morning I had my follow-up visit with Dr. Nestor. David came along for the ride. We arrived at HSS at 10am, just in time for my scheduled x-rays. A very nice technician named Rick x-rayed my knee in a few different positions. (I was happy to have the chance to bend my knee and warm it up before seeing the doctor.) After the x-rays we moved to Dr. Nestor's waiting area. While we were sitting in the waiting room, I peeked at the x-rays. I have screws! Two of 'em, and they look kind of big - maybe an inch long. It was cool and very Six Million Dollar.

We saw Dr. Nestor at around 11:45. He took off the steri-strips (yay!) and took out two more sutures. He said it's healing nicely. Then he did the "Show me what you've got" routine and I bent to over 105°! He pushed it a little and said he'd give me 108° for today. Then he did some tests (moved my knee sideways, up and down), declared it to be "rock solid," and said I could now fully weight bear! I can walk! He also said I had no quad left. Win some, lose some. I'm also allowed to push the flexion - no more limits there - and should get to the maximum of 130°-140° soon.

We looked at the x-rays together, and he said everything was fabulous. I asked him about the patella (which had the middle third removed for the graft), and he said eventually that will regenerate. The body is very sci-fi. I also asked him what the screws are made of: Titanium. I have titanium screws in my knee! Isn't that cool?

I brought an extensive list of questions, and went through them with him. He had lots of time today, and seemed very happy with my progress. He said the six week guideline of no weight bearing is because often people cheat, and he could see that I'd been religious about protecting the knee, which is fine.

1. Can I get a smaller brace, or have a brace adjustment? YES! See below.


2. Can I sleep without the brace? YES!


3. Can I take a bath?? Not yet, until the scabs fall off.


4. What should I expect from physical therapy? Can I have a list of other clinics? I got a new list from Denise (see below). I'm going to stick with Park Sports for the next couple of weeks, to see if my therapy steps up a bit now that I can walk.


5. What's up with the knee-popping? As soon as I mentioned this, he knew exactly what I was talking about. Fortunately my knee even cooperated and popped in his office. He said it's scar tissue, and will decrease as the tissue heals.


6. What about the fall down the stairs? At this question, D noticed that Dr. Nestor looked a little sheepish. (He hadn't called me back after I left the message at his office.) He said he'd worried about that kind of thing, but it was clear I hadn't done any additional damage.


7. What's the protocol from here on out? Is there a limit for flexion? Strength? Balance? No limits now - I can safely push the flexion in my knee. Or, my physical therapist can.

After all my questions were answered, he gave me instructions to see Denise to make a follow-up appointment (Dec. 17) and get a prescription for a new brace. Woo hoo! She also gave me the list of HSS-approved PT clinics, so I may check out some other facilities later this week. Unfortunately there's nothing really close to either work or home (except the clinic I go to now).

After seeing Denise I made my way to the Brace Shop on the second floor. A very nice man, Rolando, fitted me for the Breg X2K, the women's model. This brace is hardcore and sporty. It's what NFL players are issued (the Giants team doctor works at HSS, so that's where their players are sent). I actually like it! And, I could walk right away! I was worried that with the loss of muscle in my quad I'd be wobbly, but my leg supports me pretty well. A new question arose at the brace fitting: Can I wear the brace over yoga pants or tights? Rolando deferred to Dr. Nestor on that one, so I'll give him a call about it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the office. It's very exciting to walk around, carry things, and open doors for myself. I do notice stiffness sets in pretty quickly, and I may keep an ice pack in the freezer at work. I'm also exhausted, but I'm sure that's emotional as much as anything. I can walk!

Yesterday I spoke with some co-workers who've done PT, and asked them about their experiences. I definitely need to shop around. One guy is currently going to a clinic for his shoulder, and the clinic he goes to doesn't charge him the co-pay. (I've already spent over $200 on that, plus the initial visit that was $130.) His clinic is located at Bally's gyms, so he also has access to their equipment during his visits.

I also did a web search for ACL rehab, and found Bob's ACL WWWBoard. People's experiences vary greatly, and much of the variation is dependent on the orthopedic surgeon (OS). While reading through the messages, I came across one from a woman named Christine who is scheduled for ACL reconstruction today (November 11). Her posting described some of the preparations she'd taken, and she mentioned that she's scared, especially of the pain. I wrote back to her privately because I was also totally freaking out the night before surgery, and it really would have helped me to talk to someone who'd recently had the same procedure. We spoke on the phone last night. Christine lives in Toronto! She tore her ACL skiing two years ago, did rehab for about a year in the hopes of strengthening it enough to avoid surgery, but continued to have instability. She is in the OR as I write this for ACL reconstruction and meniscal repair on her right leg, and I'm sure she's kicking ass. We're going to speak again later this week.

In speaking with Christine I found out a few differences between the procedures in NY and Toronto. Christine has an overnight stay in the hospital. When she went in for pre-op counselling, she spoke with another woman who'd just had the surgery. Apparently she'll have access to morphine overnight, but will be sent home with nothing stronger than Tylenol-3. I seriously don't know what I would have done without the Percocet, and I encouraged her to ask her surgeon whether a stronger painkiller would be available. (Pain management is critical. Trust me.)

On the same board on which I met Christine, I found a posting entitled, "How long before you walked?" I posted a question in this thread describing my surgery, and the muscle loss since, and received the following response:

"I also had ACL Recon and meniscus repair. When I was cleared to walk with out the crutches, it was 3 more weeks before I could go without using at least 1 all the time. I had a lot of muscle atrophy too. Just don't overdue it because you will experience an increase in the swelling as you try to go off the crutches. Good luck. Just remember that ice is your friend!"

Tomorrow is my visit with Dr. Nestor. I'm nervous. I have lots of questions for him.

- When can I safely sleep without the brace?
- Can I PLEASE remove the steri-strips? [The original post-op strips are still on my knee, with the original post-op dried blood. Yuck.]
- What protocol should I be following? What can I expect to be able to do in 1 week? 2 weeks? 4 weeks?
- What's up with this popping in my knee? [New! My knee now pops, around the kneecap, during flexion exercises. It's not painful but it's slightly uncomfortable and weird, and Svetlana didn't know what causes it.]

Had PT on Saturday morning. Lena was back! She'd been on vacation, and she also started a new job at a hospital (also doing PT). I asked her about the new job, and she told me it's very different from Park Sports. For one, there's much more documentation for each patient. She also said it's much less stressful, in that she sees about 10 patients a day there, whereas at my clinic, there are sometimes four or five of us to a single therapist.

I'd had a few misgivings about the clinic, but I'll start with a description before I get into those.

The PT clinic I go to is two large-ish rooms, plus a few smaller rooms with tables (that I think are primarily used for electrical stim and ice). The front room has a treadmill, a recumbent stationary bike (my best friend), an arm cycle, and a few other apparati. It's fairly spacious. The second room has a Cybex multi-weight contraption, the leg press, a stretching table (the elevated, padded bench-type table that I use for heel slides and other stretches), and a stainless-steel table with a couple of chairs, on which most of the hand therapy seems to be done. The back rooms have regular exam-room type tables. When I started going to this clinic I did most of my exercises back there.

The clinic charges $100 per visit. I pay $15 for the co-pay, and my insurance covers the rest. My sessions have evolved into a pretty standard routine:

- 15-20 minutes stationary bike
- Leg press (3 sets of 10 @ 60lbs)
- Resistance band work
- Leg lifts (quads and side)
- Heel slides
- Manual manipulation (where I lie on my stomach and the therapist manually bends my heel toward my butt)

On Saturday I was at the clinic for 75 minutes. Of those, I spent about 5-8 with Lena. This doesn't seem quite right, considering the equipment I need for rehab could all be found in a regular gym, and a personal trainer at $100/hr would be with me for the whole hour. Of course, a personal trainer has different training and creds than a physical therapist. Here's the thing, though: On Saturday morning, Lena was the ONLY person working in the clinic. The phone was ringing off the hook, she was assessing a new client with carpal tunnel, and there were at least two other people there (besides me). I'm not unhappy with the therapists themselves, but I really want to walk! And if there's anything I can do to build up my muscles, I want to know about it. This could be how all PT clinics are, but I think I might shop around after I see Dr. Nestor on Wednesday (in two days!!!).

Speaking of building up muscles, I left the brace off all day yesterday (I was just sitting around the house anyway). Previously I've always blamed the brace for the apparent skinniness of my right leg (because the brace does compress it, and I'm usually comparing right after I take the brace off). But, ack. My right leg is WAY smaller than my left one! It's crazy! I took a few sample measurements along both legs, and it's up to an inch smaller in some places. I know, it's the A-word. I hate that word.

Weekend Summary: Days 37 & 38
Flex: 110°+
Crutching: 19 short/6 long (about a mile)
Arecibo: $12
NYC Taxi: $0

I don't want to turn this blog into a big lecture on ACL surgery preparation, but I just bought a fancy new backpack (in Chili), and I love it oh-so-much. Just before surgery I picked up a $20 streetcorner backpack. It sucked. One of the shoulder straps constantly slips. Plus it's unbalanced and heavy, and I blame it* for the stair incident. Happy Five Weeks, Brace!

Another item I recently bought is Dr. Scott's Knee Book. This book rocks! It has diagrams of All Things Knee, and describes common problems and their solutions. It even has diagrams of rehab exercises. One of ACL patients quoted in the book said, "What I wasn't prepared for was the amount of pain that was involved in getting back flexibility in terms of bending and straightening my knee. It's not easy--you have to make a commitment to therapy." Sound familiar?

*Also blamed for the stair incident: A bright pink plastic bag that D brought up from the basement the weekend before I fell, and left on the landing. It is an old bag from a shoe store called "Selby's" that apparently used to be on Fifth Avenue (not sure if it was in Manhattan or Brooklyn). It has the most hilarious image of a bending shoe with a heel, and the text is in Bookman! Very retro. I happened to be staring wonderingly at the Selby's bag when I fell last week, hence the blame.

Since surgery, I've noticed a few interesting (some cool, some not so cool) changes in my body. I'm talking about unexpected things - not the knee-swelling, although that is kind of interesting.

First of all, the marble. A few weeks ago I mentioned here that I had the sensation that something was poking into my leg just above and to the right of my knee. Initially I thought the brace was on crooked, but adjustments didn't work. When we unwrapped the bandage to look at my leg in that spot, nothing was there - except swelling that was localized, about the size and shape of a marble. The marble grew more pronounced over the following week or so, and by now it's mostly subsided.

Next, the lumpy thigh. About three weeks after surgery I noticed that my right thigh was really lumpy - in fact, it was like one of the muscles along the inside of my thigh had sort of curled up two inches above my knee. So while my left leg is nice and smooth, the right one has this lump. I asked Svetlana about it and she explained that when there's an injury, muscles seize up to protect the injured area. She said it was just like getting a knot in your shoulder, and told me I could apply heat therapy to help the muscle relax. So while I'm still a little grossed out at my lumpy thigh, I think the body is really amazing.

Lastly, for now at least, the baby finger of my right hand is numb. This phenomenon started about three weeks after surgery. It's numb from about the pad of my hand, all along the right side, up through my baby finger - but only the right side of my baby finger. So if I pressed the right edge of my right hand in an ink pad, that would pretty much map out the numb area. I asked Boris about the numbness, since he's the hand guy at the clinic. He said it's just that I'm pressing on a nerve in my hand when I use the crutches, and that the feeling will come back. If I was going to be on crutches much longer, I might be advised to change to some that use my forearm to take the pressure off my hand. But I'm hoping not to be on them too much longer.

And there were a few more little things that would fall into the category of Weird Body Stuff. Like, percocet makes me fart. Really.

Day 35 Recap:
Flex: 108° (Had PT after 4 hours at work... Bad idea. My knee was stiff and my quad was noticeably weaker.)
Crutching: 5 short blocks
Arecibo: $25
NYC Taxi: $20
Days to Dr. Nestor: 6

Flex: 110°+
Crutching: 10 short blocks
Arecibo: $0
NYC Taxi: $0
Days to Dr. Nestor: 8
Oh, and weight: 147 (Not to turn this into Bridget Jones's Knee Diary, but I've lost 8lbs since surgery. Um, yay? I'd really recommend Weight Watchers over knee surgery.)

Last night I had drinks with a friend from Waterloo, and on our way out of the bar a guy stopped me and asked what I'd done to my leg. I told him the deal - the Reader's Digest version of course - and he told me he needs meniscal repair sometime soon. I assured him that was cake - I had arthroscopy to repair torn meniscus about three years ago, and it was literally a walk in the park. I had a cane that I barely used, and I think I went back to work on the third day after surgery.

Not much new to report from PT today. I did meet a guy who's scheduled for ACL repair on November 14th - I gave him the address of this blog, so if you're reading this, hi! And good luck - you'll totally kick ass. (He's already doing PT in preparation for the surgery, so I'd consider that an edge... Plus no meniscal problems to speak of.)

Oh, and the brace-free honeymoon is over: Svetlana was not keen on the idea of me sleeping without the brace. So, OK, I had my three nights of freedom.

Today The Brace and I are celebrating our one month anniversary. It's been an intense first month: We've spent almost every waking and sleeping moment together. To celebrate we're having some time away - in fact, Saturday night was the first time I've slept without The Brace since October 3rd. Even though she's been a great source of protection and support, and I need her around in the short-term, I'm thinking we might break up sometime before Christmas. Maybe even by Thanksgiving.

I forgot to include in the "Stuff is Funny" entry the new Candianisms I've learned recently.

Ace Bandages: You know those stretchy bandages you wrap around an injury to support it - usually for a sprain? Well, in Canada they're "tensor bandages." Ace is the brand, I guess, like Kleenex, so that's what they're called here in the US of A. When we were at the post-op doctor visit, my mom asked Dr. Nestor if I needed to put the tensor bandage back on. He looked at her blankly. She recovered quickly, "I mean, the Ace bandage."

Physical Therapy: In Canada it's called "physiotherapy," or "physio" for short. I think I said that a few times at first, and probably people just thought I was speaking quickly, but then I realized that it's PT here. Always two words. My mom confirmed that it was called "physical therapy" when she lived in Florida, too.

First of all, a shout-out to Wil, my kickboxing coach, who just emailed me that he's reading the blog. Can't wait to get back in your camp!

Flex: 110°
Crutching: 2 long blocks, 2 short blocks, plus the market
Arecibo: $20
NYC Taxi: $18

Had PT on Saturday morning at 8am. I was a little late, but arrived just as Boris was getting there, so that was fine. This was my first PT since the stairs incident, so I was interested to see if there would be any setback. I started on the bike and did 15 minutes, with full rotations (seat at 10). OK there. I stretched my hamstring them moved on to the leg press and did the usual 3x10 @ 60lbs there. Good. All systems go. Did a few other exercises with resistance bands, then moved to the table so Boris could do his thang. After a few heel slides (85° on my own) I flipped over, and he manually bent my knee. We stopped the first couple of times at around 95°, then he stopped at 100° and I was fine. He moved through 105° to approx. 110°, which was my highest yet, and puts me on-track to be at 120° when I see Dr. Nestor on the 12th. David calls it the "Degree-A-Day" program.

Vicki met me at PT and was hung over enough that she wasn't moving much faster than me on the crutches. We had coffee, then I had breakfast with David & Andrew, then Andrew most graciously chauffeured us to the Green Market. It was the most fabulous day ever - the high was 77°F, and it was incredibly sunny. I hadn't been to the market in over a month and was so very excited to be there.

One thing about being on crutches is I am hyper-sensitive to other people with canes or crutches or even a slight limp. On Friday night on our way to the party we ran into Femur Reconstruction Guy again - he was trick-or-treating with his daughter. He'll be allowed to weight-bear around when I am, but then, he's been on crutches since April. Good luck, Femur Guy! Our waitress at brunch was limping from a fall she'd had the night before, and told me she could use the crutches. At the market one of the fish ladies commiserated with my disabled state - she'd also had femur reconstruction a few years ago, and had been off her feet for seven months. Another guy at the market told me he'd had ACL repair about 20 years ago, and assured me I'd be fine.

The thing is, it *is* interesting. The brace itself is interesting. How someone navigates NYC on crutches is interesting. I appreciate it when people talk to me about the brace or the crutches, and I don't even mind the gawking as long as it's accompanied with a smile.

In the evening we ordered up a car to go to the Lower East Side for Vicki's gallery opening. It was so much fun. She is a fabulous artist - if you're in NY, check out the exhibit through the end of November at UZI N.Y. GALLERY on Avenue C. At my insistence we went a few doors down to Lava Gina for another drink, and being out for the first time in over a month was way fun. (Incidentally Lava Gina is a brace-friendly establishment - lots of comfy seating.) Even though I'm a cheap drunk right now, I was careful not to get too tipsy, as tipsy and crutches do not go well together. Thanks for a fun night, D!

Hallowe'en is my most favourite day of the year. This year was no exception, as I trumped even myself in the costume department: I dressed up as Ski Accident Barbie. It was fabulous. I donned a white turtleneck, long blonde wig, pale pink hat and scarf (with hearts!), and a very authentic-looking "Ski Accident Barbie (Includes Crutches)" sign. I made David a matching "Ski Instructor Ken (First Aid Kit Included!)" sign, and he wore a white turtleneck and baby blue hat and scarf with snowflakes.

I wore the costume to work and it was a big hit. I also made my most fabulous graveyard brownies ever, two batches, and took one to work and one to the party we went to in the evening. I have a few pictures, will post more when I have them.

On Day 27, Thursday Oct. 30th, I was on my way down the stairs to go to work, when I lost my balance and took a tumble. That's right: I fell down some stairs. Yikes. Or as my brother commented, "Shit. What'd you do that for?" Good question.

First of all, I'm OK, and as far as I can tell no further damage was done. I lost my balance and fell forward, hit my right foot on the floor, and bounced over. I think I flipped over on my head and shoulders, went down about six steps, and ended up on my butt on the landing of the third floor apartment. Thank God for landings. I was shocked, and pretty freaked out. I evaluated the situation and found all limbs to be intact and nothing particularly painful, then I did what anyone in that situation would have done: I cried. I also yelled out to see if anyone was home in the building - in hindsight I'm not sure exactly what they could have done, but it seemed like having someone else there would have been helpful. Nobody was home. I thumped back up the stairs to my apartment and parked myself on the couch. I was still shaking and freaked out. I phoned the car service to tell them I no longer needed the car, and left David a message at work that went something like, "Hi, it's me. I fell down the stairs . Can you please call me back?"

David called back within 10 minutes. He was probably more freaked out that me at that point. I assured him I'd be fine, that I was going to take a painkiller and go back to bed. We hung up, and he called back almost immediately to tell me he was coming home. I told him that really, really wasn't necessary, but he insisted, and came home for a few very comforting hours before he had to go back into the city for a meeting.

About half an hour after the fall I took off the brace and tried some flexion exercises. I seemed to be able to bend as much as usual, so I was pretty sure then I'd be OK. Fortunately I was wearing the brace, which I wear so much that I think it is going to fuse to my leg.

When I told my mom about the mishap she suggested I call Dr. Nestor just to let him know it had happened, so I left him a message.

The Moral of the Story

"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again." Alexander Pope (1688-1744) - An Essay on Criticism

The previous day (Wednesday, Day 26) had been fabulous, and as a result I was not paying as much attention as I should have been. I was also a little tired and sore from the crutching around. I was lucky. And in case I thought this blog was getting a little boring ("look how far I can bend my knee!"), this oughta spice it up a little.

// posted by Gillian @ 1:33 PM