FALL 98:  The Gimp Sessions

After the microfracture, I took a few days off from work, but they werent all that necessary.  However, to arouse the sympathies of my co-workers, and to make them feel obligated to get me coffee and pick up copies from the printer, I felt I had to to take the time off, in order to increase the perception that this was a really traumatic experience for me.  Fortunately, I drive an automatic and the microfracture was done on the left leg, so this posed no problem for my commute between SF and Palee Alto.  Really, to alleviate the stress of surgery, there should be separate handicapped lanes on the highways.

For the next seven weeks, I slept with a CPM (continuous passive motion) machine that, as the name implies, moves your leg in a continuous passive motion!  I did this nightly during the 6 hours of sleep I normally get.  To my surprise, the thing didnt keep me up at night.  It's not a continuous violent motion, fortunately.  It was just a hassle if I had to get up in the middle of the night to, well, y'know, and free myself from the machine, then grab my crutches to go take care of business.  In addition, I also used a polar ice box to get the swelling in my knee down.  Fortunately, my insurance covered these gadgets for me.  Check out this link for more on CPM.

crutches1.jpg (477481 bytes)I was on crutches and in a big ole leg brace for eight and a half  weeks, and not allowed to bear ANY weight on the microfractured leg.  I was very religious about this, but I still had to get out there and do something--anything!  So I would go out to the Marina Green or Polo Field in SF, and hobble laps on my crutches.  As I look back, this may not have been the wisest thing to do because I was only walking on the good leg, further contributing to the huge muscle discrepancy between the two legs.  I even tried walking on the beach with my crutches--doesnt work, FYI.  On one autumn afternoon in October, a friend from DC came out to visit.  So, to entertain her, we drove out to the Marin Headlands, where I led our hike on my crutches.

By about week six, I started my rehab campaign.  My days as an invalid were spent "spinning" on a stationary bike and aqua-jogging (like CANDY to the knee!).    This required getting up at the butt-crack of dawn every morning, so I could squeeze in an aqua-jog before work.  This also meant getting into a pool full of mean, snickering women doing aquaroebics, to which I snickered right back at them.  I soon got over the humiliation, and soon we were trading aqua-jogging tips in the hot tub.  Then, after being stuck in the leg brace all day, I would go back to the gym after work to go for a "spin" on the lifecycle, or for another aqua-jog.  By this time, I was also allowed to start biking on the roads again.  SF offers some of the best quad-strengthening hills to bike, like those in the Presidio and the Headlands, or California Street for the insane.  Call the San Francisco Visitor's Bureau for more information on what has been trademarked "the best place on earth".

crutches2.jpg (617153 bytes)In the eight and a half weeks during which I was non-weightbearing, the muscles in my quads had atrophied to vermicelli proportions.  Never into weight training before the surgery, I then began a weight program to which I continue to stick today, at 15 months post-op.  Lotsa squats, lotsa leg curls, lotsa leg presses, lotsa straight leg raises, lotsa sitting against the wall, and my favorite, lotsa ski squats, where you get into a skier's tuck position and do 100 - 120 reps of squats from, oh about 135 degrees down to 90 degrees.   Even with all I've put into this, I still have not been able to regain all the muscle I lost.  One of my PTs said it could take up to 2 years!  Neverthenonetheless, I'm still progressing, and I've become obsessed with working out on the weights--almost as obsessed as I am about my running.  I might also add that to work on regaining balance, the elliptical trainer does funky wonders, but only if you keep your hands off the handlebars and use your arms to balance, like you're running.