5th Week & Orthopedic Follow-Up

This past week was particularly exciting for me because I had my first follow up appointment with the doctor who did my knee replacement, Dr Steven Copp pictured here on the left.  He did my first replacement last year and one of the main reasons I selected him was because he took the time to listen.

I had seen several other Orthopedics over the years and all agreed that knee replacement was going to happen in the near future.  But most ran me through their offices like I was a piece of paper.  Dr Copp, on the other hand, took a great deal of time to discuss my situation and what I wanted for the outcome which was to continue to be active.

The follow-up appointment went well and he was very impressed with my progress.  Some X-Rays were taken and everything is aligning well.  He did point out that my hips have some issues...great, one more thing to deal with in the future.

He didn't want me riding on the road for a few more weeks until I have greater strength in the leg and I have 100% balance.  Dr Copp was happy with my knee flexibility at this time.  130 to 135 is far enough.

This actually brings up a point.  This blog has gotten out to a lot of people and I weekly receive emails and responses to my posting.  The subject of how far a joint can or should be bent back to the hamstring has gotten the most response.  I spoke to Dr Copp about this and he was fine with my progress in this regards and mentioned that it's going to be different for each person.  Several factors come into play but one the biggest is range of motion prior to the operation.  I've always had outstanding flexibility and stretch often to keep my muscle limber.  I do this for cycling, surfing and other activities but often just because I feel my muscle need to stretch.

The next phase of this program is going to be building strength around these muscle and putting back into balance all the different parts of my body.  Many of the exercises I currently doing have already started me down that path.  A key element of strength as we all know is our core.  The challenge many of us have is that we don't focus enough on the core but should.

Here is a listing of a few of the exercises I've been working on:

• Quadriceps -Wall Slide
• Knee Flexion Stretching/Flexibility
• Knee Extension
• Hip Abduction
• Planks
• Standing on one leg through ball (balance)
• Monster (band around ankle and slide sideways)
• Single Leg Squats
• Hamstring Curls using the Exercise Ball
• Stationary Cycling
• Side step overs (stepping up and over a box sideways)

I'm now up to 20 minutes on the bike and 150 watts of resistance.  Well, that's what the bike at the Physical Therapy places shows.  I've also been using a recumbent bike at home the PTS Turbo 1000.  I picked it up on Craig's list for $25 because I knew I wouldn't be able to ride my road bike for a while.  I had to start riding this with the seat pushed back further than normal so that I could get the full pedal stroke.  Over time I've been bringing it back down.  This recumbent makes that an easy task.  I'll start riding my road bike which is in the CycleOps trainer, PowerBeam, this week.  It has watts and other features I'm missing on the recumbent.  My goal is to go to 30 minutes and 175 watts.  I'll start ILT, Individual Leg Training, in a few weeks when I have more strength.  I like to use EpicRide and SufferFest videos...see ads in this blog on the right.

One other subject I wanted to touch on this week has to do with the others who are supporting me during this process.  The main person in my life is Crystal my wife.  She has seen all the ups and down times and been a wonderful mate to have on this journey.  When I have greater amounts of pain she can see that and knows I'm frustrated.  But on the good days I've tried to do my part around the house and not let everything fall to her.  This is extremely important in our marriage I believe and one of the reasons we've been married 25 years.  I appreciate everything she does and we both take the few seconds to say, "thank you", each time we do those little things like take out the trash, do the dishes, wash the clothes, etc.  But I've tried to work harder and saying thank you for her support.  There are still times when I need to rest and can't go to the store or take the dogs to the park.  Thanks Crystal for understanding.

My boss at work has also been supportive.  I can't fly for another 3 or 4 weeks and see customers. I cover 13 states here in the west and you can image that's a great deal of the time on the road.  I can start driving longer distances and this week I have my first appointment up in LA which will be a minimum of 2 hours one way.

I'm looking forward to this next phase of the process.  I've seen huge progress so far and it will be slower but I like the fact that I can now start sweating and coming away with the feeling I had a good hard workout.