2 months

2 moonths post op, and I am doing fantastic!  Last weekend, I rode a trail ride, and Iwas so sore on my inner thighs!  It hurt so GOOD!  I can do walking lunges to strengthen my hammies, and I can spin on my bike any time Iwant.  It is so excellent!  I can't wait until I can run!  No pain, no swelling.  I feel better and better every day!

Six weeks tomorrow! Out of the woods!

Tomorrow will be six weeks post op.  My knee is doing great!  I am walking around, spinning, going up and down stairs, and yesterday we had our Trail Clinic at the ranch to raise money for the hospital bill. 

Here are the "goods"

•  I can sleep without a brace, with no complication!
• I can go up and donw stairs while in a brace
• I can use the spin bike (30 minutes wears me out!)
• I can do all the necessary barn chores, with no problems
• I can longe my horse and ground drive him
• The numb spot on the front of my knee is getting smaller

Her are the "bads"

• Sometimes when I walk I get a sharp stabbing pain right in the bone where it was drilled through
• I am tired of babying my knee, and my mom (although it is with love) is annoyingly cautious
• I can't run yet
• My quad is very very very small, so I don't have the control yet to go without a brace
• My inner thigh muscles are deteriorating due to the lack of riding.

But all in all, I am doing great.  If anyone is reading this (and I doubt they are) and is going to have the same surgery, IT IS WORTH IT!  I feel better every day!

5 weeks post op!

Yesterday I went down a flight of stairs, and then back up, and her is the catch - WITH NO PAIN!
I am still wearing my very expensive, very large knee brace, but since my swelling s gone, it slides down to my ankles and ges incredibly annoying.  So most of the time at home or at work I take it off.  I religiously wear it outside and at the barn though, I just crank the straps as tight as i can. 
I am spinning about 30 minutes a day, sometimes twice a day, and incorporating mild stretching and ab work.  It is hard to know how far to stretch, i get this weird fear that I might just stretch my ligament right out of the bone.  Yuck.
I also have a piece of string sticking out of the incision site on  knee, and I have no idea what it is and it is weirding me out beyond belief.  I get this feeling of fingernails on a chalkboard every time I think about it.  God, what the heck is it connected to on the other end??  EEW!
All in all, I am doing FABULOUS!  I feel better than I did pre-op.  The doc was right!  Short term pain LONG TERM GAIN!