I have a checkup this week with the surgeon on Thursday morning, it'll be 11 week post surgery. I'm not exactly sure what this checkup will entail, but I don't think I will have another one until the 6 month post-op timepoint.
Rehab has been going pretty well. I've been incorporating new exercises into my routine. As of the week before Christmas, I began using the elliptical machines! I started with just 5 minutes of elliptical and continued doing the 20 minutes on the exercise bike. Slowly, I increased to 10, then 15 and now finally up to 20 minutes on the elliptical! I took my time getting up to 20 minutes on the elliptical because the first couple times I was on the machine, I could tell my form went down the tubes pretty quickly. I thought it'd be best to have 10 min of *quality* elliptical work vs upping the time, but risking possible injury. I think the plan is now to switch between 20 min elliptical + knee exercises and 20 min exercise bike + knee exercises.
I'm down to having PT just once a week in an effort to conserve the appointments I have left. My insurance only covers 20 PT appointments in a year. I'm hoping the appointments I have will last until I start jumping and running...
On a separate but related note, I've started 2011 at 180 pounds. This is about 10 pounds more than when I started 2010 at. I've never been a stickler for numbers when it comes to my weight, meaning I often determine how I feel about my weight by how I feel and not what the scale reads. I'm at a point where if I had to put a number on how much weight I want to lose, I'd say 30 pounds, but really, all I want is to feel better about myself. I've been unable, or apprehensive, about doing a lot of the exercising I like to do in the time leading up to my surgery, as well as in the time since my surgery. I don't want to overwork my knee, but I do want to push myself to burn the calories to drop the pounds. Also, I'm limited in the exercises I can do - no running and no jumping.
Healthy eating and some hard work is what's in store for this new year!
