One Year Later

It's been one year since my 2nd knee scope, can you believe it? To be honest, not much has changed lately regarding my knee. I had a follow-up visit with Dr. Dye on February 16. He said my knee is looking great! Minimal swelling and all. He asked me, "What type of exercise have you been doing to keep in shape?" I thought, "Huh? Keep in shape?" One year out from my surgery, my knee is still adapting to regular activity. By "regular" I mean the fact that I travel every 2 or 3 weeks, I walk around my office building each day from meeting to meeting, and there are a few stairs (as little as possible) here and there. Weekends tend to involve running errands such as grocery shopping and sometimes include a stop at the mall. Since my knee seems to be somewhat sensitive to these basic things, I've been wary to try real exercise. Each time I've tried baby steps of activity over the last few months, my knee has not reacted well. It's a bit sad, but I imagine my knee simply needs more time. It's hard to believe I was once a marathon runner and triathlete! Now I'm scared to swim or cycle short distances for fear that my knee will ache. Sigh.

Not to be all depressed-sounding though... I'm hanging in there, really. After I told Dr. Dye I hadn't been doing much exercise he said, "Try some walking." Hmm... interesting idea... "Start with a 1/4 mile every other day (flat, no hills)," he said. "Add 1/4 mile per week if your knee feels OK." My first reaction was disbelief. Why would Dr. Dye tell me to take up walking if I haven't been swimming or cycling (seemingly lower impact exercises) hardly at all? Another thought was, "How am I going to gauge 1/4 mile?" I'm pretty sure it takes me 15-20 minutes to walk a mile, so maybe a 5 minute walk will do? The last thing Dr. Dye said was, "Once you get up to walking a mile every other day with no knee pain, let me know. At that point, we can start you on some light jogging." Again... "Huh?"

While my range of motion is much better these days (ooh, will post a photo soon), my knee still seems to be very slow healing. For example, I'll fly to L.A. for work or up to Spokane to see my sister and my knee will ache after sitting on the plane and feeling the pressure changes. The aching feeling is hard to describe. There is no pain really, just discomfort, maybe a little swelling. It's as if I've aggravated the nerves, just a bit. After that happens, it takes a few days to go back to normal. One other thing that seems to trigger my knee these days is the weather. I swear, my knee is such a barometer! Don't many people say that after they break a bone that they can feel the weather change? I get that now. With all these things having an effect on my knee, it may be hard to tell if that 1/4 mile walk every other day causes me any discomfort, or not. As always, we'll see how it goes.

Have you nodded off yet with my babbling? I have... knees are kinda boring. I'll try to share something fun soon!