Healing

On June 14, I had an ACL reconstruction, as well as some smoothing out of the cartilage behind my knee cap, so needless to say, I haven't been in the Forest for quite a while.  I miss it dearly.  The reason behind the surgery was a 7-year-old injury that felt like it was getting worse and worse.  I'd go hiking, or sometimes even just walking around, and I'd feel my knee shift on itself and "give out."  I finally got sick of it and decided to bite the bullet and get it fixed.

The surgery apparently went well, and my knee is feeling better every day.  Heather was a great nurse, and was willing to take care of incisions that I refused to even look at.  I wouldn't even look at this picture until 4 weeks after my surgery, when I finally got my staples out.




That was one day after the surgery. It was nasty. I had to keep my sweet knee brace locked out at all times, and I had an ice machine thing pumping ice water on it 24/7.



Well now I'm five plus weeks out, going to PT, and walking. My range of motion is pretty good, but I still have to wear the brace, unlocked, for another week.



It's amazing how quickly your body can heal. It's actually looking like a normal knee again. I'm allowed to ride a bike on a trainer with absolutely no resistance a bit now, and it feels great just to sit on a bike. The particular bike I've been sitting on is new to my fleet, and is a cyclocross bike. I'm not a fan of riding the roads, so I sold my road bike to buy the cross bike, and one for Heather as well. This bike will help a lot with my recovery. I'll be able to take it from trainer, to short rides around the hood, commuting, the bike path, gravel roads, double track, easy single track, and then finally back to mountain biking again. I'll post more about the new ride later.

In more exciting news, the grand opening for the Bracken Mountain Trail is this Friday. I will be home that day, so hopefully I'll be able to hobble up there and snap some photos.