The Beginning

The pain has subsided for the most part by now. The worst of the recovery is over. Now it's time to rebuild. It's incredible how quickly muscular atrophy happens. Two weeks of putting no weight on my leg, and it is already significantly smaller than my other leg.

I've had a couple PT appointments since surgery (which was a week and a half ago at the time of writing this) and I'm already starting to see some improvements. When I first started some exercises, I could barely move my leg. Straight leg raises were out of the question. I would stare at my leg and literally could not figure out how to get it to move it. Its a super weird feeling to be trying so hard to move a limb that you've been able to move your whole life, only to get no response back from it.

I managed to do a successful leg raise at my post-op appointment. It took a good 20 seconds to get all the muscles engaged, but once they were firing my leg went up! Since then things have only gotten better. Swelling has gone down, range in motion in the knee is increasing, and I'm gaining some strength back. While my leg is much smaller than it was before, I now have regained some of the definition in the thigh muscles and they don't feel like jello when I poke them anymore. Now it's more like a raw chicken breast. Improvements!

I'm reintegrated back into my normal life. I've moved back into my house in Oakland, going back to classes, and generally trying to lead a normal life again. While I was never particularly bad with the crutches to begin with, I'm definitely getting better at getting around on them. Stairs are no longer a daunting task, and my ability to use my crutches as a pair of giant chopsticks to reach things from across the room is really coming along. I managed to hook a hoodie from like 10 feet away the other day, it was pretty sweet.

The toughest part is definitely getting to classes. Pitt offers a disability shuttle to help get around, but it's only sort of helpful. I have it scheduled to pick me up on Tuesdays and Thursdays from my house to drop me off on the other side of campus for class, and it'll pick me up and the end of that class and drop me off at the Cathedral where my next class is. The problem is that I then have 15 minutes after my class in Cathy to hustle over a couple blocks to my next class, and while its usually only a 4-5 minute walk, that distance is tough on crutches. I managed to make it to class with 1 minute to spare on my first attempt, but it was not easy.

Even worse is my Monday/Wednesday class in the Cathedral. I couldn't get the shuttle to pick me up on those days, so I have to crutch the half mile (I looked up the distance on Google Maps) to class. Luckily it's my only class of the day, and it's at 3pm, so I just leave around noon and go about half way before I take a break and just do some work in Posvar for a few hours before I finish the trip. Even still it is a hell of a workout, and I think I'll have to start bringing an extra shirt to change into when I get to class because I've been sweating through whatever I'm wearing the last couple times I've made the trip.

Overall things have gone pretty well, all things considered. The fact that I still am relatively immobile (or at least the fact that moving is still definitely a hassle) has given me plenty of time to catch up on work. I'm still figuring out the best strategy for accomplishing some stuff, like grocery shopping and laundry, but I've had so many people offer to help me with anything that I'm not too worried about it.

I actually want to talk about that for a little bit too. All the support I've gotten so far has been incredible. So many different people from different parts of my life have reached out. Old friends that I haven't talked to in a while to people that I barely know have sent me messages or told me in person that they are there to help. I got added to an ACL recovery support group that consists of Pittsburgh Ultimate community members who have gone through the same process, and they have been super helpful too. Not only have they given advice and answered any questions I've had, but they've also lent me my knee brace and cryo-cuff, which are both essential to the recovery process.

I've been really appreciative of all the support. An injury like this sucks, and it's nice to know I've got people out there ready to help. From the out of town friends reaching out to give their support, to the teammates and friends who stop by my house to give me some company while I binge watch March Madness, they have all made the recovery process much more manageable.

I know I still have a long road ahead of me, and I don't want to get too ahead of myself on knowing where I stand physically, but I know that with the continued support I'll be able to get through this just fine.

Thanks guys.