Here we go again

It's finally the last week of winter and the forecast for the weekend is looking good. I can't wait for warmer weather. The cold has been a drag, especially for my injured knee. It's been 8 weeks since my mishap and I'm not in so much pain anymore. I still use one crutch for walking long or challenging distances. I can climb up a small amount of stairs on my own but can only climb down using my left knee. I'm finally feeling hopeful in my recovery but I'll soon have to start all over again.

My appointment with the surgeon a couple of weeks ago left me quite down. I wasn’t expecting my right knee to be that bad, but I found out that I pretty much have a non-functioning ACL. Hence my injury was bound to happen. So in a simple movement of getting off a bicycle, I managed to pivot on the wrong leg, twist my knee and tear my meniscus. It’s a bucket-handle tear and part of it is jammed in the joint which is causing my pain and stiffness.

Looking on the bright side, this will all be fixed in 11 days (fingers crossed). I will have an ACL reconstruction and my meniscus will either be repaired or trimmed off depending on the damage found. The latter will decide my recovery time back to full range of motion. It could be from 4-6 weeks. I guess that should be a breeze compared to the 8 weeks I’ve already endured. Talk about a wake-up call on taking walking for granted. I can’t wait to walk normally again.

From Jul-Aug2014

After the first week with an injured knee, life moved on. I hobbled along on our holiday in Cairns. Phil went to Perth for a conference shortly after we returned. I started driving again and went back to work. I tried out chair yoga which I plan to do a couple of more times until I have surgery. To distract us from the bitter cold Canberra winter, we explored new local places and attended local events. And we made another trip to Sydney, mostly for work for Phil and for The Lion King Musical for me and Nicholas.

In other random news, Nicholas has been working on public speaking for school. Check out the video of his Holiday Speech he gave us at home. Catherine just passed her hearing test today, even with a cold, with flying colours. I was so proud of her listening carefully and following the nurse’s instructions. I always find this surprising as she can make quite a fuss with us. Phil’s been busy with choir rehearsals for a concert coming up this weekend. And this weekend also marks 8 years since we moved to Australia, interestingly, the same amount of time Phil lived in America.