Week 23rd of Recovery : Not Relying on the Cane

It has been two weeks that I have not held my cane. Yes, I am cane-less now. And I am praying that I can be totally cane-less once and for all.

My colleagues are so supportive of me throughout the period of recovering. And whenever I tag along for lunch, they will definitely want me to choose the place. And all of them are patient enough to wait for me to come down from the stairs. Yes, the stairs.

At this point of my recovery, I am getting stronger in conquering the stairs. Much less pain to the knees. Only downside of it is that I strained the muscles which are not suppose to be strained. And this always happens to the side of the knees. Off and on there would be other pain like pain on the calves, hip and quads.

While I work on perfecting my balance in going up the stairs, I am also concentrating on going down the stairs. And this is the tough one. The pain is very much there. Sometimes more pain and sometimes lesser. When the muscles around the knees are tired, I have no other choice then to turn my body slightly sideway and get down the stairs. Well, at least I am getting down without a cane or a clutch. Not as bad.

WLTB Meets Johanna Basford

The colouring book craze revealed!

13 year old boy wows all the girls with his first appearance ..Lady Gaga

I must say I love this rendition of Paparazzi by this young lad.

The Avengers Pancakes - Love This Especially When You Are A Pancake Lover!

Love this! Don't you?

Week 22 of Recovery : VMO is UP!

I could not contend my happiness! Finally, my VMO ( in short for vastus medialis oblique ) is showing some sign of existance!

In case you did not know where exactly this muscle is, I personally think picture speaks louder than words. Here you go.

Yes. A picture of Christiano Ronaldo would do the trick. All atheletes have them. Even some of the not-so-active people have them too. 

VMO's main function is to control knee extension while keeping the patellar at the right position. As a patient, myself, I come to understand that the VMO is actually responsible for the prevention of patellar femoral pain. 

I may not be an orthopedic expert or even a physiotherapist. But, believe me, this is the most layman way of explaining. I wish I took a photo of my non-exist VMO and VL ( short for vastus lateralis ) 10 months ago to have this all recorded down. But, I did not. I shall take a video or a photo of my current progress though.

Joey was glad that my VMO is finally popping out. 10 long months of work and it paid off. Now is my mission to keep it popping out. The more popping-out it is, it means the stronger it gets and that means the tension pain while doing IRQ will also reduce. 

Talking about IRQ, there is also great progress while doing it this week. I was able to bear 0.91 kg of weight. Both knees have very different capabilities. While the right knee had the weight on the ankle, the left had to start off with the weight below the knee cap. At the count of 20s onwards, I slowly adjust the weight to the shin and eventually to my left ankle. There were still pain on both knees. But, tolerable. 

The type of exercises I did was these :-

For the exercise above, I have yet to be able to achieve the single leg bending. There are more to be done in order to reach that stage. I did a repetition of 50.

I can occasionally do a full wall squat with the help of the gym ball. What I intend to achieve now is consistency in terms of full 45 degree bending. Depending on my situation on the day itself, a minimum of 30 repetition is required and if I am in good shape, it will be 50.

I did this one during yesterday's session of physiotherapy. A repetition of 500 quick contraction followed by repetition of 30 with each repetition I need to hold for 10 seconds.

Planking, on the other hand, is not that fun. I sensed myself having weight gain. I brought this to the therapists and the senior therapist was wondering if it was weight gain or muscle gain. Good question. I do not know.

Planking Progress at Week 21 of Recovery

My physiotherapists know I love to plank. And the reason why I love to do it is that I want to regain the core muscles around my abs. I may need a very long period of time to regain the beautiful athletic abs I used to have many years back. But, the fact that I can trim down the belly, that would be the best feeling ever. 

I started planking at week 14 of my recovery with both my legs apart while planking. And now that week 21, I can plank with both legs together. 

When I first started planking at week 14, I could only hold for about 22 seconds or so. I slowly build up the strength of my muscles especially muscles around the quadriceps and abs by doing 2 planks which I hold for 30 seconds at minimum twice every time I did. I rest for 30 seconds before resume another round of plank.

As time passes, I increased the time for 15 seconds till it reaches 60 seconds. Now I can plank twice and hold for a minute. I set a goal for myself to achieve and my current target is to do 3 planks by holding a minute with a break of 30 seconds in between. 

There are secrets in holding a plank long enough to achieve that 60 seconds record. And here are my secrets which I hope can be of help :-

1.   To breath in and out while holding a plank - Never ever stop breathing when you are holding your plank. You will need all the oxygen you can get to have it ' energize ' your body. Fresh air helps holding a plank a long way.

2.   Keep your focus clear - Focuses on breaking that record you set the last time. Be the best that you can possibly be!

3.   Tighten up all muscles before lifting up your entire body - To always ' tell ' your muscles to be prepared for ' battle '. God created our body so that we can have excellent mobility. And He created our body to work in unity. 

4.  Keep the arms the same width as your shoulder - Keeping it the same width as the shoulder ensures longer period in holding the plank. 

5.   Hands clasp together - It works well for me when I have both my hands near to each other or clasp together. It helps me to hold my plank longer. 

The photo above gives an overview of the correct way of planking. And I do hope this is the most layman way of telling people of how it should be done.

I still have a long way in achieving the result I want. But, I believe it is possible to achieve.

Week 21 of Recovery : Learning More from My Orthopedic

I had more than I bargained for in yesterday's follow-up with my orthopedic. What did I get? You are about to find out once you start reading this post.

In my previous follow-up, doctor was pressuring me to shed some pounds. I do understand the importance of shedding those few extra kilos. The burden on my knees would not help much in expediting the recovery. Therefore, I was under some certain amount of pressure in losing them.

Yesterday's follow-up was a really brief one. I did the usual catwalk and he discovered that my left foot is not walking in a position where the toe should face to the front. It tilted outward.

He accessed me and moved both my knees to bending position and listened for any clicking sound. Amazingly, he heard nothing. But, I on the other hand, heard a really almost quiet click on the left. Sometimes, I need not need to hear it. I just can feel the movement of the muscles and the building pressure on the knee before it goes to full bending position. And normally, I will hear a click.

Something which I do not like at all.

Upon assessing, he told me to give another round of catwalk. And I did. And this this he said the gap between both my legs are too far apart. It should be two fingers apart rather than four, as what he saw in me. 

And this where the interesting part starts.

Doctor : You should not have such far gap between your legs. That is too much.

Me : Then?

Doctor : Tell me why this happened.

Me : First thing is... I do know it is too far apart. And the second thing is... I do went and find out why this happened. 

Doctor : And?

Me : And I went to check on my pants to see if I could find out anything and I did.

Doctor : And?

Me : ( Impatient doctor ) So, the inner side of my pants got some roughed up parts. So, the best logical explanation is that there are excess meat on the inner side of my legs.

Doctor : And they are rubbing together and that boils down to... ( looking at me with a stern face )

Me : Unnecessary fats...

Doctor : Precisely. And that is why I told you to... ( looking at me expecting the answer that he wants to hear from my mouth )

Me : Lose weight...

Doctor : And right you go! And did you lose any?

Me : About a kilo.

Doctor : So keep losing!

Me : ( Gosh! Hate it when he said that. But, darn it. He is freaking right! )

And that is not all. He showed me an interesting app where he strongly encourage me to purchase. So, I got home and did some research on the apps and ended up with a problematic password accessing issue now. 

Gosh!