More Knee Stuff

I crashed a high school grad party today with a few friends I graduated with, and I consequently told and retold the tale of my knee to several people since the huge brace on my leg is a bit conspicuous. While being expected to field simple questions like "How long do you have to wear that brace?" I realized how little I know about my recovery and also how much I seem to be expected to know. I don't have an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon until June 29th, and he hasn't told me anything about my recovery. Whenever I go to physical therapy sessions, I wouldn't know anything about how well I'm doing and what I'm now allowed to do unless I harassed my physical therapist with questions. My knee has been feeling so much stronger lately, so I've been under the impression that I will soon be able to go out for a run whenever I feel like it again or even play basketball and baseball with Kasper when I start taking care of him in July. But when my physical therapist realized my ambitions, she decided she'd let me know what *really* is going on with my new ACL. That is, apparently the tendon that was used to replace my ACL is very strong, but my body is breaking it down to become a "seatbelt" so it's actually getting weaker during recovery time. It'll be at its weakest between 8 and 10 weeks, but it will feel like it's at its strongest during that time. So even though I'll feel like I can easily run and play sports again, I will actually be stretching and potentially tearing the new ACL if I get involved in these physical activities. All of this was news to me. Disappointing news. I expected a month of recovery, not a summer of recovery. I mean, it's not a huge deal. But that's the knee update. It's now bending over 130 degrees. :)