Weight weenie Day 6 – 74.2kg
There wasn't a Day 5 update yesterday as there wasn't much happening knee-wise … until just before I went to bed when I noticed it had swelled quite considerably. Just a few hours previously I had been glibly boasting to my parents on Skype about how well the process was going: "Look ma, no swelling!"
I guess that was tempting fate, but it was also a lesson to take it easy. Over-confidently thinking I was over the worst, I probably over-exerted myself yesterday, with not one, but three trips out of the house. I'm not even sure if I was supposed to be driving, but drive I did: to photograph some subjects of an article I've written; to lunch for a dosa and sambar (five days without a south Indian fix was driving me mad); then to my son's football match. To top that off, I hobbled around the kitchen helping to prepare dinner.
So I guess it's no surprise the knee cried foul.
When I awoke today to find it was still a bit swollen, it put me on my first downer since the op. Scheduled to visit the Doc for a follow-up this afternoon, I was hoping he'd tell me to throw away the crutches, jump in the pool, go for a walk. Fat chance of that now, I thought. Anyway, I iced it and tried to stay off my feet but I had a fairly busy day so that wasn't really possible. So it was with trepidation that I made my way to see the Doc at 2pm.
This guy is great, though. He's always smiling and over the many years of treating me for my various accidents and sports injuries, he's never ceased to bring about a reciprocal grin in me no matter how grim I've felt going in.
Today was no exception and that was before he even looked at my knee. And once he'd done that I was on cloud nine. He basically dismissed the swelling as nothing ("just keep icing it"), told me to throw away one of the crutches, and while he ruled out the pool for another week, he did something better … he said I could get on the bike. Today!
So I've just spent 20 minutes on our spin bike, very gently, with the tension turned as low as it will go. Of that 20, only 10 minutes was on the repaired leg. And so now I'm feeling mighty fine as I sit here with a precautionary ice bag nicely chilling the creaking joint. So there you have it, a roller-coaster couple of days on the recovery train.
I'm still counting the calories, I'm actually enjoying it, turning what should be a trying task into a challenge. My family think I'm mad, though, laughing as I weigh a spoonful of this and a cup of that. Sure I feel like I'm bloody starving half the day but when it's time to eat, the food all tastes magnificent.
Maybe when I get back to full fitness I'll try and instill a bit of discipline into what I eat instead of gorging like a pig as usual. But maybe not :-)
There wasn't a Day 5 update yesterday as there wasn't much happening knee-wise … until just before I went to bed when I noticed it had swelled quite considerably. Just a few hours previously I had been glibly boasting to my parents on Skype about how well the process was going: "Look ma, no swelling!"
I guess that was tempting fate, but it was also a lesson to take it easy. Over-confidently thinking I was over the worst, I probably over-exerted myself yesterday, with not one, but three trips out of the house. I'm not even sure if I was supposed to be driving, but drive I did: to photograph some subjects of an article I've written; to lunch for a dosa and sambar (five days without a south Indian fix was driving me mad); then to my son's football match. To top that off, I hobbled around the kitchen helping to prepare dinner.
So I guess it's no surprise the knee cried foul.
When I awoke today to find it was still a bit swollen, it put me on my first downer since the op. Scheduled to visit the Doc for a follow-up this afternoon, I was hoping he'd tell me to throw away the crutches, jump in the pool, go for a walk. Fat chance of that now, I thought. Anyway, I iced it and tried to stay off my feet but I had a fairly busy day so that wasn't really possible. So it was with trepidation that I made my way to see the Doc at 2pm.
This guy is great, though. He's always smiling and over the many years of treating me for my various accidents and sports injuries, he's never ceased to bring about a reciprocal grin in me no matter how grim I've felt going in.
Today was no exception and that was before he even looked at my knee. And once he'd done that I was on cloud nine. He basically dismissed the swelling as nothing ("just keep icing it"), told me to throw away one of the crutches, and while he ruled out the pool for another week, he did something better … he said I could get on the bike. Today!
So I've just spent 20 minutes on our spin bike, very gently, with the tension turned as low as it will go. Of that 20, only 10 minutes was on the repaired leg. And so now I'm feeling mighty fine as I sit here with a precautionary ice bag nicely chilling the creaking joint. So there you have it, a roller-coaster couple of days on the recovery train.
I'm still counting the calories, I'm actually enjoying it, turning what should be a trying task into a challenge. My family think I'm mad, though, laughing as I weigh a spoonful of this and a cup of that. Sure I feel like I'm bloody starving half the day but when it's time to eat, the food all tastes magnificent.
Maybe when I get back to full fitness I'll try and instill a bit of discipline into what I eat instead of gorging like a pig as usual. But maybe not :-)
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