Not much has happened since my last week’s Knee OP blog entry (Can be found here) but things are progressing steady.
Staples
Main news are that I got the staples removed from the knee, all 20 of them. The assistant at the doctor removed them pretty quickly without any pain, went quicker and smoother than expected. But then again, for some reason I thought they went deeper.
Before removal:
After removal:
This was 2 days ago and things are already looking better now :-)
The wound is healing very nicely without any complications but the knee is still pretty swollen.
On the left side of the kneecap I have a numb area, meaning there are no feelings on the skin but the doctor had warned me about this, that they had to cut through a nerve. So now when I scratch or “drum” the fingers there it just feels strange. Maybe this will change in time but if not, then who cares :-)
I was finally able to take a real bath after the staples got out, that was damn nice. But it is a lager task for me to get into the bath since I’m not allowed to lift the knee/leg on it’s own, so I always have to lift it with my hands. I bet it looks very funny when I get into the bath but I promise, there will be no video of that.. ever :-)
Back into training
I’m doing the daily exercises that I have been assigned by the physiotherapist, so around 3-5 times each day. Nothing major but very important for quick and perfect recovery. I have also started to do some arm training, mainly the left arm that is weak after a accident a few years ago with a zipline (Tendon got over stretched).
But it is time to pump up the training.
I’m of course limited with what I can do due to the knee but I’ll be putting a small home program together, mainly upper body workout with weights. I’m not even allowed to do my favorite exercise, pushups, due to the pressure on the knee but I’m allowed to do pull-ups :-) I will need to rearrange my training area a bit but not much and I will also not invest in any new equipment. After all, I do play to the gym in the near future, if all goes well then I will be back late August :-) but also with very limited exercise program.
In case recovery goes fine then I need to be ready for Spartan Race in April 2016, so I better not become too lazy. So time to STFU (Spartan The Fuck Up).
Whatever carb
I have not been following my Low Carb diet completely since I returned from the hospital. Well, mainly breakfasts are low carb, almost always an omelet :-)
I started to do these different than before, now adding tuna and/or feta cheese, adding bacon or red kidney beans from time to time.
The other meals have been a bit of everything, sometimes partly low carb and sometimes not at all. I had pasta several times but at least I feel I do eat less than I did in the past. The reason for not staying strict on low carb is that I need things to be easy, tasks such as cleaning/sorting spinach, then dry the, cut them and then add them to the meal and then clean up afterwards are just too much for me right now, everything goes slower with crutches (But I don’t complain, I know it is just for a short time).
But one meal I did a few times is broccoli, cauliflower and gyros (meat):
This can then be put in a Tupperware box and transported to any place I want to be, such as outside on the balcony (Wearing a bag around my head, with plate, fork, food-box, beer… must look funny).
If this strange combination of low and high carb food have made me gain weight or not is not clear, it might very well be that I lost weight as I’m loosing muscles in the leg. I’ll check this soon :-)