The Crux (Day 13 to day 25)

I had my second Physio appointment yesterday and he was happy with the progress. Most of the swelling is now gone, as are my hamstring and calf muscles... It's quite amazing how quick muscles wither away when you're not allowed to use them.

Slighty puffy right knee and no calf muscle.

I've been working hard on my quad contractions, doing 4 sets or 10 contractions, 3 to 5 times a day and really gunning for it. My quads are shrinking, but much more slowly than the unused muscles. The physio was happy enough with my quad control than I'm now allowed partial weight bearing with the brace unlocked to 40°. So, all the hard work, squeezing the hell out of my quads has payed off :-)

I've also been working on my flexion, steadily going from 30°, through 35°, 40° up to 55° by the physio appointment. He felt my patella was a bit tight (it's got to be said, I've been slacking on the patella mobilisations) so he gave me about 10 minutes of massage and tissue stretching. After that I managed to get it to 75°, which is encouraging since my target for day 28 was only 60°. I'm not in any pain at all, any time of the day. Sometimes it stiffens up a little and the first few ROM exercises don't get very far, but it slowly returns. When I get to the end point it feels like pressure under the kneecap and around the posterolateral corner are preventing further flexion. I'm sure it'll all come in time.

In 2 weeks my brace will be unlocked to 60°  and I should be allowed to start walking without the crutches and I can sleep with the brace off, which will be amazing - these braces are damn uncomfortable in bed!!!

In addition to all the physio I'm already doing, I'm now allowed to do standing heel raises to work my calves a bit and to get more out of my knee flexion ROM I'm now doing them lying on my back with my

To try and minimize the effects of sitting on a couch most of the day, I've been out doing some upper-body work. I'm hoping to maintain some climbing fitness so that it's less of a mountain to climb when I'm allowed back on the rock. So far I've just been doing pull-ups, fingerboard hangs and core work on a bar my old man put up in the old stables. I'll ramp it up a bit once I'm back in the flat in Glasgow and am off the crutches.

Does the crutch count as aid?

I think that's the worst part of the rehab process done, the crux of it; now I can actually start working towards recovery and seeing the progress. It's still a long way to go, but I can feel the shift of momentum.

A nice shot of the main scar to finish: