Ice Ice Baby

Ice is my saviour. When I was staying at my parents and getting hyperbaric every day, I could noticably see the swelling reduce pretty much every day so I didn't really bother with ice much. Since moving back to my flat I hit a bit of a plateau in improvement - my flexion was getting better, but more slowly.

Obviously, starting back to work and generally being a lot more active will have contributed to this, so it's hard to pinpoint the exact cause but all I know is by the end of the day, my knee was pressurised with fluid and I was about 10 degrees less flexible than the morning. After a few hours of icing and lying on the couch, I could get back to the previous highpoint. I bought various icepacks and my boss (who tore his ACL last year) lent me a cryocuff. I've got a Vulkan gel ice pack, which is nearly useless, but came with a great velcro/mesh icepack holder, which my FirstIce icepack conveniently fits into. This stuff is AMAZING!

It's not cheap (£11) but it works really well. Compounds in the liquid make the water freeze like snow, so the ice pack is cold, but doesn't burn like solid ice and conforms well to your knee. It lasts a good hour and takes about 2 to freeze.

The cryo cuff is also good, but a lot more expensive. It's nice that you can pump it up to give you pressure and cold but it's a bit more fiddly.To be honest, you can't go wrong with a bag of Tesco Value peas, until you get a hole in the bag and melting pea-juice drips all over the place.

Training and Rehab

I've been doing plenty chin-ups and some core work on the pull-up bar. Actually tried a 1-arm chin up the other day and was closer than I've ever been. Slight upward progress from a 90 degree lock! I'm going to put in some steady work into this and see if I can bust out some 1-arm action before I get back to climbing!

I've also been fingerboarding, but not as much as I'd like. Was round at a mates at a BBQ the other day and was mucking around on the bouldering wall in the garage - somehow I can still bear-down on some pretty small holds. All encouraging!

Rehab progress is good, but I'm still at a stage where I can't push too hard. My walking is getting much better. The brace is what causes most of my limp now - when it's on right I can walk almost normally!

After a 3 hour wait, I saw my surgeon for the 7 week check-up. He seemed surprised by my progress and especially the lack of swelling. Another nod towards the unsung wonders of hyperbaric oxygen treatment! Had an X-Ray which showed the crews to all be in place and nothing to worry about. Clean bill of health really!

Today my swelling seems great. I just added a new exercise - rather than doing static one-leg mini-squats on a step, I'm actually just walking up stairs! I still need support form the handrail on the way down but going up feels great! I hit 115° flexion today and it feels like the next 20 might come quite easily, but who knows.

Finally, Andy Murray is through to the Semi's!!! Can't wait for the match against Nadal.