Dear Diary,
I had my 6 week checkup on day 44. The orthosis was completely removed and I am told to be without crutches, but careful.
I should walk as much as I can and aggressively exercise muscles and knee flexibility, so the next month of physio will be incredibly painful (can confirm - two days of utter suffering already), but the doctor expects me to be at 100% walkability in a month. Sports a little later - after the 3-month MRI if all is well.
All in all, looks like I am on track for a record-speed recovery as planned.
During the past 48 hours I spent a lot of time on my feet, no crutches, limited cane support and it has been going well - especially when coupled with WHM breathing, a painkiller, and/or ice.
Sidenote, I woke up on day 44 with a bad headache at 5 am. 🤯
I seriously thought about taking a painkiller and then breathing, but I fought the urge and went right into WHM breathing. Round 1, the headache intensified. Round 2 it was still there but not as intense. It faded out to 5% by round 5.
During morning pushups it got back up to 20-30% intensity, but then disappeared again after the cold shower. It kept hovering at around 5-10% intensity throughout the morning, and since I have a hard time getting rid of headaches, persisted throughout the morning until I caved around 11am and took a painkiller.
My theory about the headache is it happened because I binged on chocolate for 2 days. Incredibly unhealthy and inflammatory food I thought I deserved for all the progress. Obviously, a mistake, so cutting that out completely again.
Nutrition, day 44
Breakfast
none
Lunch
IKEA lunch, meatballs, some dessert.
Dinner
Home made pizza
L-glutamine + supplements etc
Nutrition, day 45
Breakfast
none
Lunch
Borscht, cheesecake
Apple, some dried fruits
Dinner
Banana bread
L-glutamine + supplements etc
Habits, day 44
I removed the advanced PT home set because exercises changed and I need to come up with a more doable plan.
Habits, day 45
Experiments
All in all WHM is going well. I think it really benefits me, and it helps during physical therapy too - I will often fire off two rounds in the Kinetec there to prepare for the AP (anterior posterior mobility exercises) which is basically the physical therapist tearing my leg to pieces in order to get it to bend.
I am well over a minute with cold showers now, so I expect to be able to try the cold plunge in less than 2 weeks.