Category: Hamstring Recovery

12/30/17: For Slow or Blocked Progress

Yesterday, after a massage, reassurance, & support from my PT, my leg & heart felt so much better. Today, after emptying the dishwasher, feeding the kids, & collecting some laundry, my upper hams are hurting & tight again, and my heart a little defeated. I had to lay down instead of starting the wash. But. I know this path a little better now. And it looks a little like the road my clients take to get fit and lose weight. Looking back at my white board with Mike’s words here is helping me to go easy.

12/28/17: I Am Brave, I Am Bruised

Den of Positivity, Day 53:

The goal in the Den of Positivity is not to stay positive all the time (an unrealistic & inhuman ideal), or to *not* have your big & painful feelings, for more light can be on the other side of the feels, but simply to remember that positivity is an option, and to try taking it, for the sake of your own heart and the service to others’.

“…I am brave,

I am bruised

I am who I’m meant to be,

this is me”

12/27/17: First PO Visit to PT

Yesterday I had my first post-op PT appointment. I’m Day 21/Three weeks PO:

1) Inspection of my incision and super gentle massage of hams to assess numbness & pain. (Yes, please, put some hands on me!) Melissa (PT) worked with me during the month between my injury and surgery to manage pain and ward off scar tissue. She was instrumental in finding the right surgeon for me. Now she could see & feel a clear difference between what used to be a “divot” and what’s now my *attached* hamstrings with tension on them.

2) Supervised practice of…

  • Quad sets
  • Ankle pumps
  • Standing heel raises
  • Side-lying hip abduction
  • Prone passive knee flexion (her assistant shot a video with my phone to show my wife how far to bend my knee)
  • Walking on crutches with 50% weight bearing surgical leg (she actually brought out a bathroom scale and took my weight, then put my good side foot on a block of the same height and my surgical side foot on the scale. “Now lean on the scale with your surgical side foot til the scale reaches half your full weight. That’s what 50% feels like.”)

3) Iced 15 minutes.I’m sore this morning. Every time I feel pain I take a deep breath in and slowly let it out, otherwise I will spiral into the Pit of Despair around pain & progress. Stop, drop, & breathe, Meggie. And onward.

12/24/17: Numbness in My Foot

I’ve had some weird numbness going on in my surgical side foot. Wondering if it’s sciatic-related. I know that nerve branches off behind the knee and enervates parts of the foot…It kind of feels like I’m wearing stirrup pants – the strap part around the bottom of my foot or part of my plantar fascia is the numb part. I’m only aware of it when I’m laying down, not when I walk around. Totally forgot to share this with the doc during my 2-week, back on Wednesday. Sound familiar to anyone?