Four weeks after surgery

The big news this week is that I have started riding my bike on the trainer. I did my first ride on February 26th, which was 3 weeks and 1 day after surgery. It wasn't anything impressive: just 5 minutes of spinning. The hardest part was actually getting myself up on the bike. It took a combination of a chair on one side and the kitchen counter on the other. My wife kept a close eye on me to make sure I didn't go too long or too hard.

Today, 9 days later, I'm up to 25 minutes at a time and I can get on the bike without the help of the chair. It's all just easy spinning, but I can tell that I'm making progress. When I first started riding I couldn't ride in the drops at all. My flexibility wasn't there and it just hurt too much. Now I can ride in the drops a little bit. I only do it for one minute at a time, but I can do it. Standing and pedaling is another thing I couldn't do at first. Now I can do it for one minute at a time. I could probably do more, but standing on the trainer isn't the most natural thing to do, even when 100% healthy.

I've made pretty good progress with my ROM exercises. I can do all of them without pain. I'm still lacking flexibility, though. I hope flexibility doesn't end up being a long-term problem for me. I started doing leg extensions at 10 pounds. Maybe it's in my head, but I feel like my left leg is visibly smaller than my right leg. It will probably take a long time to get them on even ground. I can't really do much yet. I can't even squat my own body weight.

My major setback for the week involves the elliptical trainer. On Friday (2/28) I got on and noticed a weird sensation in my hip. I wouldn't call it "clicking," but something was rubbing something the wrong way. If I put my hand over my hip I could easily feel it. I got off and didn't do the elliptical for the next 2 days. However, around the same time I was beginning to ride my bike on the trainer, so I basically abandoned the elliptical. I'm not having the problem on the bike. Yesterday and this morning I did a little time on the elliptical and I think the problem has gone away. I'm still a little bit scared, though. I haven't done a real elliptical session for the whole week. I might give it a try tomorrow.

The other thing that's been occupying my mind is my limp. I've made it to where I can walk without crutches, but not without a very noticeable limp. It's weird because I feel like I'm making good progress everywhere else except in this area. No matter how slowly I try to walk, I still can't walk without a limp. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I do know that I can't stand up and balance myself on my left leg. I've been standing next to the wall and slowly building up my ability to stand on my left leg. I can't even stand 30 seconds without touching the wall at this point. Even when I'm balancing on my own power for a few seconds, the leg is very shaky. I'm hoping the balancing act will pay off.