u/Automatic-Layer1040

I’m officially 5 weeks post Op. Per my PT I’m progressing normally. I got cooked in my PT session after

1. Warm up - bicycle (5 mins)
2. seated squats with 10 pound dumbbell, (2x15 reps)
3. Surgical leg knee bent slightly : knee & hip stretch with a band. (2x10)
4. Standing Quad stretches with surgery leg on the foam block, felt pain at the quad graft area ,
5. Ended with BFR leg press both legs(30, 15, 15, 15 , BFR protocol 30 seconds rest between sets)

The knee is heavy and tight after the session. Body felt like I ran a marathon.

Today home PT

1. Heel slides
2. Chair squats
3. Prone knee flexion
4. Standing hamstring curls (so hard)
5. Lateral step up’s from 4 inch step
6. Lateral ankle band walks

My knee is tight and heavy. Is this common at this point? Need suggestions on how did you all manage this phase of the rehab. Is this tightness and heaviness common or I need to dial it down?

Just want to get some feedback from the community on how you think I’m doing. 3 weeks + 2 days post op.

1. Walking without crutches (PT recommended to take them when going outside)
2. Flexion reached 121 at PT yesterday. At home I’m close to 110.
3. PT allowed to bike slowly full rotations(5 mins) , happened twice
   4.Religiously doing my PT at home every morning , afternoon and night.

My brace is still locked straight. Walking is slowly improving. I struggle with a little wobble when I wake up in the morning or after an hour or two rest

Quad activation is good, SLR’s with no lag

Hoping I can get off crutches in 3-4 weeks. Am on the right track. When did you all start walking without braces and crutches. ?

2X PT / week

Need some guidance.i’m on single crutch from day 14, WBAT. Day 18 post op, I woke up sore. I have been doing exercises through out the day.

Morning after waking up.

Afternoon
Dedicated NMES session with quad sets and SLT
15mins - 8 seconds on and 30 sec off
Quad sets - 20-25 reps
SLT - 10-12 reps
I realized yesterday I have been doing NMES completely wrong . I’m using Chattanooga NMES machine , program 13, 30amp. There is no visible contraction of the muscle. I’m going to take it to the PT tomorrow.

Early evening
Dedicated NMES session with only quad sets no SLT
15mins - 8 seconds on and 30 sec off
Quad sets - 20-25 reps

Late evening or early night
Dedicated heel slides
12-15 reps

I’m moving on top of it , walking for 3-5 minutes 3-4 times a day.

Day 17 which is yesterday, as recommended by PT, I started putting more weight on the knee . I was able to squeeze my quads and was able to unlock the muscles gripping the knee. Good enough grip where I believe I put 90% of the weight. I unlocked this during the first walk of the day, one way was 10 mins slowly rested about 40 mins and walk back was 3-5 mins. The last walk of the day I did squeeze little where I felt my leg my was rock solid. I went to bed with little discomfort woke up with soreness at the top of the knee and flare

I had to pull back on the morning exercises, only did ankle pumps , heel slides and calf raises. Am I overdoing it ? I have been following the same routine from day 7 post op, it’s definitely is not a smooth sail, I had tissue irritation or muscle irritation which resulted in a soft hard bump on the side of the thighs , which goes away with less exercise and massaging. Also noticed that my non surgery was very fatigued to the point it was little shaky last night. A sign of I over did it.

Are there days where people just rest up ?

Thank you.