In light of my recent injury, here’s how I’ve been coping so far…
✱ Week 1
• Jan 15 – Date of injury (left knee). Took Advil, applied ice pack. Pain level 7/10. Couldn’t walk properly. I can drive though. Was able to shower alone too. Can’t bend nor straighten. Slept with a knee support and a pillow underneath.
• Jan 16 – I’m taking pain relievers 3x a day. Icing it too at least 3x a day. Can shower alone but cautious of steps. Can’t stand for long. Knee support all day; pillow when I sleep.
• Jan 17-20 – Getting better every day. Pretty much the same routine.
• Jan 21 – Was able to go to the mall. Can walk faster now but not for long. Can’t sit for long too because my leg feels ngalay wen it’s not elevated. In the car I’m using a cardboard box as a foot rest. Elsewhere I look for extra chairs or just step on the feet of the table, anything elevated really. Stopped taking pain relievers.
✱ Week 2
• Jan 22 – Went to the mall. Can walk faster now, as well as cross my legs! Still using a foot rest in the car. Still icing as much as I can.
• Jan 23 – Continuously recovering. Still icing. Can walk better now.
• Jan 24 – Braved the gym. Told my coach I can’t do leg or knee exercises so we just focused on upper and thighs. Faced a couple of hurdles earlier: one was getting up from floor after stretching and the other was getting to the shower area where there’s a huge step. I survived both! ♥
• Jan 25 – I’m able to walk faster now but my knees still feel very ngalay when sitting down for long. Went to the gym and did chest workouts. There’s really not much I can do with a bad knee but we’re slowly adding mobility exercises so it would recover faster.
• Jan 26 – Did shoulders today at the gym. Wore knee support on both knees. Drove to the office. Been sitting at my desk for over an hour now and my leg feels super ngalay. I need to find something to rest my feet on. Even the lowest chair setting is too high for my short legs. And our tables aren’t height adjustable so it’s pretty uncomfy.
✱ Week 3
• Jan 31 – Stopped icing. Can walk without knee support now, but with extreme caution, cos every time I build confidence in walking straight, eventually it’s gonna click and hurt and I don’t want that to happen. Went to the gym earlier and did back exercises.
• Feb 3 – RTO day today. Also went to the gym earlier. Still can’t do full body workouts but we were able to do some leg exercise using resistance bands. Still can’t fold my knees completely, and there’s like a popping pain evert time I try to squat a little.
✱ Week 4
• Feb 6 – it’s week 4 in recovery. This is really taking a long time. Well I don’t remember my previous injuries to be quick anyway. It usually takes me months to recover. Which sucks cos I’m already itching to workout and play properly. Hay.
• Feb 9 – I’m able to do planks now! As well as squats but not too low hehe
✱ Week 5
• Feb 14 – Hey happy valentine’s day! We’re on week 5 and I’m still not a-ok. Still can’t bend my leg fully and walk for too long. 🙂
• Feb 18 – Currently in the hospital watching over my sister. There’s pain in my knee whenever it bends the wrong way. I can indian sit now but without bending my left leg too much. Can walk more lengths, still cautious about stairs, but there are times I can push my leg up without feeling pain so maybe I can build on that confidence.
✱ Week 6
• Feb 23 – Went to the gym today! Recently I’ve been able to do a bit of cardio. Can do vipers and side planks now!
✱ Week 7
• I have not much updates for this week except that I know my knee is still very far from healing completely. I remember Feb 28 as our last day in Fitness First. The next days we started with Anytime Fitness where I had 2 free PT sessions. I did leg presses, where I slowly learned to fold my knee, my coach knows about my injury so he made me do more on rehabilitation exercises. On day 2 e performed myofascial release therapy on me which is basically an hour of pain haha. We’re working on slowly stretching my leg muscles so my knees would fold better. I’m feeling hopeful but at this point I’m worrying at the pace of my recovery. 🙁
✱ Week 8
• Mar 7 – I went to the gym and walked on a treadmill for an hour on 11% incline. I thought I’d do that to strengthen my knees but the following day I feel very sore.
• Mar 8 – So I thought I’d be able to walk on the treadmill again, but my left knee was so sore right so I just swam. It’s pretty low impact but I’m still feeling a bit of pain whenever I kick. And feet started hurting as well from compensating from my lack of kicking power. You know what, it’s week 8, I should be a lot better now but I feel very far from that. I should probably go to the doctor.
✱ Week 9
• Mar 17 – wow, I’m still recovering. No notable improvement. Can workout but I avoid the knee. I’ve been following Caroline Girvan’s 1hr abs and upper body workout, but eventually I have to let my upper body recover so during those days I don’t know what to do? haha Promised myself I’ll go check with the doctor but I haven’t really scheduled anything. Please pray for my healing 🙏.
✱ Week 10
• Mar 24 – BACK TO SQUARE ONE. I may have overworked my knees too much as soon as I can walk straight. It’s because I walked an hour on the treadmill two weeks ago. My fault. Went to the doctor to get checked, was advised to get an MRI, so that’s what I’m waiting for next. I have a schedule in a few weeks at VRP. Hope it’s nothing serious. Hay.