A very personal blog

people playing badminton

Today: What is your favorite form of physical exercise?

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite form of physical exercise?

Badminton. Which I can’t do right now. Bummer. My husband introduced it to me when we started going out more than 10 years ago. It was a family activity for them. I hated it at first because I sucked at it but eventually I found it fun hehe. Except I keep getting injured from it. Like now.

Been on rehab for around 3 months now and my recovery is really slow. I still haven’t achieved full extension, still can’t flex my knees beyond 100deg actively, still limping around. I’ve improved a lot since the operation but right now my progress is just so slow.

For context, I underwent ACL and meniscus surgery on June 24th and it’s been 4 months since then. I got injured playing badminton early this year. Self PTd for around 2 months but then it got worse. I consulted with an ortho, got an MRI and confirmed a chronic ACL tear and a meniscal tear on my left knee. So I got scheduled for surgery and what have you, few days before the operation I slipped and hurt my knee further. After the operation the surgeon said my ACL was completely torn. The procedure was a success, my HMO covered most of it, but I had to buy the implant. I opted for a bioabsorbable button and screw which set me back 85k.

A month after my surgery I started going to rehab at a nearby clinic. I admit it may have been too late. My doctor said I was supposed to be starting rehab at 2 weeks post op, but during that time I could barely put weight on my leg and had to rely on crutches all the time. I skipped my first post op followup because I literally couldn’t bring myself to the clinic.

I had a lot of catching up to do after I started rehab. Last month I got synovial fluid extracted from my knee because we thought it could be preventing me from making progress. My knee still looked swollen and I couldn’t bend past 100deg actively. But after getting some 6cc of fluid it didn’t improve significantly.

I’m starting to think I’ve started forming scar tissue, I know it starts forming as soon as you start healing so you want to keep moving to keep it from growing and hardening. I fear that might be it but I can’t be too sure. I’ll let my doctor think about it.

Oh well. Hope to be better.