Sunday Story…The Knee revisited

I am 31 days out from the knee replacement. The progress has been anything but linear. There have been days (few, admittedly) when it works better than ever and other days (less now) when it doesn’t work at all!

Sleep has finally returned but it is still inconsistent. What has improved greatly is the range of motion. I have just now begun to be able to do Russian step-ups and squatting past parallel. The challenge is now in more dynamic movement…fast squats for example. The stretch reflex from the bottom of the squat is still quite painful.

I still have kept most of the weight bearing off my right leg, although I have picked up some heavy weights (225# deadlift!) and 2x 88# kettlebells. I will start some lightly loaded leg work next week in addition to my physical therapy exercises and upper body work. I am just now shaking off the last of the anesthesia remnants. That was one of the more surprising side effects…how long it took for that to clear my system. And even now, 31 days later, my vital energy is still not where it was pre-surgery.

The other truly odd thing is the numbness in the knee area. It’s hard to the touch but unfeeling. It was almost as if that part of my leg was disconnected from the rest of my body. The swelling continues to abate but it is still very prevalent. The other complaint is how much fatigue I have after limited effort. It is as if there just are no energy stores to draw upon.

All in all, though, the recovery is going along very well. The physical therapist is amazed at the progress, but let’s be honest I may be more physical than 99.9% of his clients!!

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

Sunday Story…The Resistance

Taking a break from my writings on recovery to address the subject of resistance. Specifically, resistance to change.

Human animals are built to find comfort and ease. That means change is not something to be embraced. We prefer the routine, the regular, the rudimentary. Change forces us out of our comfort zone, forces us to do things that we aren’t good at or don’t want to do, and forces us to confront the parts of our world that are hard and difficult.

Rationally, we know change is good for us. But deep inside we resist doing anything that will upset the status quo. We see people around us engage in unhealthy behaviors. They know better. But the default is to keep doing what they are doing.

Change is hard. You must want to change. I mean really want to change. It can’t just be a good idea or a thing to “try” out. You must find your “why” for the change. People don’t stop smoking because it’s bad for their health. Everyone already knows that. People stop smoking because their grandchild, in all their innocence, tells them they don’t like the way they smell. Change is spurred by emotion. When change is hard, emotion propels us past the hard part.

Here is why you are reading this now:

It is that time of year when we look back at what went right, and wrong and could be better for next year. This is going to require change! If you want the change to stick you need to be emotionally invested. You can’t just think it’s a good idea, you must have an emotional buy-in deep inside. Is this the year you (fill in the blank here)? You can’t begin without a compelling reason to make that change happen. If your why is powerful enough the how will take care of itself.

 

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

 

Sunday Story…17 days

It’s been 17 days since my knee replacement surgery. Or, more accurately, knee refashioning. Unfortunately, it’s also been 17 nights since my last decent night’s sleep. Last night my whoop strap told me I was in bed for 7 hours and 40 minutes. And I was awake for 7 hours and 40 minutes. The whoop was wrong. I did manage a few snippets of sleep, but it wasn’t what I needed.

I mention this because it points out the importance of good, healthy sleep. If you aren’t getting restorative sleep, you need to function all day, and it can make performing at any level difficult. In my case, the difficulty arises from pain and throbbing in the right leg as my nerves re-enervate, the muscles begin to twitch and fire anew, and the other bits and pieces knit their way back together.

That’s my excuse…what’s yours? Are you tracking your sleep? Many free apps will help. There are books and other places to get advice on sleeping better. If you aren’t sleeping well, you aren’t performing as well as you could. If you aren’t sleeping well your health is not as robust as it could be. Not sleeping will impede your progress if you are trying to gain or lose weight.

If the problem with your sleep is in your mind (as opposed to your body like mine) you will need to spend time working that out. Here are a couple of easy little “hacks” that will grease the skids to snooze-Ville:

Get up at the same time every morning.

Go to bed at the same time.

Turn off phone notifications and other potential disturbances.

Sleep in a darkened room and wear an eye mask. These are different. Light hitting your skin will change your sleep pattern, and light hitting your eyes will wake you up!

Establish a bedtime ritual. 

Don’t be like me! Find a way to get better quality sleep longer. I know I am!

 

John Mariotti

775-338-2412

www.crossfitodyssey.com    

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

 

                                                                                                                   

Sunday Story…The Not-So Bionic Man

After my last message, when everything was going well, I may have gone over the edge. Monday, I had a great first PT session. Everything felt good, so I decided I should Ski erg for a bit. I couldn’t bike…, because the knee wouldn’t bend enough, so the ski seemed like the best choice. There is minimal flexion in the knees and lots of upper body work. So, 30 minutes sounds reasonable five days post-surgery, right?

Wrong—bucko! Five or ten minutes would have been fine. Thirty minutes was a serious mistake. While I was doing it, everything felt great. Then disaster struck. My entire leg swelled up to an extremely painful size, and nothing seemed to help except lying down, feet straight up the wall, with the ice machine on the knee.

Luckily, I didn’t do any permanent damage. By Saturday (today) the swelling had diminished, and the movement was much easier. This morning, I walked with the ruck crew for about 30 minutes, and it felt particularly good with no swelling. But I will still get upside down and get lots of ice along with my PT exercises.

This is one of those times where more is not better. Backing off the edge has more benefits than getting too close and falling off. Finding that sweet spot is the challenge…where just enough is right but a little more is very wrong.

Overall, a good week of recovery. Next week we will start poking along the edges again and see what is possible. Onward and upward!

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412