The necessity of freshly shaved legs

I saw my orthopaedic surgeon yesterday who reviewed my MRI results and explained the nature of my injury.  I knew I had a grade 3+ tear of my MCL, but to see it in pictures really helped me understand exactly how and where it's torn and shredded.

I was able to see the exact spot where my MCL pulled away from my femur and could easily see that the entire length of the ligament was shredded both superficially and in the deep layers.  What isn't great to see is that my medial meniscus was damaged from the rotation of my tibia and femur and will most likely need surgery after my MCL is completely healed.  He explained that by 8 weeks we'll know how much healing and scarring has occurred and that whatever joint stability is present then, is most likely how much I'll ever have.  He's hopeful that with proper rehabilitation I will have a fully functioning MCL and hence a 'normal' knee.  Once he assesses my knee progress at 8 weeks, he'll begin discussing my probable menisci surgery which he anticipates as a fairly routine arthroscopic procedure with minimal recovery time.

I had physical therapy today which was, let's just say, interesting.  The therapist is a rather good looking guy which is why no matter how much it hurts to stretch, I must shave my legs before any session with him.  He began today by assessing my good leg and knee.  Seems that I am 'hyperflexive' which explains why I can bend my knee joints way beyond straight and flat, why I can pop my hips out of place and my creepy elbows that bend in a freakish way.  Anyway, after establishing that my joints are loosy-goosy, he had me bend my knee for the first time in 2 weeks.  At the start of the session I could reach 41 degrees of flexion and by the end of the session was at 46 degrees which is half way to my 90 degree goal.  I was pea green scared to bend my leg.  I knew my shin might just fall off or flop around, but it didn't it.  What it did do, was let me know that there is a lot of healing going on in that joint.  To flex my leg to only 41 degrees made me feel so wimpy.  I'm so scared that I'll undo all the healing that has taken place and set me back even further than anticipated.  I've never felt fragile before, but boy, am I careful with my knee.  With any luck, next week he'll feel even more tightening of my knee joint and allow me to start toe touching with my right leg.  WoooHoooo, I get to put my toes on the ground.  Hot Damn!

I called my oldest sister last night to give her a rundown of my doctor's appointment only to have her tell me she would have to call me back as she was driving herself to the emergency room.  Yep, us Heckman girls are peas-in-a-pod when it comes to injuries.  Seems she was walking her dog, Buster, when he suddenly took off after something, causing her to fall and be dragged across the concrete street on her back.  She has a concussion and a hideous head wound, but with God's help and 40 Irish Policemen, she'll mend too.  So that officially makes 2 out of the 3 of us Heckman girls with dog related injuries.  I wonder what my middle sister, Kathy will have happen.  Seeing as she is decidedly NOT an animal lover like Nancy and I are, I can only imagine that she will have a Jimmy Choo stiletto high heel accident.  Time will tell, but things tend to run in 3.  This time I wouldn't mind if things quit at the terrible two's.