Progress: Walking

First, thanks to all of you who are praying with me about recovery. I’m pretty warm and bubbly about my progress.

Yesterday I began walking a bit more, trying to find a stride that would work with minimal pain. Today I used it quite a bit more. I’m not that far short of my previous level of household chores. For the curious, it’s a matter of moving slowly and allowing the knee to warm-up just a bit. Once I get going it’s not too bad, though I’m still awfully slow. However, more time walking around outside means less need to just sit outside for long periods.

The physical therapy exercises are helping, because I can now lift my leg with my own hip flexors, something I couldn’t do until this week. Also, gravity pulling down my lower leg so that the knee stretches a bit doesn’t make me wince. I still have just a little trouble with keeping my foot on the ground for long periods without movement, because the fluids are quick to pool around my ankle, which in turn puts fluid pressure on the knee above. I’m using an ice pack every day after the therapy exercises and it helps keep the joint a little looser. The knee is still a big round softball-sized knob, but it’s all quite hard, no gooshy spots.

Finally, my resting heart rate is slowly dropping back down into the 70s. My blood pressure is pretty good for my age, typically around 120/70. I still have no clue what caused those hour-long episodes of tachycardia, and I hope they never come back.