Of course, I am only to lap and do non-contact, low fall risk drills for a month or so...but I'll take it! Oh, and I am supposed to wear my damn...I mean expensive...oops I mean wonderful brace. Thankfully I no longer have to sport the bionic look in my day to day but I suppose I can understand, even if begrudgingly, the sensibility of wearing it while on skates to keep me from hyper-flexing on a fall and tearing my ACL. Of course, I highly doubt that it's that much of a risk since falling forward (as we're drilled to do in derby) is not risky in that way but you never do know when you might do something stupid and go windmilling backwards even if you're not supposed to. I will be a good girl and wear it for the next week or so but probably not much more beyond that though.
So...back to practice yesterday. It. Felt. So. GOOD!
Man, I missed skating!
I was very pleased to note that even with the jacked knee and restrictive brace I could still lap just fine and even still do my crossovers (a new skill that I did not seem to lose while laid up...yes!). It was even nicer to note that none of the motions of skating caused me any pain. As a matter of fact, with the exception of my notoriously weak ankles complaining a bit, I was not in any pain at all.
I mostly did laps as I am not cleared for contact yet but I did join in on one drill that involved some feet stomping...very minimal discomfort but still no pain there. I briefly considered joining in on a little sprint drill/game that Coach concocted that was similar to Heads Up Seven Up (remember that little blast from elementary school??) where we all took a knee in a group and closed our eyes until Coach blew the whistle then we had to pop up fast, find him, sprint to him, then sprint back to the start and take a knee as fast as we could. I could not quite seem to figure out how to get down to a knee gracefully and more or less fell onto my hip to sit in the circle and when the first whistle blew I finagled my way back to standing and let Coach know I was not going to participate...Yertle the Turtle would not do well in that game and I was even slower than him at getting up and down! So I did more laps and some one leg glides.
After about an hour into practice I got the bright idea, since all was going just so darn swimmingly, to go off to the side and see if I could take a knee with some amount of grace and agility. Oh...if only I had a time machine...
That did not go well at all.
My brilliant mind reasoned that I should be able to get down onto my left knee if I took my time. I thought that:
- My right knee was damaged so it made sense to go down onto the left.
- I had been able to do one legged presses, squats, and lunges during therapy sessions so I still had the quad strength to do it.
- What could go wrong?
- I was wearing a restrictive metal brace on my right leg that would impede it's ability to bend in such a fashion as to get my left leg to the ground properly.
- I did not yet have full range of motion in the right knee.
- Everything could go wrong!
POP goes the knee and down we go. Whee!
The pain I get in my knee when I do something stupid is like banging your elbow at maximum speed into a metal table. It doesn't necessarily hurt for a long time but it hurts like a mother trucker, alright.
I decided that I was now done for the day and took my skates off then and there. Then I took my walk of shame over to the sidelines where WeEvil was chilling (she didn't feel well enough to skate) and being so kind as to keep Laura (who will be joining me on Thursdays for the duration of Ben's soccer season) company. Lucky for me I was smart enough to bring a cooler of ice with me so I iced my knee right away.
So there you have it...my first practice back.
Am I regretting it today? Physically, yes. Mentally, no. It was sheer bliss...up until that stupid choice thing, that is. My knees are pretty jacked today (even my "good" knee which has a strained "fold" from the awkward gait I had wearing the brace). My bad knee is feeling pretty fluid filled today. Luckily I had a PT appointment this morning and Ann gave me a pretty good rub-down and an ultra sound treatment to bring down some of the inflammation. I probably should not have pushed it so much during PT today as well but dammit I just want to get strong enough to move forward from this.
But, the good news here is that even though I pulled a dumbass move yesterday my range of motion had improved by 5 degrees from last week meaning that I only have 5 more degrees to regain before I have full range of motion again. (:
I'll lay low over the weekend so I can get back at it on Tuesday. And Ann said she would make sure that between she, Brian, and Karin (my awesome PT crew) we will work on getting me back to the point where I can get down and up on my knees. She also reminded me that in a week or two I can try taking a knee again...this time going down onto my right, which is much more sensible. Yes, Ma'am.
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