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I had two out of three therapy sessions this week. Cancelled Friday post thanksgiving. Monday was a tough day. I was exhausted heading into therapy after a long work day. A project was due for completion this week and I worked to make it happen. I was able to put two jogs in this week along with three swim sessions. I topped the swim off with my first ever 5k swim. This was very rewarding and solidified my swim endurance is back. On Sunday I did a full HEP program which included a 30 minute trainer ride. Knees felt good and not sore during the ride. Knees are also feeling much better during the 10 minute jogs. The PT said that next week the jogs will be bumped up to three sessions.

There weren’t any new exercises this week. Looking forward to a full PT week with continued improvement.

This week my Physical Therapy sessions went up another notch in intensity. Friday may have been the toughest so far. It was agility day. I did quite a number of lateral, step, movement drills. I was sweating bullets for sure. There wasn’t any pain during those exercises compared to my ten minute jogs (although the pain has become minor). It’s really incredible how much impact running/jogging has on the knees. This was a tough work week as well, with project deadlines, so I wasn’t able to do much home exercises, such as knees raises, etc. The PT did assure me that it’s fine to miss those as I may have mentioned before, but just focus on stretching at least twice a day.

It’s hard to measure at times week by week the progress I’m making, but everyday I feel stronger albeit mentally. Through all this I was still able to nail a 4K swim on Sunday without any knee pain or discomfort. This is very favorable news!

Added Exercises: 

- more intensity and speed to all agility workouts

This week’s activities

Therapy for the last two weeks have been broken down accordingly: strength and agility sessions. During strength session days I do: leg press, calf raises, leg extensions, leg curls, etc. Last week did some balance exercises as well. Those were fun. One entailed balancing on a half moon foam with my recovering leg while catching and tossing a soccer ball to the PT. Also performed on the half moon were backward lunges. Continued doing more lateral and forward agility routines. Walking down stairs is getting better every week. Swimming three times a week without issues. I queried to the PT about priority HEP exercises as work is conflicting with this schedule, she said at this point try doing at least two stretch sessions per day and I’ll be fine.

The PT gave me the okay to jog for ten minutes around my home block. I was able to to jog for two days this week. Shin and outer calf was definitely tight. There was also a small knee pain that wasn’t persistent through the run. I mentioned it to her and she said keep monitoring it through those jogs and update her. Otherwise it was nice to be out jogging. Extension is close to 100%, bending is still improving. Swelling is still present.

Added Exercises:
- forward walking on the treadmill
- jogging around my home block for ten minutes