The Dangers of Boredom

Because summer has started, I don't have anything to take up most of my day. I work on my rehab and recovery, but that only takes so long. It's only been a few days, but I'm already starting to feel the pain of boredom, and missing out on fun. I do have friends that help me out and offer to do things with me. But then starts the cycle.

What can I do?

Not much. At least, not while I'm still on crutches and a knee brace. I was planning on spending most of my days working out and playing basketball and hanging out at the beach and playing more basketball. This seems to me, to be one of the toughest mental parts of recovery. If I stay bored, I have nothing else to do, but think and become more sad and depressed.

So far, I've been able to spend some time hanging with friends at grad parties, and eating out and watching movies. But you can only do that so many times...

My multi-daily rehab routine

I was surprised when my surgeon told me to see the physical therapist the day after my surgery. But not so surprising, I wasn't able to go. I was still nauseous and dizzy and scared to go down the stairs. Luckily, my PT was able to come to my house, although I still couldn't do much.

Recovery day 2 started very slow:

• Ankle pumps - elevating my leg, then circling and moving my ankle and foot
• Quad sets - flexing and pushing my knee down with my quad for about 5 seconds
• Heel slides - bending at the hip, bringing your leg up while bending at the knee to keep foot down)

I saw her again almost a week later and added one more thing to my routine:

• Straight leg raises with a quad set every time I come back down

Recovery week 2 we added a lot more (in moderation):

• Straight leg raises to the outside, with my injured side facing towards the ceiling
• Straight leg raises to the inside, with my injured side against the floor, and my other leg touching the floor infront of me (inner thigh workout)
• Sitting heel slides - sitting in a chair using your other leg to help push your leg back further
• Ball squeezes - with my knees bent as far as I can sitting, the ball between my knees
• Weight shift - with my brace on, holding a counter, shifting my weight onto my injured side and back off again
• Sitting toe raises - sitting in a chair, bending my knee as much as I can comfortably, and slowly raising up to my toes and sinking back down. 

It's a lot, and both my parents and my physical therapist like to remind me, when I'm not doing anything I should be doing these.. and then icing 20 minutes off, 20 minutes on.

Everything is horribly tough the first few times. But eventually they get easier. When I do my heel slides and bend my knee, it's stiff and sore at first - then I get to a happy middle where it actually feels really good - then I bend it extra further and that's where the pain gets tough.