Saturday and it’s 7 months 29 days since surgery for my tibial plateau fracture. I’ll call that eight months. I’m not sure how I thought I would be going eight months down the track. No one gives you a guide book and that’s partly why I wrote this blog. In future, someone going through the same thing, can work out where they might be at eight months post surgery. It’s not perfect but it is better than anything I had when I got out of hospital. I couldn’t get out of bed yesterday and stayed prone most of the day. My neck was very sore and I couldn’t go to work. More pain. Still, I managed several long conference calls over the phone. Isn’t modern technology great? It’s very lonely being at home by yourself and enduring pain. I’ve done so much of it this year I must be getting used to it. I’d been taking Nurefon anti-inflammatory tablets but they were starting to upset my stomach so I stopped last night. Cold turkey. I was very sore and tired when I woke up this morning. It’s Saturday so I would normally be going to the Balmoral Beach club for the swimming race.  I didn’t feel up to it. Eventually, got up mid morning, had a shower and some breakfast and started to feel a bit better. Hadn’t been out of the house for a couple of days so decided to have a stab at driving to the Virgin gym in French’s Forest for some exercise.

Because my neck was sore I decided I’d do the warm-up on a recumbent bike which I’ve never used before. Had to get one of the gym trainers to show me how to use it. Not too bad. I’m actually fit enough now so that when I pedal, I can use my right/broken leg more than the other one and can crank around fairly efficiently with it. This is the opposite to when I first started and I was very nervous about putting any weight into the broken knee. Turned into a reasonable session with some new milestones.

Recumbent Bike………..Warm up 30 mins. Level 8/10. Speed 70rpm. Power 170 watts. 252kcl. Distance 9.8km.………….Increase in resistance to 10

Leg Curl ……………..20 reps x 20kg    broken-leg-only……increase in reps

Leg Extension………….20 reps x 15kg    broken-leg-only

Leg Press……………..20 reps x 60kg   both legs

Leg Press……………..20 reps x 60kg   both legs

Leg Curl………………20 reps x 20kg    broken-leg-only

Leg Extension………….10 reps x 20kg    broken-leg-only

Leg Extension………….20 reps x 15kg    broken-leg-only.

Leg Press……………..20 reps x 60kg   both legs

Leg Press……………..15 reps x 70kg   both legs……..Increase in weight. Goal is 80kgs

One of the weird things about this gym session is that I finally managed to sit next to someone who was doing exactly the same exercise as me. I looked across and there was a guy, probably about 45, with his bike set on level 8 doing 70 RPM’s. To my astonishment, his heart rate was fluctuating between 140 and 150bpm. Mine at the time was 98bpm and max for the session was 104bpm. In my time in the gym I’ve not managed to get it over 110bpm. No matter what I do I can’t seem to elevate my heart rate. My resting pulse is only 45bpm so maybe that’s why. We both finished the exercise at the same time and I noticed the other bloke was shattered. He could hardly walk so I must be doing something right.

At least I’m not going to die of a heart attack.

The exciting moment for the afternoon came when I decided to try and leg press 70 kg. I had some trepidation. The leg extension machine set at 20 kg was giving me some difficulty, even though I had managed it the previous week. Once I got warm I was doing the leg presses okay at 60kg and so upped it to 70ks. It was a bit of a shock, at first, to feel the weight. 10 kg doesn’t sound like much, but it is if you’re not used to it. Nevertheless, as I got into it, it wasn’t too bad. I think some of this rehab is mental, with a subconscious fear of hurting yourself. I only did 15 reps but I was stoked. Belinda has set me a goal of leg pressing my body weight which is 80 kg. I’m almost there.