Revised goal: 90 degrees

Going to be honest–it’s been a tough week. I’m not saying that for any sympathy, it’s just the truth. Being back in my house has been great, but there is much I still cannot do on my own. I accidentally broke a decorative dish in the bathroom yesterday and wasn’t able to do a damn thing about it. But in God’s timing a friend was stopping by to pick something up and helped me to get the glass off the floor.

The goal for this week since last year was to finish 140.6 miles on November 2. Seeing all the pics and updates on Facebook of those in PCB checking in and getting ready is difficult as I want so much to be with them. But things have changed and I have a new goal for this week–90 degrees.

One of the things I was really looking forward to this week was starting up physical therapy. After 3 weeks of relatively little activity, I was ready to move. At the same time, I’m very nervous and protective as essentially I still have a very broken leg. At my first appointment on Monday, I filled my PT in on the story, showed him my x-rays and we talked about the orders from the doc. Then he took a look at my actual leg, knee, incision and did some measuring to see what was going on. In the last three weeks I lost 2+ inches of muscle–yikes–but helps to explain the next measurement that I could only bend my knee to 55 degrees and that was even very difficult. Lots of work to do! So we set a goal to try and get to 90 degrees by Friday.

I was diligent all week doing my exercises–quad sets, leg lifts and more–and also in bending my knee. Physical therapy on Wednesday added some more exciting exercises where I got to lie on my stomach and try and bend my knee–that was difficult. But at the end of that session I was able to bend my knee to just over 80 degrees–very close to the 90 degree goal. It’s nice to have some specific things to be doing that I know are contributing to my recovery.

In addition to the PT work I’ve done this week, I have also returned to the office. That’s been interesting. I am learning lots about my new limits and about how much energy the body uses to heal–by about 1 o’clock everyday I could take a three hour nap. I also need to make sure I move around a bit, I can’t just sit there and power thru work, I need to get up and move and stretch on a regular basis. But the joke around the office right now is that there is no sneaking up on anyone, because you can hear the crutches coming.

There has been lots of time to reflect on all this as well this week. And if you know me, you know I like to think about the big picture as it helps me to understand the meaning and purpose. While sometimes I struggle with this stupid bone tumor getting in the way of finishing my Journey to IMFL, I am also quite grateful that it happened now. The endurance and strength that I have built up over the past year have helped me immensely in the last several weeks. I can’t imagine where I would be today had I gone into the hospital at a lesser place both physically and mentally. Which leads me to something I have said before and will say again: “Big dreams are worth the journey–even when we don’t always get to the finish.”

So this morning I go for my third and final session of the week. And I know we will get to 90 degrees!