Road to Recovery: One step at a time!

Yep, that's the spot.  I'll stay on the other side of the road for now!

On May 18th I fell.  Hard.  I fell during a routine 8 mile run around my neighborhood; a path I have taken hundreds of times.  I was worried about my hand and about the scrape on my elbow getting infected, so I headed home.  I was going to finish my run on the treadmill later.  That never happened.

Months of resting, physical therapy, and a knee surgery followed because my hand and elbow were the least of my problems.  I tore a chunk of cartilage off my femur.  A pretty darn crappy injury to have.  There isn't any great solution, surgically or otherwise.  The surgeon removed all the floating pieces in my knee.  I'm left with a 1 cm hole, full thickness (meaning it's all the way down to the bone) and a constant clicking in my knee.  Every step I take is like driving over a pot hole. 

2 SLOW miles!

Surgery was 17 days ago.  I have no restrictions; my activity is only limited by pain and the extreme weakness that is the results of months of inactivity, overcompensation, weight gain from emotional eating, and side effects of surgery.  But today.... today was the day that I charged up my Garmin and hit that same path where I fell.  Today I logged miles for the first time. 

It's amazing to me how much conditioning I have lost and how 2 little miles, walking slowly, causes so much pain.  It's also amazing how getting outside and going for a "run", even when you're not really running, just walking, and it is a distance you would normally double or triple mentally helps. 

I have a funny feeling I'll be paying for my workout tomorrow...