Andrea: Long Overdue Update

This is a long overdue update on my progress from Surgery #2 back in September of 2014. The last time I posted here I was only 6 weeks out from surgery - now I'm nearly 4.5 months out! It's been a while, but I really didn't feel like posting anything until I had finally made some progress.

The roller coaster of rehab that I talked about last time - "(I feel like I am on a never-ending cycle: pain ("I'm never going to get better") - some relief / not too bad ("I'm getting better!") - aggravated / pain ("this is never going to end")... repeat X a million times)" continued on for over two months (~4 weeks post-op to ~3 months post-op).  I didn't see any improvement for a long time. This was incredibly frustrating and disheartening. Danny became as much of a psychologist as he was a physical therapist, the poor guy had to deal with my breakdowns every week for quite a while. I tried to keep positive, but my hopes were definitely dwindling.

The corner turned (a little) in December. The swelling in my abdomen finally went away and I felt good enough to walk for 30 minutes every day. I was also able to bike with Jake on some of his runs. The bilateral was still there, but much more manageable. After the holidays, I was able to increase my activity level: longer walks, longer bike rides, a little elliptical, backcountry skiing / SkiMo, strength training, and yoga.

Jake made me an awesome chart of all my different activities :)

Right now, I would say I'm at about 60% of full health. That is a good amount of improvement, but it is definitely taking a lot longer than anticipated to get totally back to normal. Dr. Meyers gave me a 6-week recovery plan... that was completely unrealistic. For someone that discovers their core injury immediately or has a minor injury, maybe 6 weeks is possible... but for someone like me that has been injured for 2.5 years - there's no way that time frame is realistic. I have set my own goal of 6 months to feel "almost-normal".

Currently, I don't have much (if any pain) during rest... maybe 2/10 on average. After exercise I feel some discomfort/pulling on the right side between my right adductor and abdominal scars, and left pubic/adductor pain + abdominal tightness. Recently, my left side has been the limiting factor on activity.

I still have a long way to go. I don't know if I will keep getting better from here or if I will have another stall-out period of no improvement (I hope not). Ideally you'll see another update from me soon because that will mean things are looking up :)