AtomJohnson Blog

I am about half way through my period of not being able to put any weight on my leg.  I’ll probably still be on crutches for a while, but at least I can start walking a little bit and doing things around the house like vacuuming and laundry.  The house desperately needs vacuuming.  Several times today I thought I saw a black puppy running around my house, only to realize that it was just a giant ball of Sadie’s fur chasing another giant ball of Sadie’s fur across the living room.  I’m not sure which one of them did it, but one of the puppies took a crap in my Crocs.  Its a good thing puppies are cute…

I also drove my car for the first time today.  It was so incredibly freeing.  I felt like I was 16 years old again driving my car for the first time.  I had this strange desire to drive all over Boulder.  This feeling wore off after a bagel and coffee.  Who knew the euphoria could be that short-lived?

Winter just returned from  a business trip only to find that Spring had moved in early and was sleeping in his bed, eating his food, and using his wireless internet.  Well, thanks alot Spring!  Now we’re all paying the price for your stupidity and arrogance.

After walking Sadie last night in shorts and a t-shirt, I was desperately trying to find someone who wanted to go have wine and pizza outside at Proto’s.  You can imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to 4 inches of snow on the ground.  It doesn’t look like its ready to let up anytime soon either.  What is up with this weather!?!?

I am happy to report that the knee is feeling better. Earlier today I was concerned that the swelling might never go down, but I took a soak in the sauna this afternoon and then iced it and the swelling went down by about half. This was reassuring, but a bit depressing as well. The physical therapist had informed me that you could lose up to 3% of your muscle per day. This has become quite apparent as I can now almost see through my calf entirely. There is a giant divot in my lower leg where a muscle used to be. I guess this is all part of the process.

I’m doing my best to keep my spirits up through this whole ordeal. The first few days were fairly easy. It was actually nice to be locked inside with nothing to do but read books and blogs. The novelty of that has worn off and I’m about ready to get out of the house again. The tough part is that I have another two weeks before I can put any weight on the leg….so, another two weeks before I can get much of a break from all this.

So, I’ll continue to push on through this knowing how sweet it will be when I finally get my freedom back.

Whenever I embark upon anything, I often hear people say, “don’t push it.” This basically is a last reminder to use common sense in how far you push your limits. Well, yesterday I definitely pushed it. Working all day and then going to my soccer game was perhaps a bit too much. Upon returning home, my leg looked like a pair of panty hose packed with a couple grapefruits. Of course these grapefruits were bleeding through stitches….long story.

So, I threw back a Vicadin painkiller and anti-inflammatory and elevated my leg in an attempt to reduce the swelling. All I could feel, see, and/or hear was an intense throbbing pain. So, plan B was executed immediately….morphine and bed. I threw back one of my stronger painkillers, laid my head on the pillow, and was none the wiser until about 10am this morning.

Since there was nothing pressing at work today, I decided to lay low on the couch. I only moved to eat, use the restroom, and then to finally take a shower. This of course came with its own set of challenges. After trying to balance myself into the shower, I finally just took the crutches in with me. I guess after spending a few days in my armpits, a bit of soapy water can’t hurt them.

I managed to sneak out of the house for a bit this evening. My buddy Lukasz picked me up and took me to watch our Indoor Soccer game. I have only played with this team for one season, but I have never seen us win a single game. Unfortunately, I may be of more value to our team from the sidelines.

Tonight I took the role of Coach Johnson. I don’t yet have the clipboard, whistle and polyester shorts, but I do have an incredibly loud voice and a distinct lack of any shyness genes. So, my role was to call out open men that needed to be marked and yell other coach-like phrases, such as, “Shoot!” and “Matt, you take that diaper off your head and put it back on your baby sister!”. In the end, we won 10 to 9.

Upon returning home, I discovered that my neighbors had prepared yet another delicious dinner. This time it was Dill-baked Salmon and asparagus with cherry tomatoes. I felt a bit like the overworked husband who comes home to find that he had missed his anniversary meal. The candles were blown out, the wine half consumed, and there was a beautifully prepared plate with a note saying something like, “waited up for a while….happy anniversary”.

I went yesterday for my first physical therapy session. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but today I’m realizing that the pain killers had alot to do with that. They showed me some basic exercises to do. The most painful one is the ‘leg flex’. He was able to bend my leg to 90 degrees yesterday, but again, I think the pain killers had alot to do with that. Today, without the pain killers, the 90 degree leg flex was a whole different ball of wax….one with spikes and thorns throughout.

Today I am off the pain killers so that I can stay awake to work. After sleeping all but 2 hours of yesterday, I realized I better lay off the meds if I plan to get any work done. Of course, getting work done also entails navigating my condo to get from bed, to kitchen, to bathroom and up to the office. The most basic tasks have become completely exhausting maneuvers.

My neighbors have been great throughout this ordeal. They have already delivered spaghetti with turkey/buffalo meatballs, buffalo steaks, spinach, couscous, salad and strawberries with cream. My neighbor Dale brought me a much needed Latte today around noon. I never thought an espresso drink could be so delicious.

So, I’ll continue to blog the recovery.  I guess tonight is the first night I can shower.  Too bad this blog isn’t scratch n’ sniff.

As of sometime around 3pm today, I have a new (to me) ACL, a repaird Medial Meniscus, and a repaired Lateral Meniscus. I guess there was very little of my knee left intact.

Unfortunately, due to the extent of the damages, I cannot put any weight on my knee for 3 full weeks. That is going to be such a pain. That means no driving, no dancing, no jumping jacks (not even one)….basically nothing. I’m going to be very familiar with these crutches when all is said and done.

All I have to look forward to now is a long, slow, painful recovery. The thought of going into physical therapy tomorrow make me want to throw up a little bit. The therapist is going to tell me to bend it, and I’m just gonna look at her with a look that says, “What? My knee?!?! I don’t think so!” Then, they’ll have to restrain me as she bends the knee this way and that.

This could have all been avoided if my older brother hadn’t turned me onto the game of soccer 26 years ago.

Here are some pics from today’s surgery:

Well, it is officially the day of surgery. It is half past midnight and I’m still trying to tie up all the loose ends before I go under the knife tomorrow. I must admit that I’m pretty nervous about it. I did not think I would be, but alas I am only human…soon to be more bionic than before…but still human.

It was weird to run up and down steps today and to move freely about my house and the neighborhood. I will miss that feeling so much tomorrow after the surgery. Tomorrow night and Wednesday will consist of painkillers, iced leg wrap, and plenty of web surfing to pass the time. Unfortunately, I still have not hooked up cable or satellite, so the option of losing myself in the Food Channel of HGTV is but a fantasy.

I must say that I feel really blessed to live in this neighborhood. It feels more and more like home every day. I cannot walk through the neighborhood without seeing at least a few people that I know and really like. Everyone has extended an offer to help out however they can with this whole surgery ordeal.

My mom drove up from Atlanta for my last ACL reconstruction. It was great! We pretty much sat around and watched tons of movies and television. I’m going to miss that this time.

So, the next time I blog, it will be with a brand new (to me) ACL. I will be under the influence of three types of painkillers, anti-nausea medicine, and of course, altitude. Lets just see what happens…

Lately I’ve been reading alot of books and websites on personal development, personal productivity and efficiency. Currently, I’m reading Getting Things Done. Once I heard that this was kind of a cult, I rushed out and bought my copy.

Today I came across a great article called ‘Flow: Get into the Zone at Work‘. The article provides strategies for getting into a free flowing, almost meditative state at work where you are so absorbed in your work that your ignore all distractions and reach the Nirvana of efficiency.

One of the strategies that this article provides is the 48 minute rule. The idea is to work in 48 minute bursts with 12 minute breaks in between.

I tried out the 48 minute rule tonight and I must say that I’m amazed at how well it works. I find that I don’t get stressed about how much work I have to complete, I just work through the 48 minutes, completing as much as I can in that time. Then I check email, surf the web, or perform a surprise snack attack on myself.

Speaking of….I’m 2 minutes over on my 12 minute break.