Minimal Swelling, Maximum Entertainment

Pretty quiet weekend for me, I have just been hanging out around the house doing my exercises and using the Normatech machine while being thoroughly entertained by the US skiers up in Vancouver. I really have no news since the last post except that my swelling has continued to decrease, thanks to the Normatech. On a different note, I would just like to share with all of you how impressed I am with Bode Miller right now. It is awesome to see this new mindset he has brought with him to Vancouver. It seems like hes a changed man, just doing this for himself. Its so sick to see him doing well again. Lets keep it up Team USA, crush the old records even more! ALSO big shout out to my buddy Miles Fink-Debray for crushing the Nor-Am SG at Aspen today scoring a 9.76! Way to go buddy, kick some more ass tomorrow!

TWO WEEKS DOWN!

Thanks to my PRB injections yesterday my pain level is the lowest it has been yet. I was able to make some large gains today in both range of motion and quad control. I did a long workout with Eric this morning and couldn't be happier with how I felt.

One last thing, my mom e-mailed me today reminding me there are only 1,469 days until the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia... plenty of time to be stronger than ever by then!

Here are some pictures from today-



Swelling way down and stitches removed



After some injections, gets pretty big and painful after those guys...



My life... The Normatech compression sleeve and our new 42inch flat screen.



The Normatech control unit which pumps 100 lbs of air pressure around my bum leg to get rid of swelling. The trainers trust me with this $4,000 machine each weekend, I hope this thing doesn't break!

Draining + Injection = Relief

FORTITUDE
for·ti·tude   [fawr-ti-tood, -tyood]
–noun
mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation courageously.

I awoke today to an empty house, all of my teammates have packed up and headed to Reno for the Nevada Invitational. I'm not going to lie, it's pretty nice to have the house to myself for a few days. I went to a few classes this morning and then made my way up to the orthopedic center with my trainer Nick. I had an appointment with my surgeon which was followed by an intense physical therapy session. Dr. Burks is very pleased with my range of motion and the minimal amount of swelling in my knee. We decided another round of prolotherapy was in order, the injection last week greatly relieved my pain for a few days so I was looking forward to another all week. As the team set up the injections Dr. Burks continued to examine me. He pulled, yanked, twisted, pushed, and prodded my knee... Tighter than ever, and it actually didn't hurt me that much. It was as if I just needed someone to grab that thing and put it in its place, its like the Doc somehow awoke my knee from its slumber and told it to get its ass into gear! The injection hurt a bit more this week, I think because the nerves have started to work properly again, finally. After the injection was finished I set up another appointment with Burks for 3 weeks down the road and was told I could start weight-bearing, still with crutches, but weight bearing none the less.

We headed down the hallway to PT and started what would turn out to be a pretty brutal workout. We first took measurements and assessed the swelling. Both have improved tremendously since my last visit. Then I did a few quad sets and straight-leg raises under my own power. Then the real fun began... My therapist hooked my quadriceps muscle (in six different locations)up to stem. It was set to engage in waves, ten seconds on, ten seconds off. When the stem is fully engaged it sends electric impulses into my muscles firing them, causing my muscles to flex far more than I am capable of doing under my own power at this point. You get slightly used to it after a bit, but it is very painful. It basically feels like the worst cramping I have ever experienced. Anyway, the stem would fire, then I would try and help fire my quad even harder, re-teaching my muscles in the process. For the first 15 minutes of stem I just focused on firing with my leg laying flat on the table. For the second fifteen minutes, every ten seconds I did three straight leg lifts. It was a very painful, but a very rewarding exercise. YES it took a long time, YES I was dripping with sweat, and YES it hurt like hell, but I was looking down at a thigh which I was beginning to recognize as my own. It was the first time I have seen all my muscles come out from hiding, it reminded me what was under all that swelling, and it showed me that I am going to be just fine. I worked hard on my flexion using a total gym doing one-legged body weight squats. I felt as if I could go deeper and deeper each repetition and really felt the burn in my muscles. By the time I had finished my total gym exercises I felt as if I just completed a max squat test. Pretty tough, but it showed me what I am capable of doing at this point. After we finished working on the knee I got on a stationary bike with arm handles that also gave resistance. I rested my hurt knee off to the side and did a very tough cardiovascular workout to end the day sweating.

My Evil Limb

COURAGE
cour⋅age  [kur-ij, kuhr-]
–noun
1. the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.

The last few days have really started to test my mettle. They have been long, difficult, painful, and sometimes intolerable. Now that I am completely off of my pain medication and starting to exercise harder and longer the knee has started to tell me how much it hates me. Sometimes it is just a small side note, telling me that it is a little uncomfortable. Other times it seems as if my knee is no longer a part of me but another being that YELLS and challenges me to stop doing the things that irritate it. There are points in the day that the pain is minimal but they seem greatly outweighed by the times when I am in excruciating pain trying to push through one last set or one last stretch. I am sure I have now hit the point in the recovery that is not only one of the most painful but mentally the toughest. I have to look down at this thing, that in no way resembles my old leg, and tell it to do things that it has no recollection of ever being able to do. I am trying to teach my knee simple things and it just wants nothing to do with it, it just wants to rest. I want to do everything, I want to get stronger, I want to work through this pain, but it is as if I am now two people. One part, Ryan, who wants improvement and is doing everything possible to make that happen. And another part, my knee, who hates Ryan and does not want anything to change, just wants to remain weak and limp, and wants to see how much it can screw with Ryan. It is a frustrating time which is really starting to test me.

I am going back to my surgeon tomorrow for another check and to get another round of injections, which I have been looking forward to this entire week. After the meeting with Burks I will head down the hallway to meet with my physical therapists and examine how well my trainers and I have been doing our jobs. It feels as if I have made a pretty large improvement in my quad control so I am anxious to show the rewards of my hard work to the therapists.

for now until then,

Ryan

Olympic Motivation

PERSEVERANCE
per⋅se⋅ver⋅ance  [pur-suh-veer-uhns]
–noun
1. steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

Since the Olympics are now underway I finally have some good entertainment on the couch. Watching the opening ceremonies and hearing the stories of different athletes serves as great motivation to me, it always has, but this time it is different. I hear about injuries, hours of hard work, perseverance, determination, and reward. It shows me that all of these things that could have easily broken these athletes has actually made them stronger, hungrier, and more determined to achieve success. I love immersing myself in the games, not only ski racing, but every sport. I am a fierce competitor so I can really put myself into each athletes shoes and enjoy their successes and feel their pain when they come up short. It makes watching the games all the more exciting to me knowing that I am working to be there one day. I want to know what it feels like to be an Olympian. That is why I am determined to persevere through the tough times which have been set in front of me to achieve higher success than I have experienced in the past. I am just as motivated now as the day I wrote my first entry on this site, if not more.

Yesterday my roommates and I had a pretty lazy day, I had done a lot of work the previous day so I was instructed to just use my game-ready and take it easy. Today I woke up and hit the gym with my trainer. Today was by far the most flexible, strong, and stable my knee has yet felt. I actually added weight to some of my exercises. On Thursday my physical therapists was thrilled and told me I was way ahead of schedule when I bent my knee up to 90 degrees... Today I was at 72 degrees. A full 28 degrees in just 3 days is remarkable, perhaps a small miracle. I have been doing my exercises like a shaolin monk. Never missing a session and never giving anything less than my full effort. I'm sure I will hit a few speed bumps in my recovery process but so far I would say there is no way anyone could expect things to be going better.

Tomorrow I am going up to Park City to watch my teammates go head to head with the best in the country on our home hill. There are a bunch of guys who will be racing next week up in Vancouver who are in town for some warm up races. Should be a great show, I just wish I could take a stab at these guys in slalom... soon, I keep telling myself, soon.

Prolotherapy injections and physical therapy

Yesterday was again a very painful and uneventful day. I woke up and was wisped away to the training room immediately, because we planned on doing about 5 hours of anti-inflammatory work. The swelling had gotten worse from the previous day so it took a lot to get rid of it. After doing the usual game-ready, normatech, and hibomat treatments I was instructed to bring the normatech home with me and sleep with it in order to take an aggressive approach to this swelling.

Fast forward to this morning.. the swelling is WAY down, but their is excruciating pain down the front of my shin like I somehow broke my tib and fib overnight... So good in one sense, but very bad for my overall comfort level. The normatech pushes so hard on your leg that it actually bruised the hell out of my shin overnight and it now feels as if someone is constantly kicking me in the shin, not so sweet. The solution to that is to just delete the normatech from my regular routine and hope the pain goes away.

I went in to have my follow up appointment with my surgeon, Dr. Robert Burks, this afternoon. After having an x-ray taken to see how everything is healing the doctor came in to talk to my trainer and I about how it went. Apparently the surgery was a huge success and everything came together perfectly, my other ligaments are strong and my meniscus is 100% intact. Then he proposed an idea to me which could greatly help my recovery, Prolotherapy. It is a new technique which has not been highly used, in fact, I am Dr. Burks first patient for the new therapy. Here is a short explanation:

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and autologous conditioned plasma (ACP), use a patient's own blood to heal injured tissue by injecting the blood directly into the site of the injury. The principle centers on the fact that blood naturally rushes to an injury in order to heal it. The PRP process begins by drawing a small amount of blood from the patient, and then processing the blood in a high-speed centrifuge in order to separate out red-blood cells from platelets. Since the platelets release proteins and have exceptional healing qualities, the physician then injects about a teaspoon or so of the platelet-rich substance into the patient's damaged area in order to "kick-start" the body's own healing process. Doctors for major sports teams have been experimenting with ACP and PRP as an alternative to surgery to expedite the healing of injuries such as torn ligaments and tendonitis.

NFL players underwent the procedure before last year's Super Bowl and Tiger Woods underwent the procedure while recovering from knee surgery. All athletes who have used the therapy have reported a large decrease in pain and increase in stability.

Besides the fact that I am lucky enough to have been chosen by Dr. Burks to use this therapy, I will now also have his own "special interest" in my knee. Since I am the first person he has ever done the injections on he is very interested in the results. I am very lucky to be chosen for this and I am very thankful to Dr. Burks for his effort to get me back on snow stronger than ever. I will be having 4-6 more of these injections once a week, I really hope it is as good as it sounds.

After the team finished my round of injections I crutched down the hallway to the physical therapy office at the Utah Orthopedic Center. I will still be doing the core of my exercises and treatments in the U of U Athletic training room but once a week I will meet with a licensed physio to make sure I am staying on track. We started off by taking measurements of both my knee and my range of motion. I am actually slightly ahead of schedule, I am comfortably able to completely straighten and bend up to 95 degrees without the help of my hands. We went through many exercises which I actually flew through with ease. This was a real surprise to me because I really have been keeping it in my brace and have been told not to move it at all. I am able to flex my quad, see the muscle (its actually pretty big) and then do a straight leg raise with full control both on the way up and slowly down. I am really eager to start getting stronger now and regaining full range of motion. I am allowed to do my exercises at home also to my hearts content, as long as it does not start to hurt. All in all, today was by far the most exciting and rewarding day of my recovery to date. Stay tuned, its getting exciting!

Tomorrow I am going back to the classroom for a psychology exam so I have to take off and hit the books!

As always, take care!

Ryan

More Swelling...

Today was a rather uneventful one. I woke up pretty early to help get my mom on a flight back to Minnesota. Then I sat on the couch and watched TV all morning while I iced the knee. At 1pm Kristen, another one of my trainers, came and picked me up to bring me in for rehab since I can't drive myself yet. We started off with 45 minutes of game-ready to try and help my swelling suffice. Then when I was about to start on the quad sets and leg raises we measured my knee only to find that it was more swollen today than yesterday. In light of that we decided not to exert the knee at all today and just focus on the inflammation. I did Normatech compression for 45 minutes followed by a half an hour Hibomat treatment. Hibomat is a fairly new machine that sends electric pulses through the area being treated. It works by me holding onto a metal handle which sends the impulses through my body and the trainer, who is also attached to the machine, then massages the irritated area. It is a pretty cool machine, I don't know how well it works because it is a fairly new concept so I will see through results how effective it is. After training I just headed back to the couch to elevate and ice the night away... I really have to get this swelling down before we can start to make any progress, pretty boring. The plan for tomorrow is to do two sessions so lets hope the swelling is down by the morning. Talk to you soon.
-Ryan