Optimista!

Bike Time: 12 minutes (2 minute warm-up, 10 minutes of forward motion)

Distance: 1.04 miles

I was feeling brutally down today after slogging on the bike today. I've been getting kind of down about the fact that I have been more or less house bound, and getting out and about makes me tired.

I was driving the Boy to indoor soccer. At the game, I found a safe spot to sit where I could both prop up and stretch out my leg. I settled down before the game started, and figured the rest of the families would file in around me. Instead, they stayed by the restaurant/bar and watched from there. I ended up sitting by myself, partly watching the game and partly doing a crossword puzzle. I didn't really want to socialize because I didn't want to talk about my knee. 

After the game, I ran into a friend and I had a burst of optimism. I am three weeks out from the surgery. For some reason, the three week milestone. Then it came to me: I am much better off three weeks after the surgery than I was three weeks after my initial injury. 

I thought about my injury: three weeks after the injury is when I started physical therapy. At that point, my thigh had atrophied so much I couldn't flex my quadricep. I remember Evan asking me to flex my thigh, and I had no idea what to do. I tried, and nothing happened. He had to hook my up to a TENS machine that zapped my thigh to get it to move. It was depressing.

Here I am three weeks after surgery, and I am riding a bike! I can flex my quads, no problem, and I can do ninety leg lifts. While this isn't something to look forward to, I can mark it up as an accomplishment, which is just as uplifting.