Stylin in my new brace!

This week has been a real test for the knee (8.5 weeks).  I attended a conference for the last three days which meant a lot of time on my feet and walking from session to session.  The time out of the house and the new routine proved to bring some great relief to the soul but a little more pain to the knee.  I also got really good at giving the short and modified story of what happened to everyone that had the nerve to ask me why I was on crutches.  Even though the extended time on my feet brought pain...it was all worth it!!!

The good news of the day is that I finally got my brace.  At least I think so...I mean, I think it is mine.  I took Aaron with me this afternoon to have a little father/son time.  As the tech assistant was opening the box holding my brace I asked Aaron what color he thought my brace would be.  He thought about for a minute and shrugged his shoulders.  With great enthusiasm in my voice and without hesitation, I told him it was black!  That was when I heard a the little voice of the tech assistant say..."Silver."

"What?" I questioned.

"It's silver.  Isn't that what you ordered?" she asked.

Evidently, the order was black, the order sheet also showed that it was suppose to be black.  But what we got...was silver.  I guess God thought I needed a little more bling in my life.  After convincing the tech to not send it back (I can't afford another week waiting for a new brace) we finally moved on to the fitting.  Here is a look at what the unloader brace looks like.

This view of the brace shows how the unloader brace actually works.  There are different numerical settings that correspond to the amount of pressure that gets placed on knee.  The pressure point is placed on the opposite side of where the relief is needed (the higher the number the greater the pressure).  In my case the pressure point is on the outside of my knee.  I will leave it in the second position because I have damage on both sides of the knee and we don't want to damage the outside of the knee trying to unload the inside of the knee.  The reason for having the brace is because the damage and the patch on the inside of my knee is so large...it should help that section of the knee have a better chance of healing.

The knee still continues to be slightly swollen- Swollen enough that I still have no real contours in the knee joint.  The best part of it is that my knee no longer looks like a watermelon, but more like a grapefruit.  The outside of the knee is still quite numb, but I guess that is normal.  I am enjoying my time working on ROM on the stationary bike.  I pretty much have no problems getting full rotation.  That means tomorrow I get to lower the seat and work on getting another full circle once again.  The most time I can spend on the bike is about 15 minutes before the pain gets to be too much.  Besides the bike I do some straight leg raises and that is really about all.  I can't wait until I hit a few more weeks and can begin walking exercises.

At least it is March Madness!!!  Go Kentucky!!!