Next Step

After meeting with my orthopedist today, I am officially getting rid of the big bulky leg brace that I have been wearing for the last 6 weeks.  Good riddance.  I am still going to use the smaller one that I had before surgery, just to act as a precaution, and only for the time being.  I think that in my ordinary life and non-dangerous and/or extended standing times, I am going to be brace free, using it only when I am at work or going to a place where I might be compromised.

My appointment was for 10 this morning.  So then why the fuck was I sitting in the waiting room, getting progressively more and more anxious, until 10 goddamn 30?  Appointments are appointments, and a specialty doctor is pretty important.  In the middle of the day, people have shit to do, so why make me wait an absurd amount of time just to get a chance to wait some more? Yeah, after getting into an exam room, I was sitting there for another 10 minutes to see the doc.  After all of that, I was able to get checked out, and see what I can and cannot do, and all of that took about 15 minutes.  So I was there for about an hour, and 3/4 of that time was spent waiting.  That's crap.

But in the end, I did find out a lot.  I can get back into the gym, riding the stationary and doing lower body workouts to strengthen my leg.  So that is a positive.  I still can't run, not allowed to do that for another 6 weeks or so.  Being without the brace and having my knee doing stuff on its own is going to be a challenge, and I will learn more and more as I do more and more stuff.  

Now I am getting back into work, and generally returning to a normal life.  I can set a schedule for myself now, and force myself to do things.  I need that kind of structure, at least 5 days a week, so I can keep my sanity and not waste my life away doing nothing.  Being able to do things on the side is nice, writing here and for The Scope has been fun, and now that I have less and less time on my hands, I think that I will be more willing to set aside time for those things, as well as my beer work, and pay more attention to them.

I guess all of this will sift itself out over the next few weeks.  Looking forward to getting back into a routine.

SD