MY ACL STORY: The Week When I'm 1 Month Post-Op....

Hello everyone :)
Week 5:

This is a good inspirational quote
for me for this year :)

I can not believe that this week was 1 month since I had my surgery. It has actually gone so quickly! The first few days of recovery were extremely hard and long, but once the hard days were over and the recovery got properly going, the days just flew by. And seeing the difference in not only my knee and the strength of my muscles, but in my mindset and the way that I'm thinking about everything. Before surgery I thought I would be the most miserable person ever, and that I would try and hide away as much as possible. But I've surprised myself by the amount of strength and determination I've shown through all of this past month. I honestly believe that if I wasn't as positive as I am being about this recovery, then I wouldn't be as far as I am.
Hoorah for speedy recoveries and positive thoughts :)

This week I wore trousers for the first time post-op! That sounds absolutely ridiculous and not something to be essentially excited about, but this made me very very happy.
For the past 5 weeks I've been wearing shorts and playsuits, no matter what the weather (which in the UK is not always great). I wore clothing that didn't cover my scars so that they could get some fresh air and it was easier to apply the CyroCuff. But this week I decided that enough was enough and I wanted to at least try and wear some trousers.
So, I wore some tracksuit bottoms (yes, they were baggy but that doesn't matter!) and stayed happy for the whole day aha! The fabric felt weird on my scars at first because I still had some scabs left on the staple holes, but apart from that everything was fine. I've missed wearing trousers (I never thought I would ever say that aha).

I also started taking some Ibuprofen for the swelling in the back of my knee this week. For a few weeks now, I haven't been taking any medication for my knee as there was no pain so I didn't see the need to. But the swelling in the back of my knee just wasn't going down, despite keeping it moving and icing it.

The cuts just look like pen now :D

So I did some research into taking Ibuprofen just for swelling, even if there was no pain in the area, because I was scared that it wouldn't work or it would be like insanely bad for me. But after researching and speaking to my mum about it, I found out that it was in fact ok to take the Ibuprofen for swelling.
And after taking 2 before bed, I woke up to a much less swollen knee! Normally when I bent my leg, all of the swollen skin would bunch up and would prevent me from actually bending it. But when I woke up the next morning, I was able to bend my leg much more without the bunch up of swollen skin. I'm going to continue icing my knee multiple times a day and taking the Ibuprofen at least 2 times a day for the best results.

So, this week has been a lot of firsts and experimenting for me. But with this whole recovery I think its all about finding something that works for you.
I'm still continuing with my exercises from physiotherapy twice a day and they're going really well, I'm also still on 2 crutches when I'm out of the house but none inside - so there's no change there really.
If you would like to read my experience of my other weeks post-op, then you can find those blog posts here.
Feel free to leave me a comment if you've been through this (because I could use all of the advice and knowledge), or if you just feel like leaving a comment :)
Stay positive and keep on being you x