MY ACL STORY: The Week When I'm Boring....

Hello everyone :)
Week 8:
I'm not even gonna lie, this week has been proper boring, and I sincerely apologise for this post because it may bore you to tears.
Anyway, the reason for this boringness is because I had my first exam of the year, so all I have been doing is revising like crazy! The exam was AS Ethics, which I was re-taking from last year because I did awfully. And it went surprisingly well, so I was glad that I did spend a lot of my time revising as I felt like it actually paid off and wasn't all for nothing.

This week I had another physiotherapy session where I progressed to some exercises using props. Last week I was doing the same exercises but just on their own. So I was doing the bridging exercise on its' own. But this week I did it with an exercise ball under my heels/legs. This meant that I could really work my hamstrings and could work on my core muscles to keep the ball in place - without moving it too much.

Great things take time :)

Another exercise that I did last week without a prop was balancing on my operated leg. But this week I balanced on my operated leg whilst holding a football in my hands, with my arms out straight. I then had to lift the ball above my head, then back out in front of me, and then I had to turn to the left and to the right holding out the ball - whilst balancing on my leg. I had to repeat this 5 times. I also did this exercise on a blue foam block - so the surface was uneven and really tested my balance! By the 5th time, my leg was quite wobbly but at no time felt like it could give way.
The third, and final, exercise that I did last week without a prop was the sit-to-stand. But this week I was given a 1kg ball to hold out at arms length in front of me. This was so that my muscles really started to work again in my legs. By the 15th time doing this, my legs and arms were shaking like crazy!
In this session my physiotherapist kept saying to me "this is too easy for you", and then he'd find a way to make it harder. This made me feel as though I was really trying to push myself, and as though all of my exercise at home was really paying off.

I went out on a few outings this week, these included going to see Pitch Perfect 2 (which was amazing - maybe better than the first one?!) and going with my friend to get her nose pierced.
On both of these outings I wore a knee support to compress my knee and to help me feel some sort of comfort. I found that wearing this made me feel a lot more confident when walking - with it still feeling quite wobbly.
Walking is still quite difficult, and I'm still slow, but I know that with more time spent on my knee it will get back to normal.

I told you that this week would be incredibly boring *yawn*, and if you made it this far then I applaud you!
I'm not taking as much Ibuprofen anymore because there isn't as much swelling or pain in my knee, which is amazing! The only time I feel like I need it is the day after physio when I feel some muscular pain from the strain in my hamstrings.
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