can't walk because of knee surgery

Hi Everyone: How are you all doing? Just wanted to let you all know that I think you are all great. I feel as if I know you all in a personal way. Hear is my dillema. Two weeks ago Friday I had orthoscopic knee surgery to repair a torn ligament. The procedure is called a partial Lateral Minesectomy. I don't know if any of you remember my story, but two weeks after my WLS I wa**** by a drunk driver head on, on my side. My car was totaled and I did not receive enough money to compensate my loss. So, from that time up until two weeks ago I have been doing lots and lots and lots of walking. I am a single Mom of a 15 yr old girl and I am the only certified driver in the home. So, to get to store Drs apts etc... I have been taking the bus which is right in front of my apt building. Iam also very very lucky to live within walking distance of the hospital (where I had WLS) and many many more places where I need to go. I have lost pretty much weight. On the day of surgery I weighed 296. I now weigh about 224-228. Iam happy with my weight loss, but I am doing my physical therapy now and my knee is still bad to the point of not being about to walk like I was before. I am very depressed becasue the WL has stopped and I contribute it to the fact that I no longer am getting the activity that i was getting. I honestly thought that this procedure would not lay me up as long as it has. My WLS was easier to take then this. Do any of you have any input of how I can work up to where I was before. Maybe someone has been threw this type of knee procedure that I have had? I just was doing so good now I feel as if everything is going to get messed up. Because of the accident I really have not been able to enjoy the full benefits of my Weight Loss Journey, but am hoping that within the next month I will be able to at least start walking normally and more distance. I will be happy when I can end this chapter of my life turn everything over to my attorney and then maybe get compensated for all this pain mentally and physically I have been going threw. Thank you for any input you may have. You are all the best and I love reading all you accomplishments, challenges, and victories as you head down this road. My hat is off to you all. Any suggestions or encouragment will be very much appreciated. God Bless Denise

I had very similar surgery in 1991. I was on crutches for awhile from it. I have a suggestion or 2 to help out. First of all, you weightloss may not be because of the lack of walking, it might be a normal stall while your body readjust to the weightloss and your surgery on your knew, it will start again. Many have lost without exercise, Dame Tooter did on the main board. Ok, here are my suggestions. When you go in for physical therapy, ask them if they can have you ride the bike or work both legs, not just the bad one, that will keep your other leg n shape. Any movement you do is exercise, so that will work also. Second, do chair exercises. Do a search for it on the web. I am sure there are pages for it. You can get empty 1 gallon milk bottles and fill them with water, make the level one you can lift with some tension. Do arm curls and over the head lifts and such. Push yourself up with your arms from your chair, do reps of these. Any movement is going to help. You don't have to walk. I do only 12 min or 18 min on the treadmill or 10 on the eliptical each day. I do some weight training too. But not the miles others do, and I am still dropping. Now also look at what and how much you are eating. As we get farther out, we need to increase our calories. This may seem strange since you are not doing as much as before, but it is to keep us out of starvation mode. Do you run your food on fit day to see how much calories you get a day? Are you getting at least 800? Or are you getting too many carbs? Or not enough protein? Most important, are you getting enough water? That also falls into why you maynot be loosing right now, when you had surgery, they gave you iv fluids and they may not be all out of your system yet. It can take a couple of weeks. So up your water intake. I hope some of this helps. My knee still hurts to this day. It creaks and rubs. When I have lost all my weight I am going to go in to see what can be done. I can't walk up and down stairs very well and can only do the eliptical for so long because of it. But the surgeon said I might need the other tendins lenghthend, but I couldn't go back to him and other dr. I saw said it was my weight. Well it has made no difference with me loosing the weight I have or doing the exercises I know need to be done either. So I will see what they say. Oh my surgery was where they cut and reattached my top and bottom tendin of my knew. It was othro, but took a long time to heal. My knee still isn't as strong as it should be. Did you go after pain and suffering for the accident? Make sure you are offered alot of money when you settle. They should be paying for your use of the bus to and from appointments and work because you don't have a car and can't drive one now anyway. If they off you less than 100,000, then get a lawyer, in fact, you might want to check into one now, you should be able to get enough money to replace your car. The person was drunk, that is all you need to win the case and push for compinsation.

Hey Kristi: Thank you for the wonderful response. Tomorrow I go for my PT again and she is going to start me on the bike. The apartments where I live have and indoor pool, hot tub and a very very nice exercise facility so I do have access to all that I need. Yes I do already have an attorney. I was also injured on my thumb and had to wear a hand brace for 8 wks after surgery. When the accident occured I was transporting my Daughter to the hospital because she suffers with severe anxiety disorder and was suicidal. She was not injured physically, but her head was thrust against the windshield. We both were transported by paramedics to hospital. My thumb injury is called Gamekeepers Thumb. About my WL I think you may be right about not eating enough. It goes like this, I eat and after a couple bites Iam very uncomfortable so I stop, then about 15 minutes later am hungery again Anyway today I will up the water and protein. I do use fitday.com and I definitely do love the website, it really helps me to stay accountable. But, I have not used it for the past week. The knee situation set me back but will get back on the bandwagon . Thanks for your response and I will take all your suggestions to heart. God Bless. Denise

Wow Denise~ I wish I had all the advice in the world to give you but I don't. I wish I had $20,000 to send you via paypal so you could buy a new car, but again, I don't. All I know to say is to keep the faith. It is through these struggles in life that we are able to appricate our blessings. "...Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. Ps 30:5" Morning is not necessarly the A.M., but it is the time that you have gained something from this experience and God sees fit to remove you from that situation. Sorrow looks down Worry looks around Faith looks up Dawn

Denise, I had my wls on 1/27. Around 3/25 I injured my knee working out on the recumbent bike. I had a meniscus tear. I had to wait until 4/18 to have surgery on my left knee. I found out that I had two meniscus tears in my left knee. It was arthoscopic surgery and the pain was horrible for the first week. The second week was better. At the end of the second week I was released from physical therapy and was building back up in my exercise regimine. It was about a full month that I was not able to work out like I had been. Strangely enough I lost during that period of time. I guess the muscle that I had already built burned the fat while I was in the lull period. Now I am stalling and am back in to my normal routine. I have a feeling that you may be in the plateau stage too. Seems like a lot of us Januarians have slowed down about the same time. It will start moving again. I agree with the others. Keep moving as much as possible. My surgeon wouldn't let me use crutches or anything after my surgery. And let me tell you. It was horrible that first week. I was afraid to put pressure on my leg until I went to physical therapy and realized that they want for us to stretch out those muscles. I would definitely communicate with the PT tomorrow. I wish you the best of luck. Please let me know if I can help in any way. Beth