Of Interest to Probably No One

The only way to recover well from total knee replacement is to become obsessed with it.  There couldn't have been a better surgery for a person like me. 

Within three days I was on the trainer.  By day five I had purchased the latest Wahoo Kickr, subscribed to Strava and was using Zwift.  By day six I was doing a forty minute training session three times each day.  I swapped out my hardy LeMond Revolution `dumb' (no internet) trainer and was stumbling around setting up the Wahoo Kickr.  By day twelve I experienced my first `overtraining' incident, having to cut back on the  Kickr.  The day before I was listing local bike races and invitationals I would do in July. 

Yeah.  I know it.  Obsessive.  I'm a psychologist.  And I'm also a headstrong and stubborn Irish Mick who thinks normal rules of mortality don't exist for me. 

But I've become somewhat of an armchair expert on the most complex joint in our body, the knee. 

Knee replacement surgery is better considered as knee `resurfacing' surgery.  The tip of both the femur and tibia are simply cut a little bit, reshaped and covered with a metal tip that is screwed and cemented into the surface of each bone.  The metal tip of the tibia has a hard, slippery plastic surface that allows the smooth metal tip of the new femur to slide over when rotating on it.  The quad tendon, muscles, patella (knee cap) and original ligaments are not touched or cut. 



But, the human body being what it is, the tendons and ligaments have to `adjust' to the new shapes.  And the soft skin tissue simply takes time to heal ... like on band-aid. 

My particular `overtraining' event has to do with the lateral collateral ligament that runs on the outside of the femur and tibia.  Too much use, too soon, for too long.  "Too much is never enough." 

Now my time on the trainer is reduced to fifteen minutes thee times per day.  `Rehab,' not `training.'