Written by Cassie Trammell
Now about a month and a half out of knee surgery, I recently went back to my doctor, so he could check up on my progress with therapy. As my luck would have it, Dr. Cooper said that my quad is nowhere near the shape it needs to be in at this point after knee surgery, and that was his main concern.
Though I am still not able to bend my knee past 90 degrees, I found out that I am not supposed to do so until May. That was my one sigh of relief. All the other feedback I received was more on the negative side. He basically said I need to kick my rehab up a notch and start weight training in order to build up my quad muscle. Right now, the muscle is non-existent, so hopefully I can work it up very quickly. He said if I see him in eight weeks and my leg is still in this shape, I will not be released to dance by auditions.
So now I am on a strict workout plan, after visiting with a rehab specialist, and I know exactly what I can do and what I am restricted from doing when working out. As of now, I am still not allowed to jump, run or dance at all until I can build up my quad muscle. This is necessary to protect my knee from further injury. I have sutures that are holding my meniscus together, so I cannot risk popping those open, so bending my knee past 90 degrees is also forbidden. Still, I am working hard every day to gain that muscle back, so I can be released to dance by May.
However, I just had to get my wisdom teeth out, which has definitely put a damper on my training for a week, although hopefully for not much longer! I was going to wait until I was done with DCC to get my wisdom teeth removed, but I recently found out that I was going to be kicked off my parents' dental insurance when I get married, which is in a month! I had to get them out ASAP if I didn't want to pay around two grand later on, so I opted to just get them out now! !
Despite everything that is going on with school, wedding planning, and my horrible luck with my health, I am somehow getting through it. I just have to take it day by day. Honestly, without my planner, I would be lost. My schedule is insane, but I will do everything in my power to be physically healthy and ready for auditions in May!
