Jan 30th

Great week of warm weather and near perfect surf. Michele and I have been a little under the weather with a cough that won't quit. It's frustrating but it doesn't stop me.

I took the varsity scouts skiing to Big Bear. The first photo is a picture of half of our crew. 

The next photos are Trevor Joyce with the ski patrol and in the First Aid center. Trevor broke his arm flying off a jump and landing on ice. The snow coverage was minimal at best and unsafe at worst. He broke it at 11 am and our other leader, Ty Mathis, took him and his brother Weston and Jadon (Weston and Jadon are the two scouts that were with me last year when I tore my ACL while skiing EPIC conditions at Big Bear). Luckily they all had their passes reimbursed due to Trevor's arm.

This picture is of me standing where I landed when I snapped my ACL. The huge cliff to where I'm pointing is where I came flying through the trees (we had 5 feet of snow over EVERYTHING last year) and flew off the rock/cliff and landed on the flat main frail. It was snowing very hard, blizzard conditions so I didn't realize that I was flying off onto a flat run. I thought it had some slope and that it would have powder. It felt a lot bigger without all the snow on it like it did last year.

The rest of us staying and skied. I shot video for most of the day and created a little ski video for the boys. They LOVED it. Probably the first time they've really ever been filmed skiing before. The day was great besides Trevor breaking his arm in 3 places and Jacob Banks  blacked out after an ugly wreck. He literally was beating the stuffing out of his head falling off of ramps and killing himself on the terrain park - not that he can afford to lose any stuffing by the way! Yehaw!!

I also signed up to go to Philmont Scout Ranch this summer from July 24 - August 8th, 15 days in total. One of our leaders who planned the trek can't go so they needed a leader. Granted that all the boys are varsity scouts, my boys, I was not planning on taking 15 days out of my family's summer vacation plans but I felt impressed to go. And Rachel Hazen wants me to go to Philmont because RJ is going. RJ is 14 in March and he's 6'1" and still growing. Wow! So I'm getting geared up and educated on what exactly Philmont is all about. After reading more about it tonight, I'm a little surprised I made such a big decision without reading what exactly I'm in for. It's going to be tough. We hike over 100 miles with 30-35 pound packs and literally campout in the total wilderness for 12 straight days. As I remember from Colorado, it rains almost every afternoon as the thunderstorms come over the Rockies. Philmont is in north New Mexico and is due south of Denver. Now I need to get into P90X shape because it's rough.

Kate had a HUGE birthday party at Kayla Parry's house and she was gone for most of Friday and all of Saturday, taking time to sleep at home for a couple of hours in between days. They had so much fun. Emily and Andrew are doing very well as we have gone bike riding and enjoying the summer-like weather.

Jan 23rd

This year is already flying by. We had a great week of activity. I had a huge varsity scout huddle with our while district. I was able to display and present my (turns out to be very unique) high adventure trip surfing from Pismo Beach to San Onofre. We had a mission president who is over the Salt Lake City mission speak to us. His talk was on "Great missionaries come from great scout leaders". He talked about how we have a tremendous influence over these boys because they see us outside of the shirt and tie in a church. They see us on campouts, hikes, surfing and lobster diving. They see us as the example of what they'll become. If we talk about our missions and are excited for them, they'll want to go too. Scout trips are the best way to get to know the "real" scout. We can talk to them in the mountains or on the ski hill. We talk while warming by a fire. The idea is to show them of what their life can be like if they follow the prophet. It really made me think about what I do and how I act with the scouts.

We went to the temple yesterday and had a great session with the other relief society presidents in our stake. The stake president held a special chapel session too. We went with an older couple, the Farnsworths. Marie is Michele's first counselor. Her husband is so funny and cool. Keith was in the US secret service a guarded Nixon and Ford. He has plenty of great stories. We all went to eat at BJs pizza afterwards and made a real night of it.

Kate had her last all-star soccer game. The game was lopsided 11-0 but those other girls were all 6'4" and outweighed me. So could kick the ball almost the entire length of the field. It was unreal to watch them play. Kate played very well and we are very proud of her.

This week is going to sunny and warm again, touching 80 on Thursday. I'm going to surf my guts out all week. This last week was an unbelievably great week of surfing. It feels better than any day all summer last year. It's incredible. I'm taking the scouts to Frank Reade's house on Thursday for a welding demonstration and then taking the scouts skiing at Big Bear on Friday. It'll be 50-55 degrees out and I'll be skiing very easy so no concerns. We all should have a great time.

2010

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free… Come all ye surfers, dancers, RV’ers, runners and athletes who are sore and trashed. Come hither ye who have been rushed to the ER, surgically repaired, rehab tormented, and sick with oink flu. We have room…. for you losers” These immortal, yet slightly altered, words of Emma Lazarus have never been truer for the Cliffords. For example, 4 of us had stitches or major injury. We had the croup, strep, and colds, colds, colds. Had our ups, had downs…  It was a little black and blue, but 2010 was quite memorable. Take a look.

Chad – This year I was viciously dog piled by pain and misery. First came misery in the form of swine flu. Almost died… well it felt like it. Fresh off my bout with oink flu, came the pain. I took my varsity scouts up to Big Bear ski resort on a perfect day of fresh powder. On my last run of the day, I snapped my ACL jumping off a rock. Ouch! Stupid is as stupid does. Had surgery. Knee looked like hamburger. Totally gross. Going through rehab. Lots of pain. Life stunk and I cried daily. However, I decided to turn my frown upside down and get my “fun” on.  I took those same varsity scouts for a week long “surf fest”, high adventure, in our RV, stopping at all of the famous southern California surf breaks. Malibu, San Onofre, Pismo Beach, etc. Scouts sleep outside, leaders inside. YPG. Oh yea, we are RVers. It’s the best investment in family. Tons of fun! I can’t wait to explore all of CA. For those who know me, I’m a closet rocker, G & R, AC/DC, Red Jumpsuit, etc.  So for Halloween, I dressed up as Bret Michaels. All women ogled me, all dudes respected me. Pictures upon request. 2010 also allowed me and my lovely wife to take a 15^th year anniversary cruise. Best trip ever!

Michele – Still relief society president and temple worker at the San Diego temple. How does she do it? Superhero? Yes and she is amazing! Let me explain. She ran the Ragnar race with friends in April, a 24 hour race that covers roughly 200 miles. 200 miles people.  Ouch! She also ran the Mud run at Camp Pendleton. Quite the athlete. Settle your kettle, there’s more. 


Michele and her lady friends went on a girls’ cruise (notice the cruise theme) and they went crazy. How so? Michele was partying like it was 1999 on the dance floor and dislocated her pinky toe. The exact details are fuzzy, but the result was a pinky toe at a 90-degree angle. That’s dedication to fun. For 2010, Michele stepped up her soccer mom status to the elite level. She had all 3 kids in soccer… all on separate teams and games every weekend. And, she volunteered to be team mom.

Kate – 12 and officially a young woman, middle school (along with a budding teenage attitude), cross-country animal, soccer star and honor roll student. Impressed? You should be. Kate is now playing two instruments, piano and clarinet. She also danced hip-hop, sang in the choir and leaps tall buildings in a single bound. Is that it? Hardly. Kate is also quite the athlete. She learned to surf and did a cheerleading camp with Emily. Kate really had a good year in soccer, despite the team’s lack of victories. She made the all-star team and is gearing up for next month’s games. She ran cross-country at school. We didn’t even know she liked to run. She must take after her mom. I only run if chased… bad knee and all. We loved going to her meets and watching her run. She also discovered Magic Mountain – the home of the big thrill rides. While I peed my pants just looking at Goliath, there was no thrill too big, no ride too fast for Kate. As the big sister, she is such a wonderful example to her siblings. We couldn’t ask for a better oldest daughter.

Emily – 9 and fine with a healthy mix of diva and star athlete. She played soccer and made $5 per goal. Bled me dry. Emily is now surfing, ripping the waves. She made honor roll in school. Emily is a real self-starter and entrepreneur. One day she came home with a Spanish book and pronounced that she was learning Spanish… in her free time. She now raps Spanish with her mom and grandpa. Hola! Emily also decided she needed some spending money, a little weekend cash sort of thing. Did she ask us for money? No Señor. Next thing we know, she is on the corner of our street shaking down all the neighbors for dollar shots of lemonade. She picked a few perfect days and ended up making a boatload of Dinero. She’s now the official breadwinner of the family. Emily also ran track, representing her school at a big meet. She was fast! As far as Emily is concerned, all the world’s indeed a stage. She loves dance, hip-hop, show biz kids, show choir and piano. We made the mistake of letting Emily plan her own birthday party. She invited 30 of her closest friends to a backyard movie night. We are still cleaning up to this day.

Andrew – 4 and sporting plenty of machismo. Andrew is 100% boy. He loves the rough and tumble. He loves video games, playing baseball, soccer and football with dad. His soccer team was… not good but he had fun. Andrew is into Star Wars. He was a star in Jedi training at Disneyland and then promptly fell to the dark side. He was Darth Vader for Halloween. Andrew, like his mom, dad and sister Kate had a nice trip to the ER… but for stitches. He slipped and cracked his melon on the kitchen counter. Amazingly, Andrew didn’t cry, even at the hospital while they stitched his eyebrow closed. He definitely got his pain tolerance from his mom. Andrew and I are best buds. We go on the father and sons campouts, Disneyland trips, eat out at In-n-Out, play xbox, and we love going to Anaheim Ducks and San Diego Padres games. Andrew loves to stand up and yell, “Let’s go Ducks!!!” He’s also my big helper around the house. No task is too big for him. Andrew is seriously a cute kid. Not that he needs to, but he likes to remind people not only that he’s handsome, but that he’s awesome, fast and strong. He has no problems with self-esteem. However, Andrew is a giver too. He loves to compliment others. He tells friends, family, police officers (he likes the uniforms) and an occasional Best Buy employee that they are handsome, strong and fast. Andrew is the son that I’d always wanted. He’s incredible. My best buddy.

Snowball Clifford– Yes she’s a part of the family, barely.  She made it a whole year without getting kicked out of the house. It was pretty much touch and go for a while. Why you ask? Well, she failed puppy training at Petsmart, chewed everything valuable in sight, and often would dig in the mud ripping up my sprinkling system. Her new nicknames – Mudball and Chewball. She wore the cone of shame briefly when she was spade, which helped cut down on the chewing. All in all, she’s a part of the family…. for now. Kidding. However, given the choice between me and snowball… the vote is snowball.

2010 highlights – Camping in the RV. Family reunions to Bear Lake, Utah (20 hours each-way), Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Magic Mountain and Legoland. Beach days, soccer camps at BYU, going to the San Diego zoo, 4^th of July and of course loads of friends and family who came down to have fun. Merry Christmas and may 2011 be fantastic.

Michele came across a touching address that Elder Holland gave at BYU (Ensign Dec 1977) that is definitely worth reading. In it, he recalls Dr. Suess’s How the Grinch stole Christmas. It sums up what Christmas is really about, our Savior Jesus Christ. The Grinch can find the true meaning of Christmas, and you can too. With all of our love, we wish you a Merry Christmas.

Post-Op Day 38: The Bend and Snap

Sorry about the self photog. All the kids are playing. My doctor told me to exercise the leg using routine ordinary exercises to gain strength and flexibility. As you, my loyal groupies, know that my great brain can't do anything routine. So I've invented a new move to up the ante. Not surprised the least, this stroke of artistry and genius has brought Hollywood knocking at my door.

For all of you who are fans of the movie Legally Blonde, you'll recall a method that ladies use to attract men, called the "bend and snap" (aka "BAS"). I've altered the move considerably and perform my own version of the bend and snap. It'll probably catch on like wildfire once it is released.

The move consist of holding the knee parallel to the ground and then performing a "karate kid" snap kick, straightening out the knee and then pulling it back as far as I can. In public my BAS garners plenty of attention. The crowd consists of mainly young ladies vying for spots to checkout the eye candy, intermixed with MA (that's martial arts to people in the know) masters who just want to admire my sweet moves. Usually video cams, iphone cameras and the local news are catching the action. This incredibly awe-inspiring move helps strengthen my massive quads and it builds up my pumped hamstring. I'm in talks to star in the new movie Karate Kid 5- Too Legit to Quit. It's based on my life story showcasing an older yet equally juvenile karate loving kid who becomes the master of the universe. Arnold loved my treatment and is quitting politics to be in my film. I'm trading my crutches and staples for a Hollywood star. You see Rusty, it about turning lemon into lemonade. Thus endth the lesson.

My knee is losing the scar tissue which is great. I have more flexibility now although the photo doesn't show my max flex because I was holding the camera and my knee at the same time. Technical difficulties. My knee has felt almost normal the last two days, except I can't really run. Running is normal by the way. Dr. Kim tells me I still have about 3 more weeks before I can really start to rehab the knee.

Post-Op Day 34: 1 month check up - The knee nipple

 

My buddy Sean Parry asked me how my knee nipple was doing. He was referring to the "nipple" like bump on the right side of my knee in the photo. The nipple ("nip") was commonly referred to as the alien in previous posts. Since my infection has left, the alien has shrunk to a persistent nipple sized bump. I think Sean should trademark the name, knee nipple. It'll catch on in the ACL community.

Photo on the left. I know ladies, control yourselves. This is quite the handsome leg. This is what my doctor saw today during my 1-month check up. Actually it's almost 5 weeks but close enough. Granted my knee is bent and the angle is weird but it's a little swollen still. As the knee heals and sheds scar tissue, the knee swells and is painful again. This is normal apparently. Whatever. It still hurts.

Obviously being a doctor isn't all that glamorous if you're looking at these types of things all day. Here's the skinny Alice: 7-14 days I'll be totally healed... at least on the inside. From there on out the only thing holding me back is range of motion and strength. In theory I could surf in 2 weeks if I had the strength and range of motion, which sadly I have neither. The enemy at this point is the swelling. Swelling is good and evil at the same time. Swelling means the body is healing itself. Swelling is bad because it prevents range of motion and you can't build up muscle. Swelling also adds pain as the joint is used. Activity is good for the knee except when it causes too much swelling. The knee nipple and the scar tissue in the front will go away in time as it heals. It's still a waiting game.

Post-Op Day 28: Why did I go to the Zoo?

The San Diego Zoo is world famous, now it's famous for destroying my knee. I thought I needed some "real" exercise and we decided to hit the zoo yesterday. I brought along my brace just in case I would need it. We left in the early afternoon, no reason to kill ourselves. The real reason was that we all woke up at 6 am to get ready for a family picture (with Andrew's stitches face) at 7:30am. We all were dressed and showed and we took the pictures. We had about 10 minutes to take pictures because Rachel could only stay that long. She was taking pictures as a service project for the young women all Saturday. After the quick pics, I came home in a bad, bad mood and went back to bed immediately without passing go. I ended up crashing for 4 hours and woke up a little after noon. Ouch. We all got ready and piled into the car and on the way down to the zoo, we stopped off at Kinkos so Michele could make some copies of the new and improved Relief Society directory. She ran in and order 90 copies. When we jumped back into the car and we were on our way to the zoo, she noticed that the back pages of the copies were uneven, light and dark, on her sample. She called a canceled the order and she decided to make the copies at another place were the copier actually worked. We were losing time so I sped to the zoo.

The zoo was packed. It was about 68-70 degrees and just perfect for zoo time. I couldn't believe how many people were there. It was crazy. Andrew was asleep in the car and wouldn't wake up. Michele and I ended up carrying him, on my bad knee, for the first hour. It was terrible. When Andrew finally warmed up and started to walk by himself, it was Panda time. We waited in line to see the new Panda and it was great because the mom was eating bamboo. She was ripping the bamboo up with her teeth. FYI: Bamboo is so strong that it would destroy a wood chipper. Pandas have incredibly strong jaws and teeth and they can chew it up. At least I thought it was cool info.

We walked all the way up to the new Polar bear exhibit that was redone. A little disappointing. It was basically an advertisement for global warming and making us feel bad for driving our car down to the zoo to see these awesome animals. I was a little put off. Politics shouldn't be at the zoo. To make matters worse, the bears were sleeping way off to the side. By the time I got to the bears, my knee was killing me. So we decided to take a little break with ice cream and cookies to make the pain go away. It didn't. We hiked back around and saw the big elephant exhibit and then walked to the car. By the time I got back to the car my knee was on fire. I can't believe I thought it'd help to walk around for 5 hours on a knee that just had ACL surgery. It hurt ALL night; even doped up on the pain pills. It was really rough. So I'm deciding to take a different approach to rehab. I'm going to do less endurance walking and more relaxing and stretching. I think ice cream, back rubs, foot massages, and chocolate chip cookies would do wonders for my knee. I go in to see Dr. Kim next Monday and we'll see what needs to be done after that as far as physical therapy goes.

Post-Op Day 26: Stitches

For once, it isn't be who's in the hospital; however, it breaks my heart to see Andrew's eye get trashed by the kitchen counter. I was in working on my computer when I heard a commotion. Then I heard Kate scream, "Dad!!" I knew it was bad due the sound of her voice. Something was wrong.


I ran (hobbled quickly) into the kitchen and Andrew has blood all over his face. Michele was calmly stopping the bleeding when I freaked out. Cool under pressure, especially when it comes to blood and pain, I am not. I put Andrew up on the counter and looked at his huge gash right on the eyebrow. I said, "Oh no... Andrew's beautiful face!!" I've always thought that Andrew had a model's face and I was terribly sad to see that he'll have a scar so prominent. Andrew was actually pretty calm but his dad was still shaken up and having trouble coping with the situation.

Michele and I took Andrew down to Scripps hospital in Encinitas. Of course the ER was packed and we had to wait a long time to get in. The staff gave Andrew a teddy bear that seemed to please Andrew immensely. He hugged that bear the whole time. Andrew was able to watch TV while the doctors prepared Andrew's cut for stitches. He was actually very happy.  I was glad I brought a book to read because I knew the wait would be long. The doctors put on a topical numbing cream and Andrew had no problem with the doctor's working around his eye. He was so calm. Andrew must get it from his dad. Michele was up on the bed holding his hand and adjusting the TV so that Andrew could relax. Again, I was so amazed at how well he did for a 3 year old. He would say "please" and "Thank you" to the nurses and doctors and they just loved him. The doctors put a blue sheet over his face and cut out an opening big enough to expose the wound. The doctor took the blue thread and started to sewn up his cut. The wound required 6 stitches. We got out of the ER after about 3 hours and drove home. Andrew actually fell asleep during the end of the procedure. I carried him out to the car. He was so sweet. He had a patch over his stitches and we ended up putting a patch on his bear to match Andrew. Andrew loved wearing his patch. He never cried after he got his stitches and is doing just fine. When I took him to school the next day, all four kids in his speech class ALL were banged up on the face. All but one had Band-Aids and the other kid had scabs on the right side of his face. The teachers were amazed to find all their kids totally worked over. It was quite the sight.

Post-Op Day 24: Two steps forward, One back

I've recovered from my infection. I'm finally able to go outside and experience life again. My knee is indeed healing. I saw Dr. Kim on Monday and he looked at my knee and was impressed how it was coming along. I was shocked because I thought I was behind schedule. He reiterated that he doesn't want any physical therapy until at least 5-6 weeks. The graft doesn't heal completely until the 6th week. So I'm stuck doing knee bends and keeping flexibility. Flexibility is a misleading term. I can straighten my knee with effort and I'm still only around 130 degrees range of motion.

This is two steps forward, one back process. It's fairly discouraging to whimper like baby all night because your knee locks up and is in pain just a day after you're best day ever. Just when I think I'm really turning the corner the knee throbs all day. I'm having a "throb" day today. Food tastes like ash, the sun has no warmth on my face, and I have no desire to do anything when I'm in pain.

We got Andrew a new game because we just can't play Lego Indiana Jones anymore. So, we got him Lego Star Wars. It turns out it a lot like the Lego Indiana so we're burnt out on Star Wars already. Andrew has taken the Star Wars exposure to a new level. He goes everywhere with his light saber and gun. When he plays Indiana Jones, he'll sport a huge sword that must be terribly uncomfortable.

We'll, I'm just in the hurry and wait mode. My next appointment is the last monday in April. At least I'm mobile and I can leave the house. That's progress I guess. It's tough because I saw Dave Halgren on Monday and he was telling me how good the surfing has been. Ouch. I'm dying to go in the water. Patience my precious.

Post-Op Day 20: Alien

Have you seen the movie Alien? It's been a while but from what I can remember, there's a scene where a person is lying on a hospital bed and there's a huge lump in the guy's chest. The lump starts to get bigger and bigger and move around a little. Just when the scary music hits the climax, this disgusting alien creature comes flying out of the guy's chest.

I believe there's an alien host in my knee. Previously the alien tried to get out when the incision ripped and stuff came flying out. It was pretty gross. In the meantime, the alien has shrunk in size due to the antibiotics, but nevertheless very present. If you can see right below the knee cap are two baby aliens. They aren't as visible but they hurt none the less. Word on the street is that the aliens in my leg are what's left of the scar tissue. Let's talk about scar tissue shall we.

Scar tissue is the body's natural reaction to trauma. When you're bleeding real bad, you get a scab. When you're bleeding on the inside, you get an internal scab. That scab when it hardens is called scar tissue. It's just a bunch of cells and blood that are covering the trauma. So why do I have an alien sticking out from my knee? The places where the instruments and scopes went into my leg have a lot of scar tissue. This could have been prevented. If you rub and break up the scar tissue as it forms, the body will wash it away. The problem is that I had ice on my leg 24 hours a day for 2 weeks. I didn't touch those incision areas at all. So all the blood and cells just formed base camps around the "holes". In time they built a huge fortress of tissue that is hard and dense. When I got an infection in my incisions, it only added to the scar tissue. The infection finally burst open the side incision on Tuesday. So, I could have prevented the build up of scar tissue by rubbing and breaking down the "scabs" as they formed. Now I've got aliens sleeping in my knee.

So what do I do? Well, to achieve great ROM, I need to get the front scar tissue rubbed away. From what I understand, I have to rub and breakdown the terribly hard and dense tissue from the outside in. It hurts to rub it but that's what has to happen. I'm mad that I didn't know that I needed to be breaking down the scar tissue all along. I blame the doctor's office for a lack of preparation. I also heard from the substitute surgeon filling in for Dr. Kim that physical therapy will help get rid of the scar tissue as well. He said I should be in physical therapy.

Good news. My infection is not in the knee. The infection is limited to the scar tissue and surface incisions. I've been put in isolation here at home to avoid any and all infection that might make it worse. I should be able to go back outside early this week. I'm still on the "Chemo" antibiotics and they are really tearing me down. I can't wait to stop taking them.

Post-Op Day 17: Master of the Masters

If you are going to be a hypochondriac and sit around all day, you might as well enjoy it with Freddie Couples and the boys. The 2010 Masters has started and I'm so excited. I watched ALL of the coverage both online and on ESPN. Freddie is coming off several wins on the champions tour and is on fire. He ripped it up. Tigger is back and that was the big story. He played really well. I was amazed. I thought he'd come out and lay a huge egg. It actually makes me mad that Tigger can come out after not playing for 6 months and post a 4 under first round. That's just wrong. I'm also pulling for Phil. I hope it's Phil and Freddie battling on Sunday.


This morning I woke up with a stiff knee and the infection on the side incision was pretty big, red and under a lot of pressure. I quickly tried to straighten my knee out and then I did a few knee bends to get the knee loose. On the second knee bend, my incision burst on the top side and the muck and fluid came out like water from a fire hose. It was gross yet fantastic because it relieved a ton of pressure. It felt so good to have it drain.


I have an appointment tomorrow with Dr. Tooma who is filling in for Dr. Kim. It took us a few hours to get the appt. The office "chick" who answers the phones and schedules the appointments is a disaster. She has ZERO people skills. She fights with you on the phone when you tell her that the doctor asked to see me on Friday. She argues to the point of hanging up. A little later she calls back telling us that it's mandatory that I see a different doctor on Friday. Duh!!! She's a real piece of ^#@$ (by the way ^#@$ means "work"). I'm seeing Dr. Kim on Monday but apparently they need to keep a tight eye on this infection. I'm mad because I'll miss the morning portion of the Masters. Argh!

Post-Op Day 16: I'm in the lucky .4%

To the tune of Aerosmith, "I'm back... I'm in the hospital again!"

 I'm so lucky. I'm one of the .4% of ACL surgery patients who get an infected knee. Yep, you heard me sailor. My bleeping blapping knee has what is deemed a deep infection. Here's how it happened.

Roughly Sunday - Monday, I'm finding my knee feels good although there is almost a growth like bump under my knee and to the side, right where my incisions are located. I thought it was scar tissue building up. Last night, my knee was very hot, very tender, red and then some ooze crap came out of the side incision while I was massaging my knee. The knee drained out a bunch of liquid and then blood. It felt good to release the pressure. I thought I was releasing fluid from the scar tissue. I was a little concerned because I was feeling rather poor like I was sick so I did a little looking around on the web for what this might be. I ran across information describing the most serious complication for ACL surgeries - infections. When I first read the symptoms I couldn't believe that the description was EXACTLY what I had going. Then I became nervous as I read on and then went into almost a full anxiety panic attack.

Worst case with a deep infection is death. Yep... death. That got my attention rather quickly. Death isn't what I signed up for when I chose surgery. Then I read a little more. If the infection doesn't kill you, the doctor may be required to remove the $@#& ACL graft, wait 3 months and then DO THE OPERATION AGAIN!!! Argh!! I almost passed out just thinking about this option.

Usually what happens is that the infected shlep is doped up on Chemo-like antibiotics and then the knee is drained and cleaned out like a dirty water bottle. I couldn't believe what I was reading. I took a dose of Big V and went to bed. It knocked me out.

I woke up this morning and called my doctor's office. Dr. Kim is on vacation so I was referred to Dr. Tooma. With the help of Michele and about 5 phone calls we got an appointment at 3:30. About 10 minutes later, the office calls back and alarmingly tells me to go to the emergency room immediately. If my knee is infected there's no time to waste. I jump in the car and go to the ER at Rancho Springs. I wait the usual 2 hours along with the typical crowd that frequent the DMV or bus stop. I finally get in and they tell me I need x-rays and that I need to get a powerful antibiotic via IV started asap.

I hate needles. I'm using the word hate people. I hate needles, hospitals and anything with blood. Well today was pure Hell on my phobias. They tried to put in an IV about 4 times and couldn't find a vein to hold it. Blood was going all over. I was luckily laying down on the verge of passing out as I'd look up and see blood and the nurse telling me she was unsuccessful again and would have to find a new place to stick me. Finally she found a good vein on my left arm that held up. I got x-rays to examine the new knee graft and then the IV started. The nurse tells me this is like Chemo for infections. The drug cocktail is very powerful and must be administered over 3 hours. Luckily I remembered to bring a book. I polished off a few hundred pages during the ordeal. However, about an hour into the IV drip, my vision went blurry and I within seconds I couldn't read my book. I got up and flagged down the nurse and she hit the emergency stop button. She got a little excited and started to ask what I'm allergic to that might have been overlooked. It was then that my stomach was really growling and I mentioned that I haven't eaten anything in about 24 hours. She sighed a huge relief and said that I need to eat something or this IV was going to be a bad dance partner for the next 2 hours. She was able to find me a rather nice sandwich and goodies that I woofed down like a starving inmate in solitary confinement. I finished my book and waited for the IV to finish. Dr. Tooma wasn't able to come down to see me so I'll be seeing him on Friday. Plus, there's nothing he can do until the antibiotic starts to work.

I was discharged with some prescriptions that will definitely put hair on my chest or strip all hair off my body like a seal. This stuff is wicked. I've been confined to house arrest for 7 days. I can't leave the house, have visitors or do anything but lay down with my leg elevated. Argh!! So basically they want me to slowly slip into madness - stir crazy.

I have a new phobia - getting old. While I was in the ER for 6 hours, I saw the DMV people in tremendous pain being hauled in and out of the main treatment area like cattle. One such lucky guest was put in my 4 x 6 cube with me, separated by a thin white sheet, and in some bad shape. He's 84 and had a heart attack from what I understood. He was in the ER last week for something because everyone knew him by name. Earlier I had a baby with some ridiculously horrible breathing issues. I felt just terrible for the parents until the doctor rallied on them for smoking in the car and in the house because it was a huge reason for their babies health issues. Let's see, there was a 400 lbs lady who couldn't breathe just one cube over and a car wreck victim across the way. It was enough to make me pass out for 10 life times. I don't know how these doctors and nurses do it.

Remind me to never get old or sick. This has given me new fervor to make sure I go surfing when I'm old and about to give up the ghost. I don't want to linger. I want to get pounded by a wave and then slip away. I'll take going in my sleep any day. The idea of going through so much pain is not my idea of living. Oh great, the Arizona Diamondbacks just hit another homerun on the Padres. Come on Padres! You just can't give up the long ball like that. The only consolation is that the Dodgers lost to the Pirates. Baseball is back baby!!! Maybe I can live in pain if I have a good sport subscription. Speaking of sports, I'm glad I'm under house arrest during the Masters. Go Phil!!!!

Post-Op Day 15: Duke gives me love

In case you are a total sports idiot, Duke finally won a national champion last night! It's been a while for Duke fans. I was literally on the edge of my CPM and in spirit I was jumping up and down. Like me dad said, that game was almost too close for my taste. I'm just so glad they won.

I almost had a major accident as I paused the game to go to the little boys room during the last time out with only a few seconds left. I decided that I was too nervous to hold it because I'd been sucking down vitamin water all night. I tried to wait but I found that I could just wait around to watch Zoubek shoot those foul shots. While I was heading off to the bathroom, I was watching the TV screen and I tripped over my ice machine and landed very weird. To my amazement I actually was able to do the "quick step" with my bad leg and regain balance without injury. I'm just glad I didn't fall back and re-tear the knee again doing something dumb. I just can't imagine the embarrassment of saying, "Yea, I re-tore my ACL in the 2 week of rehab because I tripped over my ice machine while watching the national championship game... while it was paused."

For Duke fans, I have to include these photos. What a year. I knew when I saw Duke play at the first of the year that this year was going to be the year to go all the way. I didn't even recognize Zoubek at the start of the season. He had gained 50 lbs of pure muscle and was a beast down in the middle. He was the key to victory. The final four, especially, the refs called the game like it was a cage match, gorilla basketball. You had to take someone's head off to get a foul. Zoubek and also Nolan Smith were so tough. Smith took some serious punishment and kept on going. Singler was simply on fire. 2010 National Champions - Duke Blue Devils!!!!! 

Post-Op Day 14: Butler's ACL rupture

I read that West Virginia's Butler tore his ACL and sprained his MCL in Saturday's game vs Duke. I watched the game and when I saw Butler fall down and grab his knee and show so much agony and pain on his face, I said that he ripped his ACL. There was little doubt in my mind that when he couldn't walk on the leg and he was grabbing at only his knee, he was cooked. The incident made me a little sick to my stomach and I had to look away once I realized what happened. It's still too soon to be watching someone else rip their ACL. I know how much pain he's in RIGHT now. He's got a long rehab process as well. What's tough about his injury as with mine, is that I also sprained my MCL. That little sucker has caused a lot of pain.

I went all night without a pain pill. To be honest, I got up around 4 am and groggily fumbled around for the pain pills but apparently I couldn't find them. I had a terrible dream that kept waking me up that added to the restless night. The knee still has range, but it gets swollen very quickly. I'm going to try to do my exercises without pain pills and ice. I'm trying to see if I can get the ROM without the numbing effect of the ice machine. I'll report later.

Let's get back to what's important. Duke as the national champion. I picked Duke to go all the way. I've picked them to go all the way almost every year but this year I was actually correct. I'm pretty excited to say the least. People love to hate Duke but that's also why I like them. I was introduced to Duke basketball through my dad, who went to school at Duke in the sixties and played football. Our family has always been huge fans. To add to the sweetness of this years Duke success is the horrible and disappointing season that the North Carolina Tar Heels experienced. It was almost good enough to have UNC end up almost last in the conference and demoted to the NIT. To have Duke going for the national championship is just beautiful. My friend Kevin Hanson in Arizona is a huge UNC fan and I've had the chance to gloat numerous times this season. I received a classic text message from him shortly after Saturday's game. It had only two words - Go Butler! I'll be on the phone with him several times this evening to rub it in as Duke trashes Butler's dreams. Go DUKE!!!!!

Post-Op Day 13: Happy Easter

The Easter bunny came to our house with 15,000 of his closest relatives. Our dining room table was overrun with bunnies. There's no doubt bunnies multiple at an alarming rate especially with an American Express card. Between Valentines and Easter, there's no shortage of candy. Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays as a kid. My fondest memories are of all the creative and usual places my dad would hide eggs. He used his masters in electrical engineering to calculate the best and most suitable places to hide eggs in plain sight. One of his favorite places to hid eggs was in toys especially cars. I remember when we were in Loveland, CO when he disguised an egg as a driver of a plastic toy car. It was good stuff. Occasionally he'd lose track of an egg; however, unfortunately the egg never lost track of us. It would be discovered when the stink was so bad we couldn't stand it. This smell of rotten eggs was a contributing factor to my phobia of eating eggs during childhood. I just couldn't understand why people would eat food that smelt like pooh, feces, excrement, dung, crap-po-la. Do anyone fancy a large helping of turd?

We are going to Michele's sister's home for Easter. The kids are looking forward to the easter egg hunt. We watched the morning session of conference - always good stuff.

Blah, blah, blah. I'm bored so enough talking about the side show and let's get back to the main event - me. It's interesting how people love to talk about themselves and I've discovered that it's a horrendous addiction and that I love it. I expatiate about every ridiculous mind-numbing detail to anyone and everyone. "Hi, I'm Chad and I've had ACL surgery. Let me tell you my life story. Are you ready?" People realize that I'm a psycho and quickly shun me like a leper. What's alarming is that it doesn't seem to discourage me. I just start up with the nearest person who can fog a mirror. This self-centered disease is exacerbated when you're in pain. Don't you realize I'm in pain? Can you appreciate how bad I must feel? It's all about me. It's all about my "injury". There's no topic of interest that is nearly as exciting as talking about every stupid detail of how I'm dealing with the emotional and physical stress of this ACL surgery. Here's the reality check - NO ONE cares. People will ask about how you're doing but if you answer with anything except for "Doing great", people instantly feign illness just to get away from you. People don't like to hear about people with problems. They like to talk about other people in pain or misery but hate talking to the actual people in pain. I'm predicting that I might not physically survive the rehab because someone is going to kill me for talking about myself too much. It's a joke. I try to make small talk but find my mind wandering to what I can say next about myself. This has to stop.

As a blog entry to fulfill my goal of documenting my surgery and not to talk about myself, I'll proceed to talk about the state of the knee, for scientific purposes. Just kidding, I've been waiting all day to talk about me. Let's get to it.

FYI: I slept like I was wired on caffeine after a long road trip. It was terrible. The caffeine was actually a new pain in my knee I had all night and to make it 100% miserable, I couldn't find my pain medication. To be specific, the pain has moved to just to the right of my knee cap and also just below and to the left of the knee cap. It's probably scar tissue that is healing. Granted I have molasses hardening in my knee, it seems to get more stiff each day though I'm really working the range of motion. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to be doing something else or taking anti-inflammatory meds or doing more exercise, less exercise, etc. I'm just not sure why my knee is hurting in specific places. What makes matters worse is that I don't know if this is natural or usual. Is this the pain left over as the swelling goes down? Is this a new pain induced by my exercises? I need answers people. I'm going in for my next post-op appointment with Dr. Kim next Monday. He's been on a working vacation so I can't do anything until I see him. I'm beginning to question if I'll be able to recover in 3-4 months even with heavy rehab. I'm thinking that time is the only healer.

Post-Op Day 12: Molasses and Rehab

Molasses - thick brown uncrystallized juice from raw sugar during the refining progress.

Obviously my legs are sweet and widely attractive. There's hard hitting scientific evidence proving my legs are sugary sweet. As my knee recovers or in other words as the knee is being refined and toned, molasses has obviously formed within the joints causing slow movement and restricting motion. There's no other way to explain it. If I were to dig into my knee I wouldn't find blood, but sweet molasses.

Sure I can get the knee moving and my ROM is over 110 degrees, but my knee quickly hardens like curing cement. It takes plenty of ice, silent swearing and pain to get the knee going again. Just when I think I'm really making progress, it seems as my knee takes a turn for the worse. My good knee just works so well. It's incredible how easily it moves and swings with a HUGE range of motion. It's strong, taut and balanced. My recovering knee is still quite painful, slow, ugly yet full of sweet nectar.

Rehab. I'm beginning to understand how come rehab is so long. I not only need to get the ROM back but to get rid of the pain and restore the muscles and coordination is going to take some work. When you exercise your muscles, you end up limiting the ROM. It's a tug-o-war getting the knee back in shape.

Tonight I went to my stake center for the priesthood session. Yes I was able to sit for the session although when I got up to leave my knee was almost locked. It took some time to get the blood flowing and straighten out the knee. I thought President Uchtdorf was talking to me about patience. He was talking about spiritual patience but I applied it to my rehab. Hopefully I'll have the necessary patience to not just wait out the recovery time but to actively enjoy the experience and learn something. I can also take the time to think about what I really want to do. Obviously I won't be spending time doing my fun activities like surfing and golf. Speaking of golf, I'm itching to play but obviously it's not an option. Argh!!! 

Post-Op Day 11: Soreness

Today has been fairly pain free unless I go off my meds for a while. I've been trying to ween myself off the pain pills for a while but it's been difficult due to my low pain tolerance. Today I actually spent all day without any pain medication until bedtime. I tried to sleep but the knee was very sore.

What's interesting is that pain really isn't the issue now. It's soreness. The knee is just plain sore. It's difficult to move the knee and either direction I bend the knee it is done slow and deliberate. The swelling has really gone down and I can walk fairly well with a noticeable limp of course.

No muscles. My leg muscles are deteriorating further. My hamstring is a joke. I laid down on my stomach and tried to do a few leg curls. It's a weird feeling to feel you leg move a little bit and then totally stop, completely give out and I just can't curl it anymore with any amount of effort. This was a surprise to me. I thought if I really gave it my all I could get to a point where the pain would be too much and I'd have to stop. I didn't even get to the "horrible" pain part. I just can't contract the hamstring enough to curl the leg.

When extending the leg or contracting it passively or manually, the knee is tight. I really thought it would "loosen" up at this point. It is looser up to a point but still very tight. I can't straighten the leg without leverage and manual effort. I can't bend the knee hardly at all except when using passive resistance like the CPM or I do leg bends.... very carefully.

Post-Op Day 10: CLB - Chicken Leg Brigade

I'm very proud that I'm at 110 degrees ROM. This is something that was unthinkable last week. I can't just jump on the CPM and do 110 degrees cold turkey. I takes me a few minutes to get the knee going. But I've done all I can with the CPM. I'm still cracking on this beast all day today to get the knee good and loose.

Yesterday afternoon was the official start of spring break for our schools. I decided that since I'm down for the count and everyone else is going on vacations and doing other entertaining activities, that we'd do a movie marathon of Star Wars - shown above pictured with the CPM. I knew that Andrew would be so excited. We watched the first show and Andrew watched the whole movie with a death grip on his "light saber" he got from Disneyland a while ago. After the movie was over, Andrew jumped up and displayed his Jedi knight moves. In his excitement, he used his sweet movies and light sabered Snowball the dog. It was hilarious.

I was just outside for about 30 minutes away from my beloved ice machine eating a sandwich and getting some sun. Idle time is never truly idle. During the sun bath, I was working my knee doing extensions and sadly noticed the state of my left leg. The only way to describe my left leg is that of a meth addict (bruises) that hasn't had any physical activity in 15 years. The skinniness of the leg is alarming. I didn't realize how fast the muscle tissue simply dissolves.

My mind was transported back to a simpler but not necessarily happier time when I was a kid. I knew I was skinny, but I thought that because I was so good at sports it would make up for it with the ladies. Couple my athletic abilities with a nice deep brown tan that I picked up every year while playing a million hours of tennis and I was a ladies man, at least on paper. 

One day I was at my best friend's (even still today) house and I met his girlfriend who was later labeled the "Psycho". We'll call her Kristi for legal purposes. Kristi was really cute. I was wearing my favorite baby blue "OP" (Ocean Pacific) shorts and my latest tennis tournament shirt that I loved to wear to make sure people knew I was a player - ala Bjorn Borg. The first thing that Kristi said to me, and I mean the first utterance was, "Hey peanut-butter stick legs!" I was blown away by such boldness and lack of common courtesy but was equally shocked at the outright audacity to criticize my perfectly sculpted legs. What made matters worse is that she was cute and that she called my peanut-butter stick legs all day. She never once used my real name. 

This Kristi, however crass and brutal, opened my eyes that day. Perchance my legs weren't the ideal manly legs I always thought they were. After further research it was confirmed that people, all people, thought my legs were pretty much abnormally skinny. Ouch... Seeing my skinny left leg brought back memories of looking down and saying to myself, "Good heavens... you've got sticks for legs." 

In more recent memory, the mid 90s, I was a co-founder of a certain secret society aptly named the CLB - Chicken Leg Brigade. The CLB was founded upon one obvious and specific theme which was to celebrate and promote skinny legs. The CLB had the original 4 founding members, Don Debate, Ted Davis, Jonathan Cook and myself. The organization was organized while we all were playing golf one day and Don Debate observed that all four of us had exceptionally skinny legs, almost chicken like. After a few failed attempts to properly label our group, Don came up with CLB. Our Lindon, Utah home proudly has CLB 98' written into the cement on our driveway.

So all ye of skinny thighs, calfs and legs unite under the shelter of CLB. Come and bask in our warmth. You shall find comfort, guidance and support for your chicken legs. I'll always be a proud card-carrying member of the CLB. Currently now with my ACL surgery, I'm the mascot, the eye candy, for the CLB movement. Viva CLB!!!!

Post-Op Day 9: Promised Land

110 degrees. I've finally reached 110 degrees of ROM (range of motion). That's the goal. Of course this is a passive feat, meaning that the CPM is able to bend my knee but I cannot do it on my own. My muscles are wimpy and have lost much mass. What's also nice is that I can straighten my leg out completely, though it hurts a lot.

What's surprising at this stage in the game is just how stiff the knee is. Almost any knee movement feels like my knee is surrounded in pea gravel or very thick honey. There is no swinging movement like my good knee exhibits. I've always had skinny legs, some would say "girl" legs, but after this surgery my left leg would be on the same scale as a runway model. That's not good for a guy by the way.

I've been sitting around all day working my leg. Nothing too exciting except Andrew and I finished the Indiana Jones game after a few hours of gaming. The problem is that Andrew wants to go through it again. He literally has spurned all of his amassed vocabulary and decided to keep only those morsels that really give meaning to his life: Indiana Jones, candy, gum, "That's cool". He's a focused gaming beast. I can't wait to see him turn this type of focus into something useful. He'll be incredible.

Post-Op Day 8: Plateau

Interesting day indeed. Fairly uneventful but completely frustrating. I thought I could keep up my furious rehab progress and see daily improvements. I just couldn't get my knee to bend beyond 95 degrees no matter how much I iced it.

Yesterday... I might have done some things that have contributed to my poor performance. Yesterday morning about 7:30am I heard a strange noise, like that of running water, so I thought was someone taking a shower. After a couple of minutes it suddenly hit me that my sprinkler valve on the side of the house was spraying water all over. I've had SO much trouble with my sprinkling system. I had just put on a new cap on the valve filter on Friday and that cap busted open. Argh! In my anger, I decided that I needed to fix the sprinklers that day or risk having all my plants dying. My knee felt okay to be on my feet for an hour, no big deal.

It was a big deal. It took my 2 hours because I had to fix 3 valves. My knee was KILLING me all night and into the morning. Even big V was struggling to keep the pesky pain away. So, all day my knee has been a little swollen and thus no results. I'm just lucky I haven't digressed.

To make matters worse, I went to the library around 4:30 pm, with Andrew (that adds about 3X the effort) to get 2 books I'd reserved. By the way, our library is so great. I can reserve books across all the libraries in San Diego. They have this self-checkout system that is so slick. You swipe your library card and set the books near this book reading sensor and the system instantly checks out the books and prints your receipt. It takes about 15 seconds. Good to see our tax dollars at work finally. Back to the story. So I found my reserved books and Andrew was screaming for a book for him. I'm not stupid. I'm not new to working with 3 year olds. If I had given in to "finding" Andrew a book, I would have burnt at least 2 hours looking at every book in the library until some inspiration from heaven would barrel down and enlighten Andrew to finally choose a book. But sometimes inspiration doesn't come. Then I must resort to making a decision for him and carry him kicking and screaming to the car. He's 3. What can you do? Reason with him?

On the way, I stopped by Ralphs for some liquid refreshment, aka Gatorade and Vitamin water. Little did I know that Michele had already stocked up some while running errands that morning. My bad. My knee was hurting but I knew I needed to refuel so I dared to run the gauntlet of the supermarket with Andrew. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Ralphs had a nice sale on their drinks. I got PowerAid bottles for 40 cents and Gatorade for 80 cents. Like my sister, I love a good deal. I got some extras and tried to get to the check stand before Andrew latched onto anything that he couldn't live without. I was literally standing in a freshly opened lane (I love it when the checker selects you, the chosen one, out of all the people in line to come over to a new open lane. I am special.) taking out my first Gatorade when Andrew bolted from sight. I knew it was a bad situation due to the speed and ferocity of the little man's sprint. I quickly unloaded a 1/4 of the items and then looked over the magazine hedge to spy on Andrew like a solider looking down at enemy activity from behind a stone wall. Oh NO!!! Andrew had the Hotwheels cars. Mayday, mayday, code blue.... we have an immediate and substantial situation on checkout 4. The next 15 minutes was like a scene from "Black Hawk Down". Mayhem, screaming, crying and pleading with plenty of cat and mouse. I decided to play the very slow disabled cat with my HUGE knee brace. Andrew just wouldn't give up the car. I'd take it away and then he run and find another. Pretty ugly. Finally he came back with a virtually white flag of peace... ironically clad in orange... yes it was a bag of Cheese Puffs. We made a compromise that if Andrew would give up the car, he'd get Cheese Puffs later. Obviously Andrew's negotiation skills are far superior to mine. He'll make a fine future Secretary of State.

I'm back home, swollen knee and all watching Andrew feast on Cheese Puffs and having a fine time playing... you guessed it - Indiana Jones. We only played 2 hours today, our new low. Looks like Andrew maybe sick of the game. I can only hope.

Post-Op Day 7: Almost a week

I went to Dr. Kim's office for a follow-up. Beforehand, I gathered up my crutches and knee brace and prepared myself to get the staples out. I was very excited to get them out because they kept snagging on everything driving me nuts. Plus my swelling had gone down A LOT and the staples were just hanging there flopping around. I gathered the car keys and my wallet and we were ready to go... Oh wait, no wallet. I haven't seen or used my wallet since Thursday when I came home from the first follow up in a stupor of pain meds. I literally have NO idea where it is. Drugs are a killer on the memory by the way. Purple Haze baby. We've looked around in the usual and unusual places for quite some time and just can't find it. The wallet is here somewhere. I even looked to see if the cards had been used by someone who might have picked it up. Nothing but a fuzzy purple haze.

Needless to say we went to the doctor's office sans ID. Michele and Andrew drove with me to make sure I didn't do anything dumb while operating a car. The nurse was great and painlessly removed all the staples. With a sense of mastery, I turned in my crutches like a toddler handing his dad his training wheels. "Look how far I've progressed. I shan't be needing these again. Take them away because obviously I'm way too superior to be seen with such." I showed off how much I could do with my new knee (yes I stood on one leg) and the nurse did the best she could to act like she cared by giving me ample praise for such mediocre. For me, the feat was unbelievable. Last week I couldn't fathom ever walking again and now I'm on one leg people. One leg. In my fantasy mind I just sort of expected a reaction like, "Let's get channel 10 news in here. I've never seen a patient do what you've done in only a week. Incredible. This isn't science. It's a miracle." In reality she's seen a thousand patients do the same thing. Yawn.

I can walk pretty well with a very noticeable limp. Though I casted off my crutches this morning for good, it seems I have a new crutch. Ice, Ice baby. When I ween myself off the ice machine for more than an hour, my knee really starts to hurt and the range of motion goes way down. The pain goes up and the patience goes to zero and then irritability overtakes me like I'm the Incredible Hulk turning huge and green. "Why won't this car door close?" Then I savagely beat the car door shut 10 times to just to show the door who's boss.

The nurse didn't really offer me any insight on the pains around my knee, mainly where the hamstring attaches to the tibia. She just said that it's normal to have pain and that I should continue to use my CPM to extend my range of motion for the next 2 weeks. So basically she didn't know and she read me the Sunday school answer.

Two weeks. Who wants to take bets that I self-check into a mental institution by this Thursday? Wait, Thursday is a sure lock so how about Wednesday? This idleness is the worst thing I've ever experienced. I hate it. I asked the nurse how to fast track the rehab. She smiled not in a totally condescending way but rather letting me know she was way ahead of me. There's no way to speed up the healing. For the first 6 weeks there's absolutely nothing you can do to get the knee better. Too much exercise, even simple easy exercise is bad. The internal wounds need to heal. The bone has to graft itself over the screws so that the new ACL will hold. The hamstring has to repair itself. Too much exercise and such will pull the screws out. Not good. Once that 6 week mark is hit, you have to get the muscles and the rest of the functions to work properly. The muscles, hamstrings and quads are just simply exercised with resistance and weights. The other portions have to do with balance, weight transfer and flexibility.

0-6 weeks: Increase flexibility and range of motion to about 140 degrees or to basically be able to rest the ankle against the thigh. Light exercises like leg lifts and extensions just to get minimal muscles and usage. That's it. It's a waiting game.

6 weeks - 4 months - Daily work outs of the muscles and knee functions. Gradual at first scaling to full normal strength. By 3 months, you should be physically healed sans the muscling. You should be careful not to go postal on the knee and twist it all over the place until the muscles are back. More than half of what holds the knee together are those muscles. Tendons can only do so much.

I've been reading about athletes who get back into competitive play in 3 months. I'm just an athlete trying to have fun so I should be able to get back into action in 3 months assuming all else goes to plan. I'm not going to push too hard until the 6 weeks is up, but then I'm going to go full bore. I want to surf and golf again very soon. Patience is a virtue that I'd wish would hurry the crap up because I need a heavy dose RIGHT NOW!