Exactly one week aftet I was being operated on, I had my first physical therapy appointment with Scott McGaw of Access Physical Therapy. I was able to walk from my house to the office (it's about a tenth of a mile). He started by removing my brace and taking some measurements of my range of motion and swelling. My brace was locked at movement 60* below horizontal, after he removed it I was able to bend it to 85* before it got too painful.
The most interesting thing about recovery is the mental aspect of knowing you have an injury. I still don't feel comfortable pushing past pain, even though both doctors told me that bending would not hurt anything fixed in the surgery. I've just had to convince myself that I'll be fine, even if it hurts a little.
We did a few leg ROM exercises. He did a lot of bending and pushing, and there was quite a bit of pain and soreness. After all the exercises I had gaind a full 9* of bend in my knee, and he changed my brace from locking at 60* to 90*. He gave me some activities to do at home, and we scheduled another appointment for Thursday at 12:15.
Here is a PDF of Cooley's guidelines and a lot of the exercises I'm doing http://rcmclinic.com/protocols/knee/anterior_cruciate_ligament_rehabilitation.pdf
My knee was incredibly sore afterward, and the Ice felt great.
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