Day 9

John the Therapist came late this afternoon and spent about 40 minutes putting me through my a workout. He said I'm ahead of pace and that he'd be satisfied with the amount of my knee flex three to four weeks out from surgery as opposed to nine days.

The exercises are not very complicated, are low impact, and primarily involve strengthening the muscles around the knee. While I can't lift my left leg from a reclined position yet, it feels as if it's functioning again and not just a dead cod attached to my hip.

John wants me to do at least a couple of the exercises every hour, a regimen I've followed conscientiously so far. I also get out of my recliner every hour or so and do some laps around the house to build up endurance.

Some of the swelling has subsided, giving the knee a slight bit of definition. Flexibility is supposed to increase further once the swelling has gone down and the staples have been removed. The latter is supposed to happen next week. (Alot of the pain from the flexing exercises comes from the suture site, where the skin has been pinched together.)

I used shuffle steps when I came home from the hospital on Friday, but now can walk with a more normal, albeit slow, stride. John thinks I might be able to switch from walker to a cane in a week or two, which will make me more mobile and willing to go out in public. I am admittedly vain.

I asked John how long it might take for the knee to feel "normal" enough that I can go after the ball aggressively with the driver. (I might not be the straightest driver of the golf ball on the planet, but I can hit it a long way.) He thought it could be as late as September before I'll have reached that point. He suggested that I start slowly, which is what I've intended to do.

My plan is to follow the Tiger recovery model and progress from putting to chipping to half wedges to full wedges to short irons to mid-irons/hybrids and finally the driver. I'm hoping this starts in May, which would put me on schedule to begin hitting drivers by June 1. If I can start this program sooner, great. But I'll be satisfied with a rollout on May 1.