Knee Reconstruction Got Me Back to Biking: Christopher’s Story
One evening in early February, my wife and I were headed to our seats in Welsh-Ryan Arena at Northwestern University to watch a basketball game. As I was heading to the seat, I misstepped, stumbled, and somehow twisted my leg. I felt a sharp pain in my left knee. Having hurt that knee back in 2003, I had a pretty good idea what had happened. I had torn my quad tendon. This was confirmed both by the resident at the Evanston Hospital emergency room and by Dr. Chehab when I went to his office the next day. It was decided that I needed surgery, which Dr. Chehab performed on February 14.
There is a long recovery from this type of surgery. For the first month, I was in a full leg brace and not allowed to move my leg without assistance, and was on crutches. Fortunately, when I was in recovery, two physical therapists stopped by and showed me the right way to maneuver on crutches so as not to put weight on the repaired knee. There were a few visits to Dr. Chehab during this time, and he was very positive about the progress I was making.
Finally, one month after the surgery, I was allowed to begin therapy. My therapist was Caralyn Debash at IBJI in Wilmette. I cannot begin to say enough good things about her. She is very professional, and managed my progress in therapy on a continuous basis. She pushed me pretty hard, but at the right level. I truly think I would not have recovered as quickly as I have without her expert guidance. She really helped. One example-in late March, my family was scheduled to go to Breckenridge for a ski trip. I went, although obviously I didn’t ski. I was worried about the gap in therapy. Caralyn was able to arrange sessions with a therapist in Breckenridge, so I was able to continue my progress. In early April the brace came off, and therapy continued.
Last week I met with Caralyn and Dr. Chehab, and they agreed that my therapy at IBJI could end. I will continue the exercises at home. To sum up my experience-I sustained a very serious injury to my leg. Thanks to the expertise and assistance of Caralyn and Dr. Chehab, I am basically back to normal, walking and biking. I cannot thank them enough!
