hallelujah!

for the first time in two years, i can squat and go up and down stairs without a searing, burning, sharp pain in the front of my knee! for the first time in two years, i don't have to grab on to the hand rail when going up and down stairs. it's such a feeling to not feel anything when doing these things. granted, i can't run up and down the stairs quite yet like every other normal person, but i'll eventually get there. i don't know if anyone else can truly appreciate how i feel about this without living and dealing with this day-in and day-out for so long. praise God!!

i'm not out of the woods yet, i don't have full flexion and am stuck at the same degree i've been stuck at for the past two years, the front of my knee is extremely tender to touch, i still have the same radiating pain in my knee when i fully extend and tighten my quad muscles (though i do have full extension) and i have a big lump where one of my scars is that is as bothersome post-surgery as it was before this surgery. i'm not sure how much of this is stuff i'm just going to have to deal with for the rest of my life due to the fact i've had four surgeries and scar tissue stuck in me for so long (i'm already telling myself that i'm going to have to deal with knee arthritis when i get older)... but that searing pain was the biggest thorn out of all of them, and it's gone! hooray!