Nina Dobrev is giving fans an update on her journey to recovery after “snapping” her knee in a dirt biking accident in May.
In a series of slides posted via her Instagram Story on Monday, June 16, the Vampire Diaries alum, 35, showed followers what her day-to-day life has looked like since the accident.
“In case you have been wondering what I’ve been up to,” she began across three separate Stories, all of which featured her lying on the couch with a leg brace on.
“Eat. Sleep. CPM machine. Physical therapy. Repeat,” she continued, adding in smaller text at the bottom of her post, “If you’ve had this injury you know what a CPM is…the rest of you won’t.”
A CPM machine is a “motorized device that passively moves a joint through a pre-set range of motion” and “may be used after surgery to reduce joint stiffness and improve range of motion,” according to Healthline.
Dobrev’s update comes less than a week after she made her first public appearance in nearly two months. The actress detailed the injuries she sustained after the incident, as well as her recovery from surgery, during a June 12 appearance on The Talk.
“I had knee surgery,” Dobrev said. “I got a giant brace. I can’t really walk on my own yet. I had a fractured knee as well as ACL repair and meniscus.”
“I don’t recommend it, guys. It’s OK, I learned a lesson: don’t ever get on a dirt bike,” she continued, noting it was her first time on one.
Going into further detail, the Reunion actress said she was “in a wheelie, lost control, whisky throttled, bike flew, luckily it didn’t fall on me, which is what the doctor said would have been a lot worse. But when I landed, I landed on one leg, straight, and my knee just, like, snapped.”
Though Dobrev has a long road ahead of her, she’s getting through her recovery with the help of longtime boyfriend and three-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White and their dogs.
“Cuddle puddle is my life these days,” she added. “It’s just the puppies, and at home watching movies, physical therapy, eat, sleep or pee is kind of the schedule.”
Prior to Dobrev’s accident, White, 37, exclusively told Us Weekly about the duo making their way through his post-retirement bucket list. The snowboarder stepped down from competing professionally after the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
“It’s been really fun having time together. Normally, I’m off competing and she’s shooting a project or something … but now we’ve got some time together,” he said, noting that the couple – who have been dating since 2020 — have been mostly traveling “for fun” instead of for work.
He added, “We went to Antarctica, Dubai, visited her mom in France, went to Monaco, went to Indonesia. We’ve kind of been all over.”
