ACL physical therapy

Captain's Log, Stardate 12.09.2005

Here's an update on my knee.

I started physical therapy on Thursday, December 1st. The knee was pretty shaky but it seemed to be healing nicely. Better than my first surgery, anyway.

The PT did some stretches, took some information. I was up to 95 degrees on my CPM machine.

Pain of the day: The PT massaged my IT band. Know what that is? It's this muscle down the outside of your leg, but it's not the muscle itself, it's where it turns into a tendon near your knee. This IT band gets tight and the only way to stretch it is to massage it. Hard. Painfully.

My second visit was on Monday, December 5th. I had been massaging my IT band like a fiend because NO WAY was I going through that kind of pain again.

Pain of the day: The PT cranked my leg further in my flexion than I'd ever taken it. Ripping, tearing pain over the top of my kneecap. All that lovely scar tissue just shredding.

So I went home and worked harder on my flexion to get it almost the same as the other knee. It hurt, but not as much as when somebody else shoves your knee bent despite an extra inch of swelling and two weeks of built up scar tissue.

My third visit was Wednesday, December 7th. I thought I was ready.

Yeah, right.

Pain of the day: The PT worked on my extension this time. Now, I've gotten it to 0 degrees, but my other knee hyper-extends. So the PT lay me on my back and propped my ankle against her shoulder and pushed down on my knee to cause hyper-extension. WHOA MOMMA! She made me count to 10 to make sure I was breathing.

I spent all day Thursday icing my knee and hobbling around the house.

My fourth visit was supposed to be Friday, December 9th.

Pain of the day: Food poisoning starting the evening of Thursday, December 8th. Ergo, no additional torture by PT on Friday, December 9th. However, I did self-inflict some pain with an extra long session this morning doing my PT-assigned exercises.

My stomach's fine now, mostly. Only occasional visits to the commode with steadily increasing stretches of time in between.

(All joking aside, my PT is really a very nice girl.)

Writing: Got some revising done yesterday and this morning. Nearing the finish line. Did I really have such dry, emotionless sections in this supposedly suspenseful manuscript? Sheesh!

Comments

Pammer said…

Awwwww. You poor baby. I am praying for your healing so those PT sessions are doing good. :0) Really I feel for you.

Yay on your writing.
Hugs,
Pammer

Fri Dec 09, 06:48:00 PM 2005

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