Friday, July 5, 2013

Day 15 - First walking steps...

This was a great day!  I did some teaching for the first time in weeks.  My client came and picked me up and I spent a few hours at her ranch helping train a couple horses.  I did demo a few things, where I stood, but mostly I sat in a chair and instructed the owner.  At one point, I just needed to move a couple feet and took a few steps.  I actually surprised myself!!  I walked w/o crutches!!  Granted, I looked like a lame 90 year old woman, but still - I covered ground w/o my dreaded walking sticks.

Later, I managed to figure out how to set the seat on my bike so I could spin (with my toes barely touching pedals since I only have about 100 degrees of flexion).

Did lots of PT, getting 0 degrees extension.

Things are looking pretty good.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Day 13 - Physical Therapy Begins

... and man, is it ever brutal.  Now, I don't mean to scare you if you are recovering from knee surgery and getting close to starting PT.  But, honestly, my therapist pushes so hard for improvement and the pain is intense.  More than I expected. This whole experience has been more than I expected, though.

For my first visit, I had 7-8 degrees extension and about 80 degrees flexion.  I'd been working on it on my own about a week after surgery.  My therapist, however, wants real progress.  It's pretty damn tough.

My quad is basically non-existent.  So, using the Tenz (?) machine at each visit.  Building range of motion and getting my quad back is going to be a 3-month process, the therapist says.  She said I could be running again at month 4.  I hope I can do better than that.

I've had 2 sessions now.  The 2nd session, I was able to sit on a recumbent bike and try to spin.  Here's the thing:  I can't spin.  My knee doesn't have that range of motion yet.  So I took the pedals back and forth, trying to force stretching and increased ROM.

I've never done PT before.  I've never had this extensive an injury or surgery.  I want to build ROM w/o my therapist as much as possible because she's so intense!!  I'll be working to push myself mutliple times/day so I can be ready for next week's appointments.