Sunday was day 12 and we went out for Brunch and coffee and dinner with various people. In between the eating, lying around watching the Office on a sunny early Autumn sunday got us itchy for some fresh air, so we packed up our reading material and went to the park across the street from my condo. Ahh, it really hit the spot.
My leg seems to be improving by very small increments daily. I am feeling increasingly more okay to sit in a normal chair with my foot down, though I still need to alternate between up and down throughout a meal. I crutched all the way down to Queen St. W from Dundas which usually takes five minutes but took me probably closer to 15.
Last night, after all of that action, my knee felt very heavy and uncomfortable. So now I think I've learned that the more activity I do during the day, the more Tylenol, icing, and elevating I need in the evening.
I also ate lots of french fries last night. Oopsies...
This morning I woke up and went to my second physio appointment. As you may know, I've been worrying about the speed and quality of my recovery with only once-a-week physiotherapy visits. I expressed this concern to my physiotherapist and he seemed to think that it will be fine as long as I seem to be making improvements. And I am! Last week I was able to bend my knee to 60 degrees flexion, 6 days post surgery. Today, 13 days post surgery, I was at 90 degrees! Hurray! I have another physio appointment on Friday and I hope to have improved to at least 105 flexion. Go me!
At physio I did a number of relatively easy exercises. In on he wanted me to extend my leg straight out in front of me while seated on the table and hold it up and out with my own muscle. I really didn't think I'd be able to do it, but lo and behold, my muscle kicked in after the first try or two and I was able to hold out my leg on my own. Another success!
My physio seems perplexed at my surgeon's instructions to continue wearing the brace for such a long time (6 weeks). I told him that I'd been kind of moving around my place without it despite those instructions and he thinks it's fine, as long as I wear it when I'm walking around outside and in less contained environments. He said that I might as well start using my leg if I'm planning on using it for the rest of my life.
I asked him when I'd be able to get on the stationary bike and he said that if I want to go to my gym and just try pedaling, it would be beneficial to improving my bend. He said I won't be able to make full circles around, but if I just work on it by pedaling back and forth on the bottom of the rotation, it would be good. He said that the leg press machine would also be a good exercise to work on at the gym.
I feel like I need to be very pro-active with this physiotherapist, making sure to ask questions about specific exercises and steps in my recovery in order to get the information I need. That feels kind of weird, but luckily I'm on the ball with this... I think.
At one point I was standing up and doing some hip related exercises and I started to feel very faint. I think it might have been the fact that cheerios suck for energy and the lights in his stuffy little office are very hot. I lay down and got a head massage out of the deal. :D
After physio I actually dropped by the office and said hello to my office mates. It felt nice to be there after almost two weeks! I actually felt like a real person again.
I think I'm going to head to the gym later today to give those exercises a try! I'm excited to get moving!! Things are on the move!
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