January 10, 2006 - Second Day of Physical Therapy

I have been doing my "homework" from physical therapy each day... well, except Sunday because my leg felt really tight and I did not want to hurt anything.

I am still icing my knee every night, and remember the bruises that I had on my leg as a result of the surgery, well, they are a faint yellowish - green now.... almost gone!!

My scar is healing nicely and I am starting to put vitamin E on my scars a couple times a day so they go away as much as possible. My leg even looked nice enough to wear shorts today (it was 52 degrees today) out to physical therapy!!

Okay.... so my second physical therapy appointment..... I started warming up my leg on one of those air fan stationary bikes.... since I was not sure if my leg would bend enough to make it all the way around, I was able to work the pedals back and forth to stretch out my leg, and about 6 minutes of rocking, and guess what? you got it.... I made it all the way around and actually rode the stationary bike for another 5 minutes.... it was soooooo slow.... and my therapist said that I am not ready to ride my bike at home yet..... yes, I have clipless pedals on my road bike on a trainer in my house.... but getting into the clipless pedals is not trivial, and even though I already put the shoes in the pedals, and figured that I would slip my foot in and out.... my therapist said that I was not ready yet.

After the bike, I proceeded to do exercises to help with my extension... pushing my knee down and flexing my quad... after these exercises, I was at FULL EXTENSION! Then we went on to work on my flexion. I started at 114 degrees, and by the end of the day, I ended at 120 degrees. The heel slides are the killers.... nothing really hurt, but it felt like you were stretching a rubber band to its limit and then more. It feels like at some point it is going to snap... but it never does. The exercises were tougher today than the first time, but I never got to the point were I felt like I could not do it.

The other thing that I am starting to realize is that I will have good days and bad days... so I may have a really good workout and feel great, and then the next day be a bit tired and sore. My physical therapist said that this is normal, and just to expect it.

Also, since I went back to work, I am exhausted by 9:30 at night.... I can not find a totally comfortable position sitting or standing for a long time, so it seems like I am constantly shifting around, or if I get engrossed and forget to move around, then I am a bit still and slow to move.

I would say that overall, I am doing pretty well, and I am happy with my progress...oh.... I am not walking normally yet, but another week and I should be.