Day 8 (Wednesday, May 4th)
As I was lying in bed trying to wake up this morning, I dared to think that, perhaps, my hamstring was a bit less tight. My first steps out of the bed told a different story though. “Holy crap, I can’t even straighten my leg” is what I thought as I tried to start my morning PT. So, I switched it up. Tried to start with passive extension but my hamstring wanted no part of that. I sat there a bit with both legs out front of me…damn; my good leg feels like crap. OK, I decide, start with some general stretching, and then move into the hamstring stretch, followed by heel-slides (20) and passive extension (5 minutes). Now I am starting to feel a bit better so I get up and do the weight shift (4 minutes). I still don’t quite feel that I can trust my weight all on that knee, but I’m doing it with a basically straight leg! After that I continue through the 3 leg raises. This morning is the first time I hit the target of 30 on all three types. Now I’m icing and updating this blog. Then I will get dressed, do a bit of work and head off to my 2nd PT appointment.
2nd Physical Therapy appointment
Kammy and I drove to Tria for my 2nd physical therapy appointment. First Adam asked about pain level and I replied 2 (hamstring is bugging me). He measured my extension (1 degree) and flexion (110 degrees). Both are on or ahead of the one week target! Then he checked my quad strength and determined it’s time to start walking without the brace (but still with crutches) when I’m in ‘safe’ places such as home. He had me walk this way up and down the PT area. The main focus is to walk normally which is about the most foreign thing to a knee in distress. The idea is that I stay on crutches until I can completely walk normally.
After that he re-worked my physical therapy plan. I’ll keep the passive extension, heel-slides, leg-raises and hamstring stretch for now; new are 1 legged balance (to replace weight shift) , assisted squats, and knee-bands (both of these were exercises during pre-hab). To finish off I get to ice on the “Game Ready” which I’ve heard of but never used before. Sure felt good to have that mild compression plus cold water circulating for 15 minutes!
Work
Kammy drove me to work and I had a too-busy day for my knee. Heck I even went to a client meeting (clients we know very well…) with my boss. It really was too much. By the time I got home I could barely make it up the stairs and my knee was the most swollen it’s been since the surgery! Point taken; go easier on it tomorrow!
At my evening PT it is immediately obvious how I over-did it on my knee today. It’s not just swollen, my hamstring is done in. When I tried to do the stomach-leg-raises I could only manage ONE of them. Pretty much every other exercise went fine but my hamstring let me know about it. I managed a 20 second balance on my ‘involved’ knee during my 1 minute balance! I got in 10 knee bends, 20 knee-bands, and the usual target amounts on everything else.
Posted by Greg on July 14th, 2011 :: Filed under ACL Files
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