I'm SO happy to be at PT! :) Lucky for Nancy (and me) I liked her at my appointment on Friday, so I could cancel my waiting list position with the other physical therapist and stick with her.
My appointment on Friday was great. I had to go through the whole story of my knee, for the millionth time, for Nancy, and she laughed at my list I'd made of activities I wanted to accomplish (see previous post). After some discussion, we decided that 'Swim/Bike/Run' could be grouped with all of number 3 as 'sports', and she added 'climb stairs' to my list. Her reasoning was that it was going to take awhile to get to the 'sports' on my list and she wanted to add something to my list we could actually make some progress on sooner rather than later. I told her I was cool with that, as long as she realized that I wanted to *eventually* get back to doing everything else on the list :) Friday's appointment was all an evaluation, getting some baseline numbers and checking to see what I *could* do and what I needed to be able to do. Nancy eventually got out the range of motion (ROM) measure-er and I found out the number I'd been waiting for, 119 degrees! I think I've mentioned it before, but during my last surgery it took me quite awhile to get past 90 degrees. Rehab this time around is going pretty darn well. :)
I had my second PT appointment today and was pleasantly surprised that I'd made some progress over the weekend. I'd gone out of town and 'babysat' my 12 and 14 year old cousins and didn't do as much icing or exercises as I'd done in past weekends. However, I was still able to gain a couple degrees of motion, I moved up to 125 degrees! My 'good leg' was measured at a max bending of 135 degrees (I think), so that's the target number that I'm hoping to match after rehab. Also, when my good leg is straight with a towel rolled up under my ankle, allowing for some natural hyperextension, my knee gets to -5 degrees, so 5 degrees past horizontal. My repaired knee was measured at +2 degrees, so not quite completely horizontal (yet) :) Today I learned a couple new exercises for strengthening and got to RIDE AN EXERCISE BIKE for 5 minutes at the end of my PT session!! Wahoo!!!!!! I was also given the go ahead to jump on the bike to loosen up before subsequent PT appointments. I've got to learn to ice my knee more when I'm at home and keep reminding myself to do my exercises, but overall I'm pretty happy with my progress!
Thanks for reading!!!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
PT starts tomorrow!
I have been waiting for tomorrow since last Friday! Tomorrow is PT daaaaaaay! :)
If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited. I've been making some good progress on my own. I can walk around the house and the lab without crutches, and if I'm going outside or down the hall, I've been using just one crutch. My pain hasn't been too bad either, I haven't been taking any pain meds regularly, which is pretty good! Buuut, I'm ready for someone else to tell me some new exercises I should be doing and to push me a little. I'm used to having a coach and being told to do stuff, I like it that way :)
The plan for PT is that I have three 30 minute appointments per week for 2 months. I did do some PT work with a therapist at the end of last summer before I was convinced I needed to have this surgery, and I liked him a lot. My surgeon also seemed to think pretty highly of him, but after my appointment last Friday when I got the go ahead and make a PT appointment, I was told there was a 2 week wait to get in to see the guy I'd worked with before! I found another place on campus to go to that had just a week wait, so that's where I'm going tomorrow. I kept my other appointment with the other therapist juuust in case I don't like the PT I'm going to tomorrow :)
The appointment for tomorrow is just an 'evaluation' appointment, so I hope to have a nice conversation with Nancy (my PT) about when I can expect to be able to do certain things. I actually got some paperwork in the mail I have to fill out and among the papers is one called 'The Patient-Specific Functional Scale'. It says I'm supposed to 'identify up to three important activities (their bolding and underlining, not mine! :) that you are unable to do or are having difficulty with as a result of your current problem/diagnosis/surgery'.
WHAT?!?!?!
ONLY THREE?!?!
ARE THEY CRAZY???
After I stopped hyperventilating and calmed down a bit, I filled in the three spaces as follows:
1. Walk without limping
2. Run/Bike/Swim
3. Softball/Volleyball/Golf/RockClimbing
Do ya think that'll fly?? :) Hopefully Nancy doesn't get too mad about all my slashes :)
If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited. I've been making some good progress on my own. I can walk around the house and the lab without crutches, and if I'm going outside or down the hall, I've been using just one crutch. My pain hasn't been too bad either, I haven't been taking any pain meds regularly, which is pretty good! Buuut, I'm ready for someone else to tell me some new exercises I should be doing and to push me a little. I'm used to having a coach and being told to do stuff, I like it that way :)
The plan for PT is that I have three 30 minute appointments per week for 2 months. I did do some PT work with a therapist at the end of last summer before I was convinced I needed to have this surgery, and I liked him a lot. My surgeon also seemed to think pretty highly of him, but after my appointment last Friday when I got the go ahead and make a PT appointment, I was told there was a 2 week wait to get in to see the guy I'd worked with before! I found another place on campus to go to that had just a week wait, so that's where I'm going tomorrow. I kept my other appointment with the other therapist juuust in case I don't like the PT I'm going to tomorrow :)
The appointment for tomorrow is just an 'evaluation' appointment, so I hope to have a nice conversation with Nancy (my PT) about when I can expect to be able to do certain things. I actually got some paperwork in the mail I have to fill out and among the papers is one called 'The Patient-Specific Functional Scale'. It says I'm supposed to 'identify up to three important activities (their bolding and underlining, not mine! :) that you are unable to do or are having difficulty with as a result of your current problem/diagnosis/surgery'.
WHAT?!?!?!
ONLY THREE?!?!
ARE THEY CRAZY???
After I stopped hyperventilating and calmed down a bit, I filled in the three spaces as follows:
1. Walk without limping
2. Run/Bike/Swim
3. Softball/Volleyball/Golf/RockClimbing
Do ya think that'll fly?? :) Hopefully Nancy doesn't get too mad about all my slashes :)
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Back at it
Yesterday was one week after surgery and I went to class and work and to a talk for a labmate! I was gone from about 8:30am til 2:30pm and was exhausted when I got home. It's amazing how much work it was to crutch across the street to class. I'll definitely be happy once I can ditch the crutches :)
I drove my car for the first time today (which was great!), but it was to drive my Mom back to the airport to send her home to Wisconsin :( She was ridiculously helpful in the week that she was here. When we were planning and talking about how long she'd come over for, I thought there was no way I'd need her to be here for a week, but boy was I wrong! I can't say how helpful and wonderful it was to have her here. I'm feeling much more up to tackling things on my own now, but that wasn't the case just a couple days ago. It's impressive just how much progress you can make in just a day or two.
I realized while answering the question of 'How's it going?' for the umpteenth time today, that I really don't know how it's going. I'm a scientist, therefore I like numbers and data. I haven't been to the physical therapist yet, so I don't have any idea about my range of motion (ROM) in number form. Last time I had knee surgery, every time I went to the PT they took measurements of my ROM in degrees, and I'd work hard just to get another degree or two of bend in my knee. Right now, I know I can bend my knee past 90 degrees already (which actually took me a substantial amount of time last time, I think because of the patellar tendon they harvested from the front of my knee), but I don't know how far I can actually go, or how it compares to other patients that are 1 week out from ACL surgery with an allograft. Because of this, I'm really looking forward to my Dr. appointment on Friday. Hopefully I'll get my stitches out and I'll get some PT appointments set up. I'm ready for it, I'm ready for some rehab! :)
I drove my car for the first time today (which was great!), but it was to drive my Mom back to the airport to send her home to Wisconsin :( She was ridiculously helpful in the week that she was here. When we were planning and talking about how long she'd come over for, I thought there was no way I'd need her to be here for a week, but boy was I wrong! I can't say how helpful and wonderful it was to have her here. I'm feeling much more up to tackling things on my own now, but that wasn't the case just a couple days ago. It's impressive just how much progress you can make in just a day or two.
I realized while answering the question of 'How's it going?' for the umpteenth time today, that I really don't know how it's going. I'm a scientist, therefore I like numbers and data. I haven't been to the physical therapist yet, so I don't have any idea about my range of motion (ROM) in number form. Last time I had knee surgery, every time I went to the PT they took measurements of my ROM in degrees, and I'd work hard just to get another degree or two of bend in my knee. Right now, I know I can bend my knee past 90 degrees already (which actually took me a substantial amount of time last time, I think because of the patellar tendon they harvested from the front of my knee), but I don't know how far I can actually go, or how it compares to other patients that are 1 week out from ACL surgery with an allograft. Because of this, I'm really looking forward to my Dr. appointment on Friday. Hopefully I'll get my stitches out and I'll get some PT appointments set up. I'm ready for it, I'm ready for some rehab! :)
Monday, November 1, 2010
5 days post surgery
I had initially planned on updating this blog every day, but I soon realized that my days are...very...boring... :)
My roommates both took off out of town this Halloween weekend, which was actually quite nice. Casey took her Great Dane with her and Randy was off home to Virginia, so it was just Mom and me and Lambeau :) We took it easy and Mom cooked up a storm! She made monkey bread, breakfast pizza, spaghetti bake and chicken dumpling soup - it was all deeeelicious! :)
Other excitement for the weekend included showering (it doesn't sound very exciting, but really, it was!), getting out to a friend's house for 1/2 of the Michigan State football game (my first outing post-surgery!), and - due to a Lions football blackout since they didn't sell out the stadium - Mom and I got to watch the Packers from the comfort of the couch on regular TV (this doesn't happen very often, so it was definitely great timing on that!).
Today has also a pretty big day. Mom and I ran some errands to Wal-mart and Target in preparation for me going to class tomorrow. I'll have to sit through an hour of class and also an hour presentation of a labmate. I think I'm ready for it! I was out and walking around for about an hour and didn't get too tired (or cranky) :) Mom is leaving on Wednesday already, so I've got to 2 days to get self-sufficient! :)
My next doctor appointment is Friday, I'll be able to get stitches out then and hopefully start scheduling some physical therapy appointments!
Thanks again for all of the support! You guys all rock :)
My roommates both took off out of town this Halloween weekend, which was actually quite nice. Casey took her Great Dane with her and Randy was off home to Virginia, so it was just Mom and me and Lambeau :) We took it easy and Mom cooked up a storm! She made monkey bread, breakfast pizza, spaghetti bake and chicken dumpling soup - it was all deeeelicious! :)
Other excitement for the weekend included showering (it doesn't sound very exciting, but really, it was!), getting out to a friend's house for 1/2 of the Michigan State football game (my first outing post-surgery!), and - due to a Lions football blackout since they didn't sell out the stadium - Mom and I got to watch the Packers from the comfort of the couch on regular TV (this doesn't happen very often, so it was definitely great timing on that!).
Today has also a pretty big day. Mom and I ran some errands to Wal-mart and Target in preparation for me going to class tomorrow. I'll have to sit through an hour of class and also an hour presentation of a labmate. I think I'm ready for it! I was out and walking around for about an hour and didn't get too tired (or cranky) :) Mom is leaving on Wednesday already, so I've got to 2 days to get self-sufficient! :)
My next doctor appointment is Friday, I'll be able to get stitches out then and hopefully start scheduling some physical therapy appointments!
Thanks again for all of the support! You guys all rock :)
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