Sitting and Exercising

What a long day it has been! I spent 3 hours this morning sitting in a little kid wooden chair in an elementary school library listening to people drone on and on. Well, I could complain about the content, but that's beside the point as far as knees go. What I can complain about is how hard it is to sit in one position for so long. I tried, unobtrusively, to stand up and take short walks, but it was still a long time to sit, and my leg almost visibly started swelling. There was a hiatus when I rode in a car for 45 minutes to get to another meeting, had lunch in a school cafeteria, and then sat for another 3 hours. Again, I tried to stand up and walk a bit during the meeting, but I felt conspicuous, and I know it's somewhat disruptive, so mostly I sat. By the time I got home (after another long car ride), by knee was red, swollen, and quite hot. Fortunately I had 30 minutes before I had to leave for physical therapy, so I iced, elevated, and took my Percocet. By the time I went to therapy, my knee was still swollen, but it was not too bad.

Today's physical therapy was from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., the first time I've had PT so late in the day. It was more crowded than it has been when I've gone in the middle of the day, and it was obviously harder to feel energetic after a long day (even if I did sit most of the day), but it was a successful PT session. Let's see if I can recall everything I did: exercise bike, stretches against the wall, stretching on the table (the therapist pushing my knee down straight while I was on my back), and then I turned over on my stomach so she could do the dreaded knee-bending-backward routine. After that I worked on three different machines: leg press (up to 70 pounds today), the hamstring machine, and the machine (don't know the name) where I pull weight up by bending my knee backwards. I walked up and down the gym several times, going sideways with the big "rubber band" criss-crossed over my legs to provide resistance. Balance board work finished the workout and then I got to lie on the table with ice on my knee for 10 minutes, and that was the hour.

There are only 3 more PT sessions, and in a weird way I'm going to miss them. It's good to feel my leg getting stronger, and I can truthfully say that I feel almost normal now. I can walk with no effort or discomfort, go up and down stairs, and do just about anything I could do before. Remember, though, that I had two bad knees before my surgery, so now I just have one bad knee and one knee that works fine with a only few issues remaining with the surrounding muscles. Will I continue to do exercises, walk, push myself once PT comes to an end? I hope so, but time will tell.