Thanks, Stan!

There's nothing like sitting for most of a day to stiffen up the knees and legs. Even though I tried to get up every 45 minutes and walk around the halls of the school today, I still spent a lot of time sitting at my computer. Every time I would finally stand up, I felt SO stiff. The moral is: keep moving!

The days between my physical therapy sessions are inconsequential from a TKR point of view since I spend most of the time just recovering from the previous day's PT session. I do plan to do some exercises tonight, however, since even the few exercises I did on Tuesday seemed most efficacious on Wednesday. The most effective knee-bending exercise seems to be going down the stairs. I'm not sure if I can explain this well, but try to picture this scenario. I lead off with my right foot (the good knee) and step down one step while leaving my left foot on the step above. My left knee is now bent but I stand there and try to bend my knee even more, sort of "crouching" with my right knee so that the left knee has to bend more and more. I do this until it is almost too uncomfortable to bear, and then I stay in that position for 10 seconds. I proceed down the staircase, doing that every time my right foot is on the lower step and my left foot is on the upper step.
It might not sound like great exercise, and it's not. It's not exercise, but I do think it's a good way to stretch the knee cap and surrounding muscles which is my goal. After yesterday's success, I want to maintain and improve my Range of Motion and besides, I have to go up and down the stairs anyway, so I might as well get some benefit from that activity!

At school today I chatted with the mother of one of my students who said that her mother and her father-in-law had both had TKR surgery within the past year. She made an interesting observation which may or may not be true, but just for the sake of controversy, I'll pass it along. She said her mother's convalescence and rehabilitation had gone more quickly and smoothly than her father-in-law's because, she said, women know they have things that they have to do and that they can't sit around waiting for someone to do it for them. I think that may be true in general, but in my particular situation, I have to stand up for Stan. He did EVERYTHING for me from changing my bandage to washing the clothes to fixing food for me to keeping ice on my knee to cleaning up the house. So, while it may be true that many men expect women to take care of them, I can truthfully say that nobody, male or female, could have taken better care of anyone than Stan has taken care of me!