Thinking About the End of PT

How sad to think that tomorrow is my last day of physical therapy. Well, it's my last day supposing that my Range of Motion is still above 110 degrees, which I would think it would be. You never know, though. After a day at school, my knee was so swollen when I got home that I bet it wouldn't have bent to more than 90 degrees! I don't know what to do about this, because I can hardly keep my knee up on my desk the whole time I'm in my office, and when I'm out of my room teaching classes in various classrooms, I'll either be sitting (reading a story, demonstrating on the Promethean Interactive Whiteboard) or standing/walking while looking at children's work. Neither of those activities is conducive to keeping my leg "unswollen." Until such time that this naturally fades as a problem, I guess it's just something I'll have to live with.

My physical therapy location has an interesting follow-up program for its patients in which I am considering enrolling. For $50 a month or for $8 a visit, you can go to the PT gym and use their machines in an "open gym" arrangement. While they don't give you the personal treatment you get while under doctor's orders, they will help you with the machines and advise you as to exercises that might be beneficial. I've never been all that motivated to exercise on my own, but I don't want my knee to regress, so after next week's visit to the surgeon, I might consider trying the open gym program for one month. If I can force myself to go after a long day at school, I might find it quite beneficial. As I always say, we'll see!

Presuming that tomorrow is my final PT session, I'll wrap up my thoughts on that and then try to cover a few topics of general interest with regard to TKR surgery until next Wednesday's visit to the surgeon. Presuming that goes smoothly and I am pronounced "well," I'll just post every week or so (or less) until the end of the year. I do think it's been valuable for me, if for nobody else, to keep track of how I progressed during my recovery. As much as I tremble at the thought, I may have to do this all over again in 2 or 3 years with my other knee, but for now, I'm just SO glad to be getting better every day!