The dreaded day has come all too soon--school has begun for teachers. We had 61 days of summer this year and yes, I know that's nice, but it's not the three months everyone always talks about, and we don't get paid during the summer, so I guess it's good to be back earning some money. In addition to going to work today, I used my lunch time to go to physical therapy, and since this is all about my knee and me, let me tell you about that.
My physical therapist has not been nearly as effusive and as complimentary as the home physical therapist was. She's a lovely young woman, and I think she does a great job, but I always feel like I'm not quite measuring up to her expectations. Especially after Monday's PT session, which I felt was a debacle and which left me feeling like a total wimpy failure, I was very discouraged. As I said in yesterday's post, however, I determined that I would work harder. With that in mind, I had done a lot of knee bending yesterday and after dinner last night, I lay on the couch on my stomach and pulled my leg backwards with a rope to try to duplicate what the therapist does. It was not fun, but I kept on pulling until I couldn't stand it anymore, and it must have paid off because after a truly agonizing episode on the table today with ever more backwards knee bending, I had progressed 8 degrees since last week in my Range of Motion measurement. I was at 105 degrees last week, and today I measured at 113 with no help from either me or my therapist pushing on my leg. In other words, I could pull my leg up and backwards all by myself to 113 degrees and, for the first time, my therapist showed a glimmer of enthusiasm. She exclaimed that I wouldn't believe it, that I had surpassed the 110 degree goal (what you need to "graduate" from PT). Then of course, she told me that it was all well and fine to get to 113 but could I maintain that until the next time, and the next time, and the next time.... She's a hard taskmaster, but she is pushing me to achieve what I need to achieve to be fully mobile and flexible again.
In addition to my usual bending torture, my therapist had me working hard, hard, hard on several new machines today. I pulled weights up and down with my ankle. I worked on a rowing machine, and I got hooked up to something that made me slowly lift and lower weights using my whole leg. I have to tell you--I can barely walk tonight! Every muscle I have hurts! But it was worth it! I can bend my knee to 113 degrees!!! You have no idea how good that makes me feel. Now I just have to do it all over again on Friday.......
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