When I had my previous TKR in 2011, I thought I had a fabulous physical therapist, and I still think that. As seems to be the case with most patient/therapist relationships, it was something of a love-hate relationships, however, because, although I knew she was helping me immensely, the agony of it all sometimes made me loathe and dread every PT appointment. When I began this round of physical therapy with a new, young therapist (this is only her 2nd year as a therapist), I was a little unsure about her, but here I am again, with exactly the same assessment. The intensity of the sessions has increased so gradually that it seemed each time that she really wasn't doing all that much, but after today's session, it suddenly became apparent just how hard she was making my muscles work. Wow! I had to use my cane on one side and Stan's arm on the other side just to hobble out of the office! And truly, I'm not complaining, but wow, it's amazing how a few repetitions of this and 10 of that and maybe 15 of another can do a real job on your whole leg. Oh, and I almost forgot--I can now go all the way around on the bicycle so the therapist set the timer for 5 minutes and I was off to the (very slow) races! By the end of the session, my flexibility was 97 (up from 90 on Monday) and the extension was 4. That's not improving as quickly as I want, but it was 5 on Monday, so at least it's moving downward.
It being Valentine's Day, Stan obviously wanted to take me out to lunch. Now, after all that torture, I wasn't sure I could even walk from a parking lot into a restaurant so I equivocated and suggested we just go get a light lunch at Panera which is what we did and which turned out just fine. I love their Autumn Squash Soup more than anything else on their menu so I got a bowl of that and quite enjoyed my lunch, and I think Stan was happy to go out and do something "fun." That being said, I was deliriously happy to come home, ice, elevate, read, and eventually doze. My knee felt like it might live after a rest for a couple of hours!
Stan picked up the granddaughters, brought them here where I had a small snack waiting for them. Younger son and daughter-in-law appeared 45 minutes later with barbecue for a nice little family Valentine's Day dinner. Once they left, we watched a bit of TV and now, thank goodness, we can go to bed with no alarm set for in the morning. All in all, a good day but my leg still hurts!
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