I just finished my first physical therapy session. *whew* I'm glad I don't have to go to an actual medical facility for it, I can do it at my leisure. The neigborhood has a community club house with exercise room and pool. I'm on relatively light schedule for the first month, but it is painful. Here are the Dr's orders:
20 minutes on a stationery bike every other day ( I was told not to ride a real bike as I could fall and cause futher damage to my injury
stretching and mobilty flexing EVERYDAY on this knee
Light walking everyday
Naproxin twice daily... especially at night.
I have 2 groovy braces.
One is a compression sleave I bought while in Michigan. (Dr said "good move on that, by the way.") that's my daytime light activity brace.
the other is more for stability and control. It's got metal on the sides and straps that go around my leg keeping things secure and tight. I mostly use that one for when I'm running around on errands, climbing alot of stairs and sleeping. Both help temendously with the pain.
Oh, it turns out I may not have a medial meniscus tear.
They're really thinking it's more of a level 2 MCL sprain. So that means probably not surgery, but a longer healing time of about 4-6 months. AUGH! I seriously said to him... .Can we just break it? but it in a cast for 6 weeks, 2 weeks therapy after that can cut the healing time in half? *sigh* That was a no go.
Augh.... 4 months..... SERIOUSLY? (4 months in a brace and then as needed after that....)
Let's see it's basically october, november, december, Jan?
If the recovery time isn't bad enough, here's the list of what I can't do:
No softball or any other possible contact sports (so much for street hockey on roller blades for the fall
no Blading or skating
or ANYTHING with undeeded lateral movements. (you know those lateral angles that you , but pants, socks and shoes on?... yeah, I can do that, but it HURTS like.... like I wanna cuss.)
unnecessary driving is out. Getting in and out of a car.... yeah, kinda painful but doable. I'm suprizes at lateral angle one holds their legs when they drive it just sort of lays off to the side while on the gas. (thank goodness for cruise control)
No Skiing or snowboarding. So that big weekend on the mountain is out for this season
What I'm really gonna miss... is the yearly thanksgiving football game in the park. *sigh*. Gonna have to be a cheerleader this year. Oh... wait...no Jumping or kicks. :(
Wait.... it could be worse so I'm not complaining... just...preparing.
Sooooo this is the regime for the next 4 weeks. IF things aren't better than he'll probably go in for surgery. If there is improvements, he'll add on to the regimen.
So like John Legend says... I need to take it slow, which I'm really not good at doing.
I like to get things done ahead of time if possible. So I'm well prepared and not last minute stressing ,rushing and better prepared for unforseen happenings.
Oh, I'm adaptable and adjusts well under pressure. I do my best work under pressure. This was certainly not something I would want to have to prepare for. So Im just gonna roll with the punches.
I've been thinking, with this PT it's going to be a long road and I'll be 41 in november. I see my parents starting to need aide in there everyday living: Canes, glasses, and other assistance to make life easier. Im still relatively young, I look young. I forget Im a teenager and will do those things a 40 year old body has forgotten about.
I'm sick of walking up stairs and hills and being winded afterwards. Everytime I hit a set of stairs I sound like a bowl of rice krispy's. I am at my heaviest weight wise which is whole new Multitude of problems with a family history of diabetes, Sleep apnea, cancer, arthritis & high blood pressure. An over weight middle aged african american with a history of those things is just looking at older age of aches, pains and daily medication. I think I want to get these things under control in the next couple years. Getting old is going to be tough enough without me being lazy in my physical upkeep.
I have let myself go. I feel like I'm ready to bring myself back. This whole month and a half of knee pain... and Im talking severe... can't sleep at night, throbbing and spasm up and down my leg and can barely walk the stairs... had really made me see that I don't want to live with it for the rest of my life, however long that may be. We all die of something, but that doesn't mean we have to help death out.
I'm less concerned about losing weight and more concerned about living healthier, being more physically active and productive. I'm sick of clothes not fitting right and looking nice according to MY standards (no one elses).
As I think of the things we do on a daily basis anyway:
Shower/bathe
brush teeth
comb hair
wash hands after using the restroom and before eating.
Ok well I HOPE we all do these things on daily basis.
We eat daily to stay alive and sometimes for enjoyment
We should do something on a regular basis as well.
I'm on it.
( I got a good start, I came home from Michigan 15 lbs lighter and have lost another 7 since I've been back. I can fell the improvments on my joints and breathing already)
SOOOOOOO if anyone is bored between 6pm-7pm gimme a shout out, I'll be headed to the club house exercise room every other day. And then about 8 or 9 pm I'll be walking the neigborhood.
( I may even try to do some walking in the early morning... but don't quote me on that)
