Once I got home, the next 4 weeks were painfully monotonous.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have been going to physiotherapy sessions that go for 1.5 hours. The first half hour usually involves some massage, stretching and range of motion exercises, especially in my knee. The last hour involves light weights and lots of leg exercise. Over weeks 4 to 8 we were slowly able to get the range of motion in my knee up to around 110 degrees. There was a lot of painful pushing and bending required to get it done, but eventually it got there.
The first couple weeks home (recovery week 4 and 5), Carol was generous enough to take time off work to look after my needs. With no way to walk on my own, no way to drive and no real capability of carrying anything I was pretty much dependent on her to keep me alive.
The third week (recovery week 6) my Mom came down and took over the role of caregiver. Rich and Christy were also down during the week, so while I wasn't up for any sort of big outings, we did get to go out for dinner every now and then and play some cards in the evenings. With me out of commission, Christy and Rich were able to visit all the local attractions on their own.
Week 4 (recovery week 7), Christy extended her stay an additional week and took over the role as my personal assistant.
Once I got to the start of recovery week 8, I was allowed to increase my max hip angle from 60 to 90 degrees, i.e. I could finally attempt to sit up in a chair. From there on out I started driving myself to the physiotherapist. At that point the biggest goal shifted to increasing the flexibility in my hip. My left groin was incredibly tight, my left hamstring a little less so. So each time I went to the physiotherapist, the first 30 minutes was a ton of pain as I was pulled and stretched well past what was comfortable.
No comments:
Post a Comment