Day 24--New Physical Therapist

I had my first physical therapy appointment with my new pt today. It was a lot better. He is more competent when it comes to my specific injury and he is more organized. He also asked questions about what I want to accomplish by the end of pt and what types of activities I want to be able to do. We didn't do anything new today, but he put me through all the stuff I have been doing and did some measurements and did a much better job of explaining where I'm supposed to be at this point. I am much more comfortable with his demeanor and his expertise. I guess we will wait and see how it winds up going, but so far...much better.

Day 17

So I fired my physical therapist today. I've been working at my exercises at home everyday and when I was looking at the protocol, I realized that we aren't really where we are supposed to be. She got pretty irritated when I confronted her this afternoon. She and I do not click personality-wise and I feel like I'm capable of what is listed for this week. I called Dr. Shenton's office and got a referal for one of the PTs at the clinic that Ortho Montana owns, so I will start with them a week from today. In the meantime I will continue with the exercises for this week.

Day 13

I haven't written the last few days because not much has changed. The last of the tape fell off today and I don't have any stitches....They must have glued the incisions? I have physical therapy tomorrow. I can't wait until I can burn this freaking post-op brace. I hate it....it slides down and it's uncomfortable and it sucks to try to wear it with anything but sweats, which will make going back to work interesting. I need to remember to ask tomorrow how long I will do pt for. I also need to try to schedule it first thing in the morning from here out. I need to find out when I can start using my functional brace instead of that wretched piece of crap.

Day 7

I went to Walmart and a movie with a friend. Everything still seems like so much work. Putting my shoes on is quite and undertaking. I'm doing my PT exercises daily. Even if I"m not sure I'm doing exactly what Dr. Shenton would like, at least it's something and probably something on the more conservative side, which, on the one hand, prevents me from having to worry about causing damage, but on the other makes it so that I'm not sure my progress will be as quick as I would like. Ultimately though, it really only would set me back three days.

Day 6--Post-op Appointment and Physical Therapy

I had my first day of physical therapy today. Essentially she had me doing the same things that Dr. Shenton gave me to do post-op. She was surprised that I was walking on my knee and that the brace wasn't locked out straight. The doctor had the brace unlocked to 60 degrees when I left the hospital and told me that I should be "weight bearing as tolerated." Before the session was over, she had okayed me to use on crutch when outside of my house and walk unassisted in my house. She also unwrapped my leg from the three layers of dressing and two elastic bandages that I've been wearing since Tuesday. I have seven small incisions, two are bigger than the others. I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them...tonight I'm kinda beat.

After that appointment I had my post-op appointment with Dr. Shenton. I let him know that the PT was unclear on the protocol for a PCL reconstruction and he gave me the information to pass along to her. He said that he doesn't want me to talk to the PCL reconstruction that he's doing tomorrow because at this point, I'm making it look too easy. They took some X-rays and he did a posterior drawer test which he was really happy with. Whe he did that I could already feel a difference in the stability of my knee. It hurt though....he had to bend my knee closer to 90 degrees, which is far further than it's bent to this point. He also had me hang my feet over the edge of the table to look at the x-ray with him, which I was unsure about but he assured me that it would be ok and showed me how he wanted it done. He even had me walk down the hall to x-ray without the brace on. I am still pretty swollen and he offered to drain it, but left it up to me since it is something I can probably aleviate with ice. I declined. I am to leave the steri-strips alone until they come off on their own.

Bottom line? I can bend my knee to 60 degrees and I am supposed to work on establishing a normal gait. I can shower without use of a garbage bag and plastic wrap. I am set to go back to work around the 8th of February.

Day 5

Today my friend Jennifer took me to church. It was nice to be out of the house, although church wasn't my first choice, to be honest. I was tired when I got home, so I took a pretty long nap and iced my knee....over and over and over.

Tonight I went to mom and dad's house for a turkey dinner. My neice, who is almost two, was there. She is incredibly busy. She doesn't really understand that I can't get down and play with her like normal. I played blocks with her and watched Barney, though while my mom was cooking and cleaning up. She is so sweet. She wears me out under normal circumstances, so tonight I am so beat.

Tomorrow is both my first round of PT and my post-op appointment. I am a little apprehensive about PT, although I can bend my knee to 60 degrees and straighten it completely. I'm excited about post-op. I'm ready to have some of these dressings off. I want to see what my knee looks like. I think I'll get up in the morning and take a shower before my appointments. I know I won't have the energy when I get home and I so need one. My dad is still planning on taking me tomorrow but he is convinced that the appointment is a half hour later than it actually is so I need to not forget to call him and remind him...

Day 4

Today was a slow day. Since I did so much yesterday, I opted to stay home today. I've been a little more sore today. I have had my leg propped in the air with ice most of the day. I showered again this morning and it was wonderful. Mom and I played Wii for a while when she came to see me and then I napped for quiet a while. Tonight my friend Heather came over and lent me some Wii games, ate pizza (thanks Julie) with me and hung out for a while. It's nice to have company.

I'm really looking forward to my appointments on Monday. I feel like there is more I should/could be doing and I'm really tired of having my entire leg wrapped from my toes to my thigh. I want to get after this whole healing thing. I know I'm supposed to be really careful for at least three months, but this is bugging me.

Day 3--first day out

Last night I showered. That is a lot of work. It involves a giant garbage bag and some plastic wrap. It felt sooooo good to be clean, but it is so much work! I was about worn out by the time I was dry and dressed again.

Today, my mom took the day off work to hang out with me. She came over and helped me get ready . Then we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of things.After that we picked up lunch and went to my sister's store, Chameleon Arts & Ice Cream, to eat lunch with my sister, brother-in-law, and aunt.

After that I was still feeling pretty well, so I decided to work on the plate that I've been painting. I think it's going to turn out pretty well. It was a bit of fiasco though, because my bro-in-law gets on these cleaning kicks and just throws EVERYTHING away. This time that included the plate I was working on. Once it was rescued i did a really cool stensil on it. I'm excited to see it.

In terms of my knee, I may have overdone it a little today. I have had only two doses of pain meds today; once when I got up and just a bit ago when I got home. I was up moving and without ice on my knee for several hours. I felt alright until I stopped moving and now I'm stiff and sore. The only place that really hurts is along the inside of the back of my knee. There are several other places that feel sore sometimes, but that is the only place that I would classify as hurting.

Tomorrow my friend Heather is planning to come hang out for a while I think. She will probably kick my butt all over at Wii. I feel like I'm consistently getting better...stronger... PT starts on Monday, so I'm anxious to hear what they have to stay, although apprehensive as well. I also have my post-op appointment on Monday, and I'm interested to see what my knee looks like. I have a pretty good idea where some of the incisions are but I'm not sure about others.

On to the weekend! Not that it's that different for me at this point.

Done waiting

I decided last week that I was done waiting around. I can't have surgery until January, but I can't just sit and pack on the weight anymore either. I was watching tv and ran across the infomercial for Shaun T's Insanity workouts and I took the bait. I ordered it and have just started doing the workouts. I'm in day 3 and I'm sore but I have more energy than I've had in a while. The workouts kick my butt and to begin with I was nervous about my knee, but I can do all of the cardio stuff, at least as far as my knee is concerned. I workout in my livingroom, so it's a very level stable surface. I was using my brace, but today I did the entire dvd without it and it didn't kill me. I'm hoping to drop some weight and put back on some of the muscle I've lost since my injury. I want to get back down to a better weight and lose some body fat. This program is 60 days, so I'll finish just before surgery. My only complaint is that during some of the exercises my arches and the balls of my feet burn like crazy and I have to stop.