First thing when Karen, my PT lady does is give me a leg massage. Actually it's the first thing she does after she takes my blood pressure, listens to my heart and then does my oxygen. (I think that's what that thing is that they put on your finger) Anyway, we go down to my room and I lay on the bed, (this is starting to sound dirty, but don't go there) and then she kneels on the floor and just rubs my surgical leg all around where my surgery was. She basically gives me a deep tissue massage underneath my knee, on the sides of my knee and then the rest of my leg. She'll straighten my leg and then work on my knee cap as well, that actually hurts a little. But overall, it just makes my whole leg feel good and warms me up for the exercises that we are going to work on the rest of the time she is there. I told Kev how I loved the massage she did I think after the 2nd time she was here and he said that I should have her show him how to do it. So then the next time she came, she did. And she told him not to be gentle, which was funny cause then we talked about how you wanted to be able to feel it. Like when you ask someone to scratch your back, they should draw blood with a good back scratch if you're going to feel it. lol So she showed Kev, and then there were a couple times the rest of the week, like on the days she didn't come, that he'd come over and give me a leg massage. I told Karen that it was my favorite part of PT and I thought she should do a massage when she got there and then before she left. So now she does, just not as long and as detailed as when she gets there.
I had a little bit of a break down at PT today while I was getting my leg massage. I told Karen how I had been feeling the last few days and of course for whatever reason, I was crying. I tell her how I'm just frustrated that I feel good, yet I'm hurting. And then I feel like I'm making progress, and I hurt again. And I can't remember what else came out in between the tears. She assured me once again that I was doing amazing and I need to give myself a break. She also said that the way I'm feeling is completely normal after surgery, having anesthesia and pain pills, all that stuff. Sometimes people just have to work through it. So she continued with my massage, I got the tears under control and then we started the hard stuff. On Wednesday when she was over, she added some new exercises and I told you how they were hard and somewhat painful. We got to those and they were tough again, but I knew they would be. We are doing stuff with resistance now and she is not holding back. I lay on my stomach and let my legs from about my calf down hang over the edge of the bed. She holds my leg at my ankle and then tells me to bend my knee. I am not real weak, so this is something I should be able to do, but I can't. I am pushing like crazy and she does not budge an inch. She holds me back and holds me back and then will ease up just a little bit and then I bend my knee. Just the bending my knee part hurts so throw in there the resistance she is putting on, it hurts more. Then we also do the opposite where my knee is already bent and she is holding it and I have to push it down. In a normal situation, I could take her....lol but like this I really struggle. But it's all in a good way cause she is really making me work hard and strengthening my knee with what she's doing. I wouldn't want her to be easy, but I'm still going to admit it hurts.
This was the last day of my first week of PT. I have one more week which will be Mon, Wed and Friday with PT coming to my house. I see the doctor on Tuesday to discuss what happens after Friday etc.
But before Karen left she tells me I have a new assignment for the weekend and that is to have some fun. Forget about my knee and do something other then my CPM, my ice machine and my exercises. No she didn't say don't do that stuff at all, she said do something fun as well. She made me agree that I would.
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