My PT is a 50-ish lady, Judy Holmes. My OS described her as the tough-loving type, though he said she always dishes the pain with a smile. Sadistic Judy might emerge over the next year, but I met a polite, polished, well-traveled woman who manipulated my knee while simultaneously sharing her German travel adventures. Christina, who lived in Germany for several years, remained with me during PT. Imagine the joys of hearing about Wurzburg, Neuschwanstein, and Stuttgard, or some other place I can’t pronounce or spell, while my knee is grinding through 14 layers of scar tissue. (Not that there’s anything wrong with German cities). At one point, I thought Judy got so engrossed in her conversation with Christina that she forgot about my gimpy knee. But then I remembered nobody could ignore my foul body odor. I haven’t showered since the surgery, exactly 1 week ago. I’ve had a couple of “baths” with baby wipes and hot towels, but trust me -- I need a full-fledged hosing; the kind of shower where you burn through two bottles of shampoo. We’re definitely throwing away every bed sheet used this past week. Today, I was so stinky (chorus: How stinky were you?). I was so stinky that I scared away the bums panhandling outside the PT building. Buh-dum-bum.
The PT session went well. My knee has little swelling and minimal bruising, all pretty shocking considering it’s only been 1 week since my knee endured a significant amount of trauma. Judy thought the knee is healing well. The scar, in all its glory, was a freaky sight to behold. The doctor can warn you about winding up with a 13-inch scar. But, with the staples still in, you can never be prepared for the sight of a metallic bolt snaking up from your shin to your lower thigh. My scar looked like miniature railway tracks. Or a zipper on a kid’s coat. Seriously, you could zip up my 3-year old with that thing.
Ok, here are 2 pictures of the scar, one showing it vertically, the other a horizontal angle. The yellow string running parallel to the scar below the knee is just leftover tape. In the horizontal picture, I think my leg looks creepy, like the leg of a really old man or something out of a morgue. My leg still has a solid tinge of yellow-orange iodine which clashes with my really pasty undersurface. I think that actually distorts the photo’s coloring a bit. I also think my leg looks weird shaved, even more so because it’s partially-shaved. In the vertical scar photo, you can see the hair growth on the top of my thigh. Anyway, enjoy the pictures. I’ll post another batch after Turgeon removes the staples.
Judy says my flexion and leg strength are greater than most people at 1 week out. (I asked her to put the gold-star on my brace). I’m currently at 60 degrees on the CPM. Today, she measured my flexion “free-standing” – which means bending the knee over the edge of the table on my own. I hit 55 degrees without effort. Judy says most people fall well short of their CPM number, especially early on, so she was pleased with my progress. She demonstrated a host of various ankle bends (with and without bands), leg raises, and side abductor moves, and gave me a list of 6 exercises to do each day on my own. I start my home therapy tomorrow. For the foreseeable future, I’m meeting Judy twice/week. And so the fun begins.
(Quick archiving/labeling note: From here forward, I plan to label my PT sessions by week, and probably note my OS visits by number. My first visit with Turgeon is on Monday. Each post will also contain a label for the post-op week number. This might help you search through postings or find an old one, assuming that’s possible. It will help me track the progress I’ve made)
1 comment:
Wow...just wow. Mine is only about 8 inches and I thought it was HUGE but yours takes the cake! I also didn't have staples, but just stitches, internal & external. Impressive!
Post a Comment