Week 40 - Physcial Therapy Rocks!

The news for the week is my knee – IT’S BETTER! And best of all, I have my life back. So, life is good is an understatement this week.

I went to the doctor on Monday afternoon to find out what my options were because I just couldn’t imagine going on with my knee, or should I say thigh, as it was. They told me my knee would never be straight again, pointing out all its problems on the x-rays, but also adding that since I had no pain in my actual joint, replacement wasn’t on the table. Not that I wanted that. I want to get as many years out of my knee as possible before considering knee replacement. When I asked about physical therapy, he said sure and wrote the prescription.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning when I was at PT bright and early at 8:00. After poking and prodding me, the PT said my quad wasn’t firing. It was a vicious cycle of the more my knee was bent, the less it fired and the less it fired, the more my knee bent. After doing all kinds of stretches, he hooked me up to electrodes and did a 10 minute cycle of 10 seconds of electricity, during which I could watch my thigh contracting, and 10 seconds off. It was pretty uncomfortable but so worth it. I stepped off the table and the pain and restriction in my thigh was gone! I could walk normally again. I could not have been happier! I went to work feeling like the weight of the world was off my shoulders. Layton even noticed my new lease on life just passing me in the hallway.

After starting off so well, Wednesday was just a wonderful day. Everything clicked. I had a super productive day at work, got to spend some time outside knitting over lunch and made it to the pool for the first time that week. Then it was home for Survivor. Such a good day! I hadn’t realized how much not being able to walk and stand was bringing me down until I could do both again. Life is good!

The rest of the week flew by. I ended up working late twice and only swam once so it was a good thing they put me through my paces on Friday morning at PT, where they had me on a bike and stair stepper in additional to all the other stretches and such plus a torturous weight machine that tired to force my knee straighter. At least I had knitting to distract myself from that and another electricity session. But it’s all good.

I food shopped a couple of times over the week, restocking the frig, and after my haircut on Saturday, hit Dollar General to stock up on toiletries and house stuff. Andrea and I had talked about doing an Omaha run but decided against it because neither of us needed anything. I planned to knit all weekend in an attempt to finish my 3^rd pair of socks for the month. After lunch, I decided it would be fun to have company so called Andrea and Lori and invited them over for tea and knitting on the deck. The weather was perfect and knowing they were coming had me neatizing the entire house. They arrived ~3:00 and we sat for hours, knitting and having tea and cheesecake. It was a wonderful afternoon.

I did my laundry and a few remaining chores on Sunday and was able to finish my socks by mid-afternoon. What a perfect ending to a wonderful week. Fall is here to stay, my knee is near normal again and I have hope. I can see myself walking around Ireland next May now and can even imagine getting some fall gardening done. My life is back and I couldn’t be happier. Yay!