Today we'll eat our dessert first! Good news, I had my first outpatient physical therapy today and my final report was that I am doing great!!! I was told that I've been doing excellent with my home exercises and with the in-house therapy. I had picked this particular rehab location because they have a pool and my doctor's office suggested I do aqua therapy. I was sooo looking forward to being able to walk around in the pool. My initial evaluation went so well that my new therapist said I am beyond aqua therapy - what???? no walking around in the pool???? First disappointment :-( I don't have access to a swimming pool, so when I go back on Friday I am going to ask if I can get in the pool anyway even though I'm at a more advanced stage.
I acquired a few more exercises to do at home and I can drop a few of the easier ones off my list. My new exercises are geared toward muscle strengthening of my glutes and thighs in hopes of straightening out my "knocked knees". I swear I didn't know I was knocked knee-ed until recently. All these years I've been walking funny and no one ever told me. It's not like I watch myself walk. I guess everyone thought I knew - nope, didn't know!
Now onto the part of the meal you don't want to eat - bad news . . . the therapy appointment went well and I went into work for my four hours and after about an hour those muscles I stretched with those new exercises started to spasm. Grrrrr . . . not a good feeling. I didn't make my four hours today. I came home at my usual time and went straight for the warm pack on my incision and then my massaging session. Right in the middle of using the warm pack the spasms continued so I ended up transferring the warm pack from my incision to my interior thigh muscles and was able to get some relief. I removed the pack and ended up falling asleep and waking up almost two hours later. That was a long nap - guess I needed it.
Now its time for my afternoon walk and before night's end I need to do some more exercises - blah! Let's hope with no spasms. Overall, I'm glad I got a great report!
I still do hydro as part of my exercise program even though I'm well beyond the walking laps stage. I've found that I enjoy it and I think that it has helped my continued improvement and increase in strength - well beyond anything I had since I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteThe warm water is also great to help relax the muscles. You probably aren't allowed in the bath yet but when you can - in a couple of weeks or so - is really nice too.
If you can convince them to let you in there - do it!! Being able to jump and run in the water is good fun :)