PKR IT Band Issues<
- Thread starter pm1207
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Honey, don't ask for no forceful bending, you TELL them no forceful bending!
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pm1207
junior member
@sistersinhim I will try a large bandage. Thank you!
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pm1207
junior member
@funkymuse I asked to speak with the PT before they even touched me when I went back after my horrible visit. I explained that my swelling increased and my knee felt awful for most of the week after. I go to a practice that has 6 PTs. I only make appts now with 2 of them that have agreed that going gentle is best for me. So much of a better experience. They listen if I say I’m having a bad day.
I just do gentle lunge stretches and heel slides at home on days that I work. I also have been working at tightening and releasing my quad muscle. On weekends I just add my recumbent bike to my day. I have found that simply walking has helped my bend. The swelling obviously gets bad on days that I’m up on it for a long day, but overall going easier seems to have helped me.
I just do gentle lunge stretches and heel slides at home on days that I work. I also have been working at tightening and releasing my quad muscle. On weekends I just add my recumbent bike to my day. I have found that simply walking has helped my bend. The swelling obviously gets bad on days that I’m up on it for a long day, but overall going easier seems to have helped me.
funkymuse
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Interesting.. I've never done lunge stretches. Did your PT recommend? I work 3 days a week - every other day, 6 hours a day right now with my leg elevated on a chair when I'm not up, and then I cover my knee with a cold pad strapped around my knee snug so I can walk and sit and do whatever! It helps tremendously!!! But to do anymore when I get home kind of scares me.
@Celle said not to do anymore and so tonight I'm going to employ that stategy and see how I feel tomorrow. I was tempted to get on my recumberant for 5 min but I think I'm going to pass on it. I did quite a bit of walking today at work.
thanks for your comments... they help!
@Celle said not to do anymore and so tonight I'm going to employ that stategy and see how I feel tomorrow. I was tempted to get on my recumberant for 5 min but I think I'm going to pass on it. I did quite a bit of walking today at work.
thanks for your comments... they help!
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pm1207
junior member
@funkymuse the PT did recommend the lunge stretches. I put my foot on a small step stool and lean forward until I get to the point where the bend stops, I hold it for 10 seconds. I do them throughout the day. This also helps my super tight and crampy calf muscle. It’s so hard to just sit and do nothing! I have to push myself to stay put. Today was a 10 hour day on my feet and now I’m paying for it. I would only use the bike on days where you aren’t up walking around a lot. Sometimes my knee feels worse if I sit too long with it propped up. When I’m sitting at work I bend and straighten it frequently to try to avoid stiffness.
Resist the urge and rest!
Resist the urge and rest!
funkymuse
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Oh yes.. I was doing those lunge stretches on a step but I would bring it almost to the point of pain and I think it was hindering more than helping. I may try that again but only to the point of tightness. At work, I'm actually up and about and then I put the leg up for awhile and then I put it under the desk for awhile, etc. I cannot imagine being on my feet for 10 hours... gosh. Are you part time right now?
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pm1207
junior member
I work at a school, 7:30-2:30, but I had a doctors appt and then had to run an errand. Got home at 5:00....bad decision on my part to go out after the doctor, and today was my busy day. No free time at all at school Definitely stop before pain on the stretches. I push myself some but never into pain.
We are supposed to get snow tomorrow so of course I’m wishing for a snow day to rest up from my own stupidity!
We are supposed to get snow tomorrow so of course I’m wishing for a snow day to rest up from my own stupidity!
funkymuse
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Oh gosh.. don't you just hate it when you join the ODIC?! Oh gosh.. I've learned over time that I don't want to do that at any cost. I'm hoping you wake up to snow! That would be a blessing for a ODIC rest day!!!
Josephine
NURSE DIRECTOR EMERITA
In other worse, lunges! Which in my book are definitely no-no exercises! Besides which, you said your ROM was near perfect so why do you need to do either of these? You said your ROM was 90/+ which is terrific for r weeks out. So you don't need these. None, nada, nix! Let it do the rest on its own, because it will, you know. Without a scrap of assistance from you!
Exactly! So why do heels slides and lunges?!!
A better stretch is this one
But this is the wrong thinking! When you are resting and icing and watching telly you are NOT 'doing nothing'. You are 'engaging in a carefully considered pro-actively designed, heuristically programmed, dynamically structured recovery programme'. So there!
SusieShoes
Former BoneSmart staff member
I find it endlessly fascinating that in our culture, U.S. especially, we think “doing something” means work. It’s partly semantics. Doing chores, doing exercise, doing gardening, etc.. We don’t say doing healing, or doing rest. It’s kind of a trap, because the other end of that definition is “not doing anything,” which translates into laziness, sloth, and indolence. Healing is too active a process to be tossed off as nothing at all.
Mr. Shoes ran into this when explaining to a co-worker about how I recovered quickly from my BTKR. “Well, she rested most of the time with her legs up and used a lot of ice.”
Co-worker: “Rested? Just that? She didn’t do anything?”
Mr. Shoes: “Yes, she rested on the Lounge Lizard (Lounge Doctor, but he called it that). And she took walks. They were short walks at first. She’s walking everywhere now.”
“But what did she do? Did you help with her exercises?”
“
no! I stayed out of her way. The resting was working so well I didn’t want to jinx it!”
Resting is doing something. Healing our knees becomes our job for a short while, and if resting is what will get the job done best and fastest, then resting is not “doing nothing,” it’s doing the optimal thing. Later, after the knees have healed sufficiently, we move on to the stuff other people call “doing something,” like exercises, gym, or biking and walking.
Mr. Shoes ran into this when explaining to a co-worker about how I recovered quickly from my BTKR. “Well, she rested most of the time with her legs up and used a lot of ice.”
Co-worker: “Rested? Just that? She didn’t do anything?”
Mr. Shoes: “Yes, she rested on the Lounge Lizard (Lounge Doctor, but he called it that). And she took walks. They were short walks at first. She’s walking everywhere now.”
“But what did she do? Did you help with her exercises?”
“
no! I stayed out of her way. The resting was working so well I didn’t want to jinx it!”Resting is doing something. Healing our knees becomes our job for a short while, and if resting is what will get the job done best and fastest, then resting is not “doing nothing,” it’s doing the optimal thing. Later, after the knees have healed sufficiently, we move on to the stuff other people call “doing something,” like exercises, gym, or biking and walking.
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pm1207
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This is the best ever....I will definitely be repeating it.But this is the wrong thinking! When you are resting and icing and watching telly you are NOT 'doing nothing'. You are 'engaging in a carefully considered pro-actively designed, heuristically programmed, dynamically structured recovery programme'. So there!
@Josephine i do the stretches because they make my knee feel less tight and stiff, especially in the morning and throughout the day when I sit for long periods.
skigirl
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I think that nearly every poster on the forum says, "I hate doing nothing" at some point in their recovery. I said it myself! It was a good moment for me to realize that reading a good book is not a cop out. That knitting and watching downton abbey are something that engage my mind and allow my body to rest. Good for you to find that out as well.
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pm1207
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Just when you feel like things are on the upswing,,,the knee takes over and says not so fast! Not sure what’s going on but I had to leave work yesterday halfway through the day. Super stiff and incredibly sore. Home again today because I wanted to “baby” my knee. It feels awful. It hurts below my knee just above my shin. It almost feels like it is going to give out when I walk. Not sure how much the weather impacts it, but it got super cold around here on Tuesday evening. Any ideas??
I don't think it had much to do with the weather.
You're back at work very early - we usually recommend taking about 12 weeks off - and your knee is entitled to protest now and then. It let you know that being back at work is too much for it.
I'm glad you did the right thing and came home. I hope you'll spend the day resting, icing and elevating that poor knee.
You're back at work very early - we usually recommend taking about 12 weeks off - and your knee is entitled to protest now and then. It let you know that being back at work is too much for it.
I'm glad you did the right thing and came home. I hope you'll spend the day resting, icing and elevating that poor knee.
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pm1207
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I do have some regrets for sure on certain days about work...debating about taking tomorrow too. Luckily I have only next week to work and then I have a week off for Christmas break. I am spending my day on the couch with my elevation wedge and my ice..
funkymuse
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I honestly believe that most surgeons have no idea what recovery is like. They haven't been through it. How could they know?
They do a brilliant technical job of giving you a new knee that functions well mechanically, so they tend to think that's all there is to it.
They only see you a few times after surgery.
They don't experience the daily grind that is recovery. That's why they don't tell you - they simply don't know!
They do a brilliant technical job of giving you a new knee that functions well mechanically, so they tend to think that's all there is to it.
They only see you a few times after surgery.
They don't experience the daily grind that is recovery. That's why they don't tell you - they simply don't know!
