Gail, Finally starting to catch up your thread. I also have the issues with my extension. I do put a weight on my thigh with my leg out on a chair, but I don't lie on my stomach with the weight on my ankle anymore because it hurts my boobs! I do think the weight has helped alot and it took a very long time to work up to 10-15 minutes and with being back to work I have backslid because all the sitting just tightens up my hamstrings. I agree with Judy that I think you can probably reach the extension without the weight. I think the key is consistency and frequency, both of which I find very hard to do at work as when I put my leg up on a chair I can't type on the keyboard. I think, at least for me, that I need to do it a whole lot more than I really want to be doing it and as my walking improves I can really tell if that leg is tight as the walking worsens.
It is possible that your hip pain and extension issues are interconnected. In my case, my pelvis was both horizontally out of alignment and rotated forward on one side before TKR. I have noticed since the knee replacement that my pelvis is now straight and no longer rotated, but my muscles, tendons and ligaments have not all caught up with that change yet. I have arthritis in both hips, but worse in the right, so when I walk, if I fatigue or my legs are too tight, or my I am not correct in my posture, my right hip starts to hurt, and both my hip flexors are still so weak and tight that they often seize up, particularly if my legs are tight. I am learning that before i take my short walks outside that I do some stretching right beforehand and that helps and sometimes I even have to stop and stretch some more or wait for the hip flexors to relax a little. When I walk I feel like I am practicing walking with a book on my head, as I need to stay straight and upright and even and this is trying to break a whole ton of bad walking habits that have developed over the last 8 years. I think this is the hardest thing I have ever done, physically, is relearning how to walk and developing the stamina and ability to walk correctly. So the pain you may have in your hip may be because you are still getting realigned. I suspect the fibro slows down the relaxing of your muscles, tendons and ligaments and that it may take additional time. Also, when you had those different measurements at PT were they different times of the day and had you done different activities prior to PT? I mention that because my extension was always worse on the days I went to PT directly from work, rather than from home.
But it sounds like some things are really improving though! You are riding the bike which is awesome and going shopping! Have you ever done any gentle yoga? I took a class a few years ago and they had a series of exercises that you could run through and I dug that out and am starting to go through some of them. My legs have been tight for a long time now as the slight bend in the knee that I would maintain all the time protected my knees from some of the pain when I was standing, and now that is going away, so I am trying to give my body some gentle nudges that she can start to relax and does not need to tense up against the pain in the knee that is no longer happening! Big hug to you!
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