Today I spent over an hour with the physio that I used to see five years ago that corrected my shoulder and neck problems that five other physios hadn't been able to resolve. We went through the past few years of history and reviewed the EMG and nerve conduction report. She explained to me what happens with femoral nerve damage that I have and called it axonal degeneration. I'd read that it can take a year or so to recover but apparently that's only the start of the recovery as the regeneration fibres then take a long time to start up. She said it can be as slow as 1mm a week and looking at the distance from the groin to the knee of around 400mm so go do the math! For the VMO quad to work properly it doesn't need all the length regenerated. I don't think I've explained it very well. She drew a picture for me.
She used an electrical stimulation machine and she said that at 35 whatevers using it above the knee the lower leg will jump up. With me it was set at the max of 99 and the VMO was activated but nothing in the lower leg. Her diagnosis is that the damage isn't permanent.
So its lots and lots of quad sets and short arc quads with foot turned out 15degrees. I've always had pain to the inside of the patella when I've done these. She said that's because the patella is being pulled sideways and so lifting out of the grove and so pressing where it shouldn't be, hence the pain. Apparently as he fibres regenerate by doing these particularly exercises they will be made to work asap that they are able. And once they work and the VMO is stronger the pain when I climb hills and stairs will go away.
When I go walking I'm to take 3 minutes every so often and slow right down, walk very precisely making sure everything is in line, hips facing forward, knee above second toe and make sure I try to control the point at which I lose control in each step. She said climbing hills right now won't be overly beneficial until the VMO is stronger.
I feel I now have direction again.
And she picked up that with my non TKR knee the VMO is shutting down because of the pain that I now have in that knee so I'm to do the exercises on both.
That's all folks!
United States
