So... getting back to checking in after what I would consider a bit of a failure of a day at PT. The guy was nice enough and didn't push me to pain. He pushed me a bit into a deeper stretch than I'm used to and I told him when he needed to back off. He showed a couple of nice exercises to do, which I did, and we measured my ROM which was at 62 with a bit of a slight push from him. I'm sure it's around 60 without any push.. so I'm happy with that. I mean last week I was only 45 - so on my own, walking and stretching and doing gentle bending work, my knee is losening up. He gave me the song and dance of needing me to come in twice a week so he could help get me through to that ellusive ROM measurement before that WINDOW OF TIME is up!
The whole time was spent on the bending work and then I did some short arc quad lifts with a roll under my knee, which I have been doing here at home - but only about 5 per day.
So here's my rationale. Why go there and be put through all these exercises in a short span of 30 min only to experience swelling and tightness the rest of the day? I mean I still need to function a bit at home and so if I do this, it shuts me down from being able to take my gentle walks around the house, and do a few things in the kitchen and move about when my body gets restless!!! I can do all these exercises at home at a gentle pace throughout an 8-12 hour period rather than shoving them all into 30 min which causes everything in my knee to be unhappy because she is not ready to do all this all at once!
I called the day a failure because I came home and ended up having to be bed-locked because of swelling and stiffness all from this 30 min PT session, which truly was not that bad but again my rationale is that it happens all at once, so in that regard, at this stage in my healing, my knee does not want to go there!
So what I plan to do is to stall a bit. I'm cancelling my next week PT. The following week I see my surgeon before my PT - so I'm going to ask him if I have to do these PT sessions and tell him my experiences and see what he says and then go from there. My gut feeling is to NOT GO BACK!!!
@Polkadot - yes I researched those little peddlers quite extensively and decided instead to buy a used stationary bike since at some point when I'm ready, I'm going to want to get back to cardio work.
@Celle - I'm grateful for your words of support and wisdom. They are hitting home more and more - especially after today!
@skigirl - yes well I looked all around and the toeless ones only came in firm, extra firm and ultra firm. So I'm hoping these work. The ones with the toe come in light, med and firm... so we will see! I'll send them back if they are too tight. And thanks for the information you shared on the Tylenol and Tramadol.
@kneeper - I'm definitely NOT going to do scar massage. Maybe that's an old school thing as the PA is very old school about things but after reading your post and another one on my thread, I'm NOT going to do it!!!