Hi everyone!
I have some PT questions. Sorry-it's going to be a long post. I am three weeks out from my RTKR today, and am feeling a lot better. I'm still extremely lazy, would say that I spend the majority of my time in/on my bed. Yesterday I took a shower, made a trip down and up the stairs for provisions, tidied up a (very small) bit, was up to prep meals for myself, did some (not all) of my PT exercises, refreshed my ice in my cryo-cuff, was up hosting a friend who came over for about an hour, and the rest of the time I was pretty much in bed.
The exercises the PT has me doing is a set of bed exercises:
- ankle flaps
- butt squeezes
- extension stretches
- heel slides
- "snow angels", moving leg out to side without lifting off the bed to engage hip flexors
- leg lifts
- passive leg roll stretches.
I do these pretty much in a row. I am fairly pathetic about most of these, although I can do ankle flaps with the best of them. The toughest one for me is the leg lifts. I can lift higher now than I could, but I usually **** out after about three of them. I do better when the PT is here, because he keeps asking me for longer, more. He's very disciplined on my behalf, whereas I am not so much.
He's also got a protocol for walking with the walker, and I've come quite a ways with that. Instead of my hunching over and throwing foot out and pointing it off to the side, the foot is tracking forward and it's a more balanced walk. I walk around the house a bit, revert to a chair when I'm tired, shuffle to the bathroom, etc. I've tried a few jaunts without it, but it's pretty pathetic, again, so I quit.
Next are some seated exercises:
- hinge kicks
- seated slides
- march in chair
- rocking chair stretches
- seated slides (bend leg back and plant it, then slide myself forward and stretch)
Next set is theraband exercises:
- Hamstring curls
- long arc quads
- ankle pumps against resistance
Then the standing ones:
- Marching in place
- more snow angels
- mini-squats
- toe raises
I'm supposed to aim for 10 each of the rep ones, and a count of ten for the resistance ones. He encourages me to get through all of these at least once a day, and then start the list over at the beginning if I want to. I'm not getting through this whole list most days, and there are several exercises that I do three-four of rather than ten.
He said that the critical thing here is to get the muscles firing again, to remember to do their job. Usually PT wipes me pretty much out for the day. On the days where I do less, I'm not as racked out. But I still see gains, especially in my posture in walking, in being a bit more comfortable at night, in not fearing getting out of bed and walking.
I'm also facing the possibility (but not necessity) of going back to work next week. Wondering about the wisdom of that, or whether I'd be wiser to wait another week or two and focus more on my recovery. My ROM was estimated at 85-7 on Wednesday.
Also I ice, ice, ice. I must change out the water on the cryo-cuff 20-30 times a day (gets old! Wish I had a pump!) and use the CPM for a couple of hours, even though I've heard everything from "use it for as long as you can stand it; sleep in it if you can stand that" to "no proven benefit". I'm terrified of having it slip off the bed at night with my leg strapped in, but the idea of having my leg in motion at night is very appealing. Haven't done it, though.
I would appreciate any thoughts, critique, encouragement, ideas.
United States
