When I arrived at my PT session yesterday, Kristen informed me that it was time for her to do an evaluation. We sat and talked first. She asked me a lot of questions about my progress: How was I sleeping? (I told her I sleep well.) What did I still feel uncomfortable doing? (stairs, mainly because I haven't tried) How close do I feel I am to being able to do the things I want to do? (75%?)
Then we went for a walk. We went out of the PT area to the stairway off the main lobby of the building. The stairwell was nice - carpeted and with nice hand-rails on both sides. I told her I had not done a staircase yet. We started with going down. I was allowed to hold on to the rails on both sides, but she wanted me to go down with 1 foot per step - like normal, healthy people do. Much to my surprise and delight, I was able to do it! I went down about 24 stairs. Then we turned around and came back up - again, with 1 foot per step. That actually seemed easy to me, but I don't think I would have tried it without holding on. It greatly eased my mind to know I could do a stairway like that. Both my home and my school are virtually stairs-free, but the rest of the world isn't.
Kristen also measured me again. I was able to get to 104 degrees on the bend, and I was still at 5 degrees on the flattening. I'm happy with that.
Then we had a talk about my future visits. According to my insurance company, I have 4 left for the calendar year. She asked if I wanted to use them all or save some. She suggested that a lot of people like to save a few just in case something else comes up. I told her I wanted to do what was best for my progress. She said that since I'm going back to school and will be getting all the exercise from that - and also starting back to water aerobics in Sept, that maybe I should save the remaining sessions. She also then revealed to me that Aug 22 will be her last day in this office as she has taken a job at a different therapy office where she will be the manager.
I had already scheduled the last 4 for the next 4 weeks, but after our conversation, I decided to cancel 3 of the 4. I will get my last session in with her before she leaves and then I will save the last 3. She said I can transfer to the other office if I want to do more sessions later.
And so, I am being phased out of physical therapy. I am not doing many exercises at home now. This past week, I went to school 4 of the 5 days, and I felt that was therapy since I was walking a lot and moving things, etc... I have still done my Zebra squeezes each night before bed. I will probably exercise some this weekend, but I imagine I will be very tired next week with going back to school.
I am still stiff when I've been sitting for awhile, but I feel that when I am up and moving around, much of my swelling and stiffness is greatly reduced. I feel that once I get moving, I don't limp much, if at all, and sometimes that limp comes from the other leg. I still get occasional pains in Bessie, but they are very brief.
My scar changes color. Sometimes it is dark reddish-purple. Sometimes it is pink. Sometimes it is very hard to see and sometimes it really stands out. I was able to show it off to some colleagues this week. I referred to it as my "red badge of courage". I still put scar gel on after I shower.
Hubs asked if I ever forget I had surgery. I do. It usually isn't long before something reminds me though. Occasionally when I'm lying in bed, I think, "Wow - nothing hurts!" And I try to savor that feeling as long as I can!
I start back to water aerobics on Sept 3; however, Sept 11 is the next milestone for me - that will be 3 months. I hope to be able to report significant changes by then.
I'll keep you posted on how Bessie gets along at school. I have my story to tell in response to "what did you do this summer?" "Oh, I read a lot of books and watched a lot of TV and movies, and I got out of doing yard work!" How could a summer be more perfect than that?!
We'll talk again soon...
:)Amy
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