From what seemed to be the longest and coldest winter this area, and even most of United States, has come surges of 70 degree days and even a day or two sprinkled in over 80 (which is quite unseasonable but never unwelcome given what we had expereinced). As the seasons shifted from winter and periods of Polar Vortex into a Pittsburgh Spring (lots of rain and still some really cold days and freezing nights-but not in a row) my healing has continued. I have been seen at The Allegheny General Human Motion Center by my Surgeon, Dr. Timothy J Sauber twice. Both visits were with positive results and right on schedule for the work that he had performed and pain levels experienced have been decreasing as a result.
My physical therapy changed from a homecare situation to an outpatient situation. I now see Nick, at OSPTA. It is a group that has several offices throughout the area and there is a location less than 3 miles from my home. I have seen Nick in the past, so seeing the same physical therapist is a good thing and I would highly recommend doing so if possible.
The first 3 weeks of physical therapy I was still using the walker and had restrictions for my weight bearing. However, this did not meant that Nick and his assistants did not put together a nice list of at least 15 exercises to get me moving in a positive direction.
My first physical therapy session was the lomgest as it was more of an evaluation in addition to just the presentation of the prescription for the therapy by Dr. Sauber. Nick went through several tests to see where I was with my ROM (Range Of Motjion), levels of strength, levels of tolerance and asking me throughout what my number of pain was so as not to put me over the edge. The idea of therapy of course is to go a little further than your level of comfort and push through-but you never NEVER want pain. When I began I was at only 25% weight bearing.
Many of the exercises could be accomplished thorough the modification of sitting in a chair or using my walker as the support-That is a good thing. In addition to doing the therapy exercises at the office it is assigned and of TANTATMOUNT IMPORTANCE TO DO THE EXCERSICES AT HOME AS ASSIGNED. The muscles atrophy very quickly after surgery and injury. I was shocked to see how my left leg became my "skinny leg" as my husband David and I have named it. By doing the assigned "homework" from PT (Physical Therapy) it will be that much easier for any patient to progress during your appointments and be able to add new and more challenging excercises to get back to a full sport situation.
My therapy appointments always start with a combinationof an application of moist heat compresses to my hip and my knee, which has been giving me some issues also, and application of pads connected to a T.E.N.S inuit. The T.E.N.S Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is the use of electric current produced by a device to stimulate the nerves for therapeutic purposes. TENS, by definition, covers the complete range of transcutaneously applied currents used for nerve excitation although the term is often used with a more restrictive intent, namely to describe the kind of pulses produced by portable stimulators used to treat pain.[1] The unit is usually connected to the skin using two or more electrodes. A typical battery-operated TENS unit is able to modulate pulse width, frequency and intensity. Generally TENS is applied at high frequency (>50 Hz) with an intensity below motor contraction (sensory intensity) or low frequency (<10 Hz) with an intensity that produces motor contraction.
The unit that is used at OSPTA creates a pulse of varying degree of intensity as indicated by the patient (ME), I started with a very low intensity of about a 5 on the dial. The pulses are on for 10 full seconds and then off for 30 seconds, for a total of 20 minutes.
After the initial 20 minutes the real work begins!
A Geneeral Lisiting of my exercises are:
Heel Slides:
Pillow Squeeze:
Four-Way Leg Extension:
Ankle Strengthening using resistence bands:
After about 4 weeks of doing these exercises with 25% weight bearing I had an appointment on March 26th and was given the go-ahead to go to 50% weight bearing. Although this was still using the walker. But at this rate I will take any and all progress as it comes. With the addition of the new weight bearing I was able to start the treadmill at a speed of 1.2 miles an hour for 5 minutes doing a "skateboard" motion with my right leg/good leg on the rail being stationary and the left leg going through the motions. We did this for about 5-6 sessions. It was a great first start to get me used to putting more weigt on the hip and getting back into making a full stride.
After that I was able to graduate with each session at the office appointment with speed and intensity to using a full stride and both feel walking on the tread mill. We have also begun to utilize the Total gym to use only my body weight as resistence to to do squats. The last of the new exercises are the wall slides. It is an assisted squat using your back against the wall as support. They are challenging and at times I am not happy to do them, but I know that I have to do them in order to get to where I want to be. There was a reason that this surgery was a possibility for me and I have to make every effort to ensure that it is indeed a success and I have a full recovery.
~DRIVE SLOW~
