First day of Physical Therapy

Yesterday was my first trip and first time ever to physical therapy. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting ("I was expecting to be forced though painful exercises"), but instead found myself forcing myself to do these simple but painful exercises! (Pretty clever, having me torture myself.) The range of motion of my knee is what were working on now. Still not allowed to stand on it or have any weight on it .. for another 5 wks.

The following exercises are what I'm to be doing:
- Hamstring Stretch: with my recovering leg out flat, lean forward until there is a gentle stretch in the back of my thigh and behind my knee: hold for 15 seconds, 6 reps, 2x / day
- Calf Stretch: with my leg flat and straight, put one hand on my thigh and the other using a strap, pull my toes toward me for a gentle stretch in my calf and behind my knee: hold for 15 seconds, 6 reps, 2x / day
- Heal Prop : (my most painful exercise right now) keeping my knee straight and my foot raised up on a foam roller, totally relax and let the weight of my leg pull my knee straight into extension. Keep leg propped up for 10 mins without interruption: 6x / day (can't make it the full 10 minutes yet due to pain in my knee.)
- Quad Set: tighten both quadriceps muscles for 5 seconds trying to get the back of my knee flat against the table during the muscle contraction: repeat 30x, several / day (I can't really do this one either. I seem to have little control over the flexing of my left thigh. Sometimes it does and sometimes it won't, I've never had a problem flexing or controlling muscles before.)
- Passive Knee Flexing Motion: Sit at the edge of a bed or high tale with recovering leg supported by the 'good' leg. Totally relax the recovery leg and use the other leg to bend the knee as much as possible . Repeat for 5 - 10 mins. 2 x / day. Preferable to bend knee up to 90 deg.
- Ice Therapy: elevate leg above heart and use ice machine for 20 mins every 2 hrs daily.

My bed is a little soft and the floor is to low (to hard to get down and up), so I'm still figuring out where and how to do these. But I am doing them as best as I can right now.  I will go back tomorrow as the Physical Therapist (PT) wanted me back soon for a check up. Hopefully there will be some progress over my first visit.

The photo captures my Grand daughter who was over this week, and developed a sympathetic pain in her right leg that required her to walk around the house with crutches! It was very sweet ...

The photo not here, is of me going to Costco with my wife, where I'm using one of the electric carts ... if you every want to be invisible, try using one of those. Wow, I'm still unwinding that experience...