Saturday, February 07, 2009

PT - The Aftermath

I know I shouldn't expect anything less, but I am really out of condition. When I went to physical therapy on Thursday I got a pretty good idea of where I stand, and I have a lot of work to do. In the 45 or so minutes I was there, I was evaluated and found I lost about 60% of the strength in my left leg. It was also made pretty clear that I have atrophy up into my hip.

So there was heat, stretching, some strength exercises, and ice. It was really sore afterward, and yesterday I had a lot of difficulty walking as well as some edema that made its way past the compression sock I was wearing. This morning I made sure I had my leg elevated for a couple of hours, and it helped.

This afternoon I went to the gym. I was able to do 20 minutes on a stationary bike, surprisingly without a lot of difficulty at the time. I also started on some upper body work - pull-overs, lateral pull-downs, flys, and a couple of rounds of abdominal crunches, as well as more stretching. It's amazing how different today was from yesterday; I actually feel decent as I am writing this post.

My PT schedule will be 12 noon, three days per week over the next 5 weeks. I also will be continuing to go to the gym, even on PT days. Those days, though, will be lighter than the non-PT days, simply because I don't want to overdo it.

As I write this, I can say that my attitude is turned around 180 degrees over the past two days. I am looking forward to continuing to get back into condition, and with any luck I'll be good to go soon.

Back when all of this started, I had written that I couldn't do any less than what I am doing. That is especially true at this moment in time; the stakes are pretty high, and for my own peace of mind and well-being I really need to be as close to 100% as possible when the time comes to go back to work.

More importantly, it's what I want. I expect no less than that from myself.

1 comment:

Evil Transport Lady said...

Great Job! Keep up the great attitude! Hugs from the internet!!