Today I made my way to the rehabilitation therapy clinic. That’s a bit of a process getting there. Nina backs the car a ways out of the garage. I make my way on my walker to the front door and she holds the screen while I make my way down the steps and over to the car. I can’t quite bend me knees enough to get into the front seat, so I kind of lay down in the back seat and pull myself into the car, swing the legs down, and sit up. It’s uncomfortable, but works. After arriving at the clinic it’s kind of the reverse process.
Because this was the first day, the first twenty minutes were spent evaluating my current circumstance. I can bend both knees to 94 degrees and straighten them out flat (both with quite a bit of pain). We went through several exercises to see what strength I have. Then it was up on the bench for a couple of hot packs on the knees. That was 15 minutes of heaven! The picture above is while the hot packs were on my knees.
From there to the stationary bike. I can’t quite go all the way around on the pedals (maybe on Wednesday). Fifteen minutes of that and my right knee was barking quite noticeably. Then back to the bench where the the therapist put some kind of electrical stimulation on each knee and then two ice packs, one on each knee, for fifteen minutes. A total of 90 minutes and the first day at rehab was done. Thankfully.
This afternoon a care package arrived from our son Jared in Seattle, WA. There is a delightful store near where Jared lives in Seattle stocked with lots of great stuff from Japan. I love the butter cookies … two boxes. I also love the milk caramel … three boxes (for me … there was other stuff in the box for Nina, including 3 boxes of caramels for her). Thanks, Jared! They’ll be savored!!
I’ve actually been well supplied with caramels and cookies. Dawnmarie sent out a box of hand-made home-made caramels the day I went into the hospital. Heather sent out a box of salted-chocolate caramels after I got home from the hospital. Jaelene sent up a box of to-die-for brownies.
Heather reminded me that sweet stuff helps dull the pain. So far so good!
Ta ta for now!