Today was my second visit to outpatient rehabilitation. Monday’s appointment was primarily an evaluation visit. Today was the Real Deal.

The visit started with hot pads on each knee for about 10 minutes to help losen up the knees. The heat felt so nice, it was almost sinful! Then the real workout began.

The whole workout is centered around stretching the muscles in my legs. There’s a small window of opportunity to regain the flexibility in the legs that I had before the surgery. Scar tissue begins to build up and can never be broken through once that sets in. So, the object is to get all of the bend (130 degrees would be good) and all of the flex (up to -5 degrees would be good) as possible. Strength isn’t an objective. It’ll take about a year to regain the strength in my legs that I had before the surgery.

Today’s workout included:

• Ten minutes on the stationary bicycle. When I first sat down I couldn’t get the pedal to go all the way around (it just hurt too much). So, it was back and forth on the pedals to increase the stretch. After about 5 minutes I could go all the way around and finished up that exercise in good style.
• Walking in a straight line. The therapist put down a series of small cones (about 4 inches high). I walked down the line stepping over each of the cones all the while keeping my toes pointed straight ahead and not swinging my leg around the cone. The height of the cones will increase over time. I made several circuits, stepping over with the left leg going out and then stepping over with the right leg coming back.
• Walking sideways. Using the same cones. I side-stepped over a cone and then brought the other foot over the cone next to the first foot. Repeated down the line of cones and then came back, repeated several times.
• From there it was up on the workout bench. Quad stretches, calf stretches, thigh stretches, leg lift and holds, over and over again until I was sure I couldn’t raise my leg another time.
• The therapist then massaged the incisions on each knee and moved the knee cap around. That felt really weird! The purpose is to break up any scar tissue, particularly any that might bind the knee cap.
• Finally, foot slide on the wall. Laying on my back, I put one foot on the wall and slid it down to where the wall met the bench, then back up and repeat. Two minutes worth on each leg. This was an absolute killer exercise. At first I could only slide down a short ways. Each repetition was to go lower and hold for 5 seconds, then slide back up and do it again. After two minutes, they measured my bend in my knee. Today I had 89 degrees in my right knee and 91 degrees in the left knee. I need to get to 130 degrees. Lots of work still needed!

After that, the therapist attached little pads on each side of my knee, kind of like the pads used for an EKG. Two pads on each side of each knee were then connected to electrical wires and a machine that put some voltage into the knee. This electrical stimulation helps the muscle relax. That may be true, but the rest of me didn’t do much relaxing. While the shock therapy was going on, they put an ice pack on each knee and I sat there for 15 minutes doing the “cool down”. The ice felt as wonderful at the end of the workout as the heat did at the beginning. 

I’m now Really, Really Tired. I feel like I could crash and sleep for days. Only problem is, I know that I won’t sleep that long. There is a lot of pain in my legs and that’ll wake me up when the pain pills run their course, somewhere around 3 am in the morning. I’ll take some more pills then, but whether or not I get back to sleep will be questionable. Maybe today’s workout will leave me tired enough at 3 am to get back to sleep!

I go back tomorrow late morning for another round of this stuff. Right now I’m not looking forward to tomorrow’s visit at all.

Ta ta for now!