Diary4

Oct 5.00 - New PT Well yesterday my Pt left, she is moving back home to start a family, valid reason, but who knows who the next one will be! We'll see tomorrow! Today I bought a stationary bike, though having difficulty putting it together, I hope that this will quicken my rehabilitation. My OS check up is in a week and I still don't have full range of motion so I really need/want to work on that!

Oct 6.00 - ROM Well I met one of the new therapists, he's cool, he actually owns the place and was a classmate long ago with my OS. I complained that I still could not bend my knee and my OS appt was next Wednesday so my therapist stretched and bent my knee and measured the degree and I had a 128 out of 135, not as bad as I thought, but not as good as I expect out of myself. She said I could possibly have more cartilage in there :( Have some new stretches to try and must concentrate when I walk, I'm so used to limping that I just do it now! Just see how well I can get things going until my OS appt!

Oct 12.00 - OS Check Up Had my quick check up with my OS today. He checked my ROM and apparently was pleased with it, didn't give me the grumpy face. Guess the extra work with the stationary bike etc pulled off. He told me, what I already knew, that I had some inflammation above my knee and prescribed another 4 weeks of therapy after which I will see him for another check up. Yesterday at physical therapy the therapist taped up my knee, which allowed me to do mini squats a little easier and made walking, appearance wise, much better! Things are starting to really come together with my knee. Feel really comfortable walking on it, bending has gotten so much better, just have to work out some kinks every now and then. My OS said I could go back to work soon so I'll get a little more strength, talk to my boss and life should soon be back to normal. Just gotta find some wood to knock on :)

Oct 15.00 - Taping Friday my therapist taped my knee again. I kept it on until Saturday evening, only learning afterwards that it should only be taped for about 8 hours! After removing the tape Saturday night I experienced some pain. During the night my knee began to swell. Sunday morning I awoke and found that my knee was swollen and I had severe pain on the medial side of my leg reminiscent to post surgery pain. I could still bend my knee but could not put any weight on my leg at all. Not sure if this unset of pai can be linked to the taping, overuse or the stretching that my therapist did Friday. I don't feel comfortable with the taping and will talk to my therapist at my next session this Tuesday. Swelling has gone down somewhat but not fully and the pain is minimal now. Hopefully these will subside by tomorrow morning.

Oct 17.00 - Swelling Had therapy toady, therapist did some basic tests and feel that I may have a torn meniscus. Also learned that my Hamstrings are still very underdeveloped causing a muscle imbalance between my quad/hamstring. Did some new exercises to alleviate that problem. When doing my short arc sets we noticed that my knee pops. When I rotate my hip and try the short arc set there is some crunching underneath my kneecap. My therapist then put me on a a machine to reduce swelling and sent me home.

Oct 18.00 - ??? Today the swelling had gone down and the pain is pretty minimal but something isn't right. Kept going back and forth about calling my OS and finally I did, have an appt tomorrow afternoon. Just feel very uncomfortable and frustrated, supposed to start work on the 23rd and now this happens! Murphy's Law! Hopefully tomorrow some questions will be answered, I hope. Keeping fingers crossed.

Oct 19.00 - Argh Ok so I love my OS, I mean I really have a good relationship with him. I've had bad orthopedics before and I really trust my current OS but he's on my bad side right now! I wen tot his office and told him what was going on. He asked me to bend it and straighten my knee. He didn't even touch it! He said my medial side could be bothering me because of the medial plica (wasn't that taken out???) He said to stop favoring it, that I would have to deal with pain. But since my knee was very swollen I shouldl cancel the rest of the week's therspy sessions and start over next week. If nothing happened to my knee why is it swollen? He said possibly I broke some adhesions. I don't want anything to be wrong but it hurts like #$% He hardly gave me time to speak. I'm aware that I have pain and I actually haven't had much since the surgery. Like I have said in my previous entries this pain is different, I haven't had pain like this before on my medial, side near the joint line. I still can't even bear weight. I also didn't even get to mention the crunching/popping noises to him. Oh well, give it a few days and we'll see what happens. Work on Monday is still a go, just hope I can pull through. My boss said I shouldn't come back until I am ready to work full time, he can't handle me coming and going. He's been very patient with me and I don't want to let him down either. What am I saying, I don't want to let myself down, I want to be able to walk like I was just last week!!!

Oct 22.00 - Better? A little but not really. I can put some weight on my leg but not a whole lot. Oddly enough I can bend it just fine without pain but when I extend the leg it hurts or when I'm walking, going downstairs etc. Swelling has gone down but still very noticeable. Just taking it easy and icing a lot, work start tomorrow. Though I am going in for 8 hours I will only be going in on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Haven't done many of my exercise this week, even my straight leg raises are difficult. Nothing else to report, next therapy sessions is Tuesday, so until then...