Both physical therapy sessions seemed productive. The morning was with Laurie, and it was a joint session with my French Hospital roomie Helen. Did a lot of straightening and stretching, quite challenging. One maneuver requires a small skateboard. I sit on a chair and place both feet on the skateboard, which is ahead of me. I move my right leg back towards me until I feel a stretch that I can hold 15 - 30 seconds. I felt a burning sensation and she said that was just fine! The other was where I stretched my knee by focusing on just my kneecap. That hurt like hell, too. Then I got to walk around with the cane. Very nice outside. And of course there was the bunny.
A little black bunny lives around here. He is friendly, not afraid of people, very very cute.
IN the afternoon I was with Tim. Really liked him. He said our job here is to rest,eat, and do therapy, and not be distracted by anything else. With him I walked through the parallel bars, forwards and backwards, a few times, then walked sideways a few times. He tested the strength in my arms (good) and my movement with them. I sat on a wheelchair, stationary, and pushed my foot into a big ball that was in a corner, stretching the leg. Like leg presses. I did a few other indoor things, then we went outside and I went up and down stairs. I'll be fine with the stairs at home. Finally, we moved to my room, where my pulley bed had been placed, and I ran through some pulley exercises, after which he opened the brace and iced the knee. It was very relaxing, or would have been if I could have read over Elinore's constant chattering.
Oh, and I had a shower, which was quite a production. I had to wait almost an hour to get an opening, then had to get to the shower, have the occupational therapist remove the brace and cover parts of the knee that shouldn't get wet. Then I got to sit there and wash to my heart's content. Afterwards, I dried, brace got replaced, I stood up and changed. I felt so much better.
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