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Saturday, April 23, 2011

Catching up: Tuesday the 19th and moving to Wednesday the 20th

I wrote a bit about last Monday here already, so I'm moving to Tuesday,
the 19th. Monday I experimented with fewer drugs and wondered if the
pain was going down. Tuesday I was back to the usual dose but I don't
remember anything else particularly about that day.

Wednesday I do remember. I got to the point where I actually liked
physical therapy. It is usually painful yet I see progress just about
every day, which seems a kind of miracle. The therapists had also
discovered how well it works to have Helen and me in the same session.
We laugh at each other, brag about our numbers, grouse about the
torture, and of course applaud each other. And it isn't fake.

Wednesday I walked down the middle of the parallel bars without touching
anything. Felt just a little unbalanced. Later I started going out on my
own without my cane. Taking smallish steps and paying attention. When I
used the cane I rarely used it for more than just a touch on the ground.

I had a bad night Tuesday night and it carried over into Wednesday. IN
the afternoon, the therapist even went out to get a nurse to give me
pain meds NOW. I felt I needed some sort of consultation, a discussion
of the pain and where it is coming from (it is a bit hard to pinpoint
other than the whole leg hurts along with various parts of it) but still
hoped that I would start feeling less pain and no longer feel the need
for a change.

Maryann came by with fresh, folded laundry, plus my mail. None too soon,
'cause I was running out of stuff.

And I graduated from Occupational Therapy. heh. No need to have any more
consultations about the everyday challenges I will face when I go home.
I had already been facing them before I had the surgery.

Oh, and I made 92 degrees in the bend of my knee. The brace makes it
doubtful that I will make any meaningful gains on that number.

One day in therapy the therapist said something about the therapy room
being open at night. He didn't actually say that but that's what I
heard. I immediately thought, "Great! When I can't sleep I can come in
here and do some weight lifting or cycling or maybe there will be a
therapist in here to help me?" It seemed like such a great idea for
insomniacs. Especially if there were a therapist in there. Wednesday
night maybe I would have gone there.

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