It's been three weeks since my knee surgery. I began physical therapy this past Tuesday. That was 18 days after surgery. The swelling had greatly subsided and I felt ready to start working with the professionals. I chose physical therapy office half way between home and work and plan on getting my sessions in after work 2 or 3 times a week.
I began my first session Tuesday afternoon at 12pm. The first session goes a little longer and there were no other appointments, so I decided to go in and get it done. My physical therapist (PT from now on) is a guy named Bob who as it happened graduated from the same high school as me a few years before I did and plays in the same Sunday softball league where I tore my ACL. Strange coincidence. The PT said he's had a handful of injuries similar to mine this summer as a result of playing in softball leagues. That didn't surprise me much because I know I saw at least one or two other guys go down while playing in the league this past year. I know one guy needed an ambulance for whatever happened to him. A bunch of old guys trying to act young often times results in painful injuries.
We went over my goals, a timetable and I worked through I few basic exercises. A lot of the focus at the beginning will be trying to get my leg to fully extend and also bend my knee as far as the other knee can bend. I did a few exercises that worked on strengthening my quadriceps and also muscles up near my hip. The whole session lasted about an hour and a half. I was given some exercises to do at home on days were I don't have PT and I left feeling good about where I was headed. I went back to work and finished out the rest of the day.
I called Walgreen's late in the afternoon to get a refill of my prescription, thinking I better refill just to be safe in case there is some lingering pain after PT. Walgreen's though, apparently had no record of my prescription and was unable to do anything for me until they heard from my doctor. This was pretty strange since I had just been to Walgreen's days before to pick up the prescription. I called my doctors office but was only able to leave a message with a nurse.
The next morning was pretty unpleasant. Generally, mornings are the worst time of day for my knee pain because any pain medicine has worn off over night and my leg is just kind of in the same position all night and tends to tighten up. I got up, took my last pain pill (usually i take 2 or 2.5), ate some high fiber cereal and went to work.
I began the day making a series of phone calls between Walgreen's and my doctor's office trying to get this all straightened out. Hopefully, I thought, I'd be able to pick up the prescription around lunch time. By mid morning, my knee and thigh were beginning to ache, at times there was this pulsating pain in my lower quad. I felt like I was running a temperature and was told by a co-worker I didn't look so good. I needed my pills, damn it! The day after the first PT session was kicking my ass.
After another handful of calls, I was able to confirm with Walgreen's would be ready for pick up around 6pm, an hour after I normally get off work. I hung around work for as long as I could but the place cleared out about 5:15. I went out to my car, turned the key, and the son of a bitch wouldn't start. I didn't really care about the car but if this episode got in the way of me getting to Walgreen's at 6, I'd just lose it. Luckily, I had a friend come through and stop by and come jump my car. I got to Walgreen around six, picked up my prescription, and was out the door with a smile.
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I had my second PT session on Thursday. It was very similar to what I did in my previous session, except it began with me doing 10 minutes on a bike. The pain the following day, today, can't even compare to what I felt on Wednesday. This morning, I woke up and took 2.5 pills and have been doing just fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment