Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Been 3 weeks ago today.

Walking without a cane. No limp. Been off pain meds for about 5 days, and that's down from about 1 every other day.

Doing out patient PT. Real good flexibility. The therapist said I'm doing so well, probably just another week.

She asked me what I've been doing at home so I went back and counted. I started the first week doing 15 exercises 10 reps a set 3x day. Upped it to 20 exercises 25 reps/ 3x day. Since Last week I've been doing 20 exercises 50 reps 3 times a day. Thats 1000 reps a day and that doesn't count getting up and walking every hour and stretching.

Knee bend is 125 degrees but I can't quite straighten it all the way yet. Thats what the therapist is working on. It's still sore and it still aches at times but no pain no gain.

My wife thinks I'm nuts and have been overdoing it but its paid off.

What really worked for my knee was an exercise bike with resistance....
20-30 mins really loosen all up right before they would try to get it straight ( PT )

tom mac wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:54 am What really worked for my knee was an exercise bike with resistance....
20-30 mins really loosen all up right before they would try to get it straight ( PT )

The therapist put me on a recumbent elliptical machine this morning to loosen up my knee. Even so, laying flat on a table and having her push down on the knee just about brought tears to my eyes.

And I got cleared to drive. Thinking of driving up to the gym to do the exercise bike. It's only a mile from the house. Thinking of changing up my exercise routine, just because.

Okay...I'm back from the gym. Did both the recumbent and upright stationary bike. Did 10 minutes on both of them. No real problem. They did loosen up the knee so I will be going back often.

Glad you are making progress. Physical therapy can be a bear.

Probably my last update.

After the therapist pushed down on my knee a couple weeks ago to straighten it (much pain) I started stretching it at home so I wouldn't have to go through that again. Success! Last week when I showed up at PT my knee was straight.

It will be 5 weeks on Tuesday since my knee. I'm walking, my knee is straight and I have 126 degrees of flexion which is pretty good i.e, above the standard. Still doing PT a couple times a week but I'm still doing more at home than in PT. I think this will be my last week. The bone is still healing (takes about 8 weeks) and I still have some soreness when bending it but overall I am quite happy with the progress. It does still ache at night but oh well.

As of last week I'm also back at the gym just about every day, doing upper body weight training on some days and the stationary bike on alternate days. With the bone still healing I don't want to do weights yet. Since I was off for about 4 weeks I'm mostly using light weights just to get back into it.

great to hear...

Glad all went well and back to normal.

Had my final check up with the Dr/surgeon today.

5 weeks and 2 days out. Xrays looked good. He said I'm way ahead of everybody else in terms of recovery at this point but reminds me that I'm only 5 weeks out. Takes about 8 weeks for the bone to heal, and another 4-6 weeks for muscles/tissue to heal fully.

He advises another week of PT just because it's good to have a therapist looking after it for another week, then I'm done. He knows I will continue to work it at home.

ok.. so in 4-6 more weeks it's time to get the tree climbing spikes out

tom mac wrote: ↑Fri Apr 07, 2023 7:49 am ok.. so in 4-6 more weeks it's time to get the tree climbing spikes out

Yeah...no