I know that I said that I would be keeping up with this better, but I’ve just been way too out of it. Oh well…better late than never.
About three weeks ago, I started my physical therapy for my knee. On the day that I started I had little to no movement with my knee. I could not bend it or get it straight while standing or sitting/laying down. The therapist took some measurements and told me we were going to have a lot to work on and that the more of it I can do at home, the better off I’ll be…especially if I do end up having surgery. The majority of the exercises I’m doing are stretches aimed at strengthening both my inner thigh muscle and my hip. I’m also walking backwards on a treadmill, peddling on a stationary bike and lifting light weights with my leg. The goal is that once those muscles get strong again, they will pull my knee cap back into place and it won’t be scraping stuff off anymore. So far, we’ve had some success. After a hard three weeks, I can now walk around without heavy pain for a good while. I can also straighten my leg most of the way out when sitting and laying down, which is a vast improvement. I can also bend it a bit more, but have only seen this happening in the last few days. I’ve also gotten my visits down to once a week instead of twice a week. However, I cannot straighten it out while standing or walking. We are working on that, but we’ve run into a new problem: my knee cap itself is slipping out of place.
This started about a week or so ago. I haven’t been wearing the brace I got at WalMart since (1) it’s completely worn out and falling apart, and (2) I need the support cushion to be going around the right side to keep the knee cap from sliding (or something like that). At totally random times, whether or not I’m sitting, standing or walking, the knee cap will just slide way over and completely lock up my leg. I have to press on it to get it to move back so that I can move again, and it’s extremely painful. It’s happened several times now and the therapist isn’t really sure what to make of it. She’s also concerned that the swelling hasn’t gone down at all, even with the anti-inflammatory I’m taking. At this point, we are thinking that there was a lot more damage done than what was initially thought during the months waiting for the MRI results to be sent over (which is all the more reason to not pay the place for the MRI). So, all I can do is keep up with the therapy and keep an eye on it until I see Dr. Burney at the end of the month.
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