Week 7: Bullet points from my first week of out-patient PT

Take the pain meds about 1 hour BEFORE your PT appointment. If you have a good physical therapist, which you MUST, she/he knows what they are doing and you're not going to re-injure yourself. I am pushing through the pain and difficulty of scar tissue, swelling, and stiffness accompanied by muscular atrophy.

Arrive 10 minutes early to get some heat on this part of your body about to be worked on. This gets blood flow to the area and loosens up muscle (what's left), soft tissue, and tendons.

Bring a stick, leather swatch, or as I did, a face cloth to bite down on as you cry and scream at the top of your lungs including many expletives within ear shot of the rest of the physical therapy office.

Make your appointments at least 2 weeks out at a time, and get the days and times you want.

Bring a friend (if you're the type who wants people around during trying times) - someone with a strong stomach who can take seeing you in pain and working hard without offering pity or condolences.

I was at 67.5 degrees at the beginning of my appointment and the physical therapist got me to 90 degrees with a half hour of aggressive assisted flexion. It sucked, but anything is possible!

Massage the area of the injury and the scar as often as possible; break down scar tissue and restore sensation. Make friends with your body; with the painful parts, the numb parts, the skin that feels spongy and weird. If you don't want to massage it, have a trusted friend or massage therapist do it.

Keep pushing yourself at home with all PT exercises, including the range of motion, at least two times per day, as prescribed. Take the pain meds, suck it up, and make progress!

The Constant Passive Movement machine is still in active use. My goal is to increase by 5 degrees every day or so - or at least continue to make steady progress. Sometimes I have hit plateaus, like at 40 degrees and 60, I was there for a few days and that's that. But today (Sunday) I'm at 75 degrees. And by Wednesday, by God, I really hope to be at 90 - feeling the pain but able to keep my left hip down and body relaxed with as little wincing as possible. I've decided to try to do the CPM for a half hour per day at max range of motion a few times per day and then lay off it while I sleep.

Unlock the brace. Let your leg swing, dangle, and move as much as possible.

Trust your physical therapist. Your mind and body might say "Stop! It hurts!". Your PT will say otherwise. Listen to him/her. You want to walk again and do athletic type activities again, right? 

DO THE WORK. DON'T SLACK. ASK FOR HELP TO MEET YOUR GOALS.

TREAT YOURSELF RIGHT. LOVE YOURSELF. REWARD YOURSELF. YOU'RE NOT A BABY OR A WIMP. 

(All of the info above and through out this blog is my experience and interpretation of instructions from my doctors and physical therapists regarding my injuries. Consult your own medical care providers regarding your own specific care and injuries.)

The Super Cool Pre-Op X-Ray of My Completely Obliterated Tibial Plateau!

Okay, so here's what you are looking at in the picture below (the most obvious injuries):

• Femur up top (thigh bone, the human body's largest bone) and tibia (shin bone) beneath it.
• See how the femur is slanting to the right (my body's left lateral side)? Well, it's supposed to be straight up and down.
• Look at my tibia. Your right (my left side of body) is crushed. The femur has sunken into this crushed space of the tibial plateau. Crushed from the compression fracture. Pretty sick!

 

What is a little bit harder to see is the medial (your left) side of the tibial plateau: the flared top part of the tibia that meets the femur/knee joint, is also fractured. Nearly split off from the shaft. The fibula, which is the smaller bone behind the shin, connects to the tibia at the top lateral side (the crushed side). Because of the crushing fracture, the fibula broke too. Oopsie! There's a fracture in the shaft of the tibia, lower down, not visible here. The medial meniscus tore (was cut and sewn), and the ACL, still intact, took a chunk of bone and split right off of the knee joint.

Anyhow, I'm keeping the faith. I'm 31 years old. I've got a plate and 6 screws in my left leg. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. This accident happened on August 26, 2011 while riding my bike going less than 10 mph, doing nothing fancy, just taking a turn I've taken a dozen times three blocks from my home. Freaky things happen! Life happens. I'll make a 150% recovery because I plan on being in bad ass shape after this "recovery" is behind me.

That is all.