Inside Out

Here's the story of my knees in pictures.

As a reminder, here are my before-surgery MRIs.

And here are the pictures they took of the inside of my knee. (I think I labeled everything correctly.)

Here is my knee with the stitches.

And stitches out!

Physical therapy was hard today! At least I get to go to this beautiful facility.

I'll try and take pictures tomorrow of the actual things I do in therapy. They look so easy, but are sooo hard! I came home today and slept for a couple hours straight!

12/7 - Therapy Update

The hospital where I had surgery and where I have therapy is only a couple of years old. The therapy area is even newer and is state of the art. It's a fantastic facility.

I start my therapy with this machine. I push down for 10 minutes. I can't do much. At first after 10 minutes it would say I hadn't taken any steps, but today it said I had taken 19 steps! Woo hoo. So embarrassing to be able to do so little.

This was a new exercise today. I had to step forward and back, first with one foot in front and then with the other in front. Then I had to go side to side. It was so hard and it hurt!

Then I had to step up onto a two inch block of wood. I think it was mostly hard because mentally I was afraid to take the step.

I didn't have to do this one today, but last time I had to lift my foot from one side to the other of it and then face it and lift my foot forward and back. It looks so easy, but was so hard to do. Crazy! 

Then I lay on my back with my knees on this roller and have to lift my heel off the ground. It's not too hard, but I can't lift it far.

But then they change it to a smaller roller and it is really hard for me to lift my heel off that one.

The easiest one I didn't take a picture of. It's where I just sit on the edge of the table and let my leg hang and then lift it up. That one isn't so hard to do.

The hardest one is where I lay on my back and push my knee down towards the table. Then a towel is placed under my foot and I have to do it again. Getting my leg straight hurts.

But by far my least favorite part is when the physical therapist measures my knee to see how far it will bend. THIS HURTS!!! I've been at 90 degrees, but today I got to 95. That's pretty good for only a week and a half since surgery.

I'm looking forward to the day when all of this is behind me and I can just walk and swim like before.