Physical Therapy

Day 1 (Wednesday)

I'm one of those odd people who loves to exercise, so I was pretty dang excited to go to rehab on Wednesday (the second day after my surgery).  I was pumped.  I was feeling better.  I had gotten much more sleep than the night before, and I was ready to get out of the bed!  Changing clothes and showering were only minor obstacles I had to face.  I had been doing quad lifts in bed.  I was going to take physical therapy by storm.

Once I got to therapy, my therapist Jessie took of my brace and other bandages off for the first time.  Not going to lie - I was pretty disappointed.  I went through a good deal of pain, and most my stitches are on the inside.  This makes them not even look tough.   Anyway, I got to see how truly swollen my knee and ankle were.  My knee reminded me of something like a cantaloupe.  My ankle was huge, and I still did not have feeling in my foot.  Plus, some of my swelling was pushed to the left side of my leg.  It looks like I have a bone out of place!!

The first exercise Jessie did with me was knee bends.  I was confused because I thought this would tear my ACL again, but Jessie obviously knew what she was doing so I kept my mouth shut.  I could not bend it on my own that day at all, but with Jessie helping me, I could bend it to 82 degrees.  She told me that I was doing good because most doctors do not even allow their patients to go to therapy until a week after their surgery.  That's one reason why I really liked my doctor.  Everyone says he is more aggressive than most surgeons.  Back to the knee bends, we made the goal that I would have 90 degrees with no help by Friday.  I must have agreed to this while my knee was bent.  Once she started helping my straighten it back out, I was in more pain than I had ever felt in my life.  We had to do knee bends three more times, and it was MISERABLE.  I think if I'm ever in agony, I'll think back to that day and I'll just be thankful that I'm not going through the first day of rehab after surgery again.

Day 2 (Thursday)

I was dreading going back to that awful place that I had to call physical therapy.  I love Jessie and all the other ladies there, but I am a tough chick. Yet I wanted to cry like a baby when I had to straighten my leg after bending it.  There really wasn't a chance that I was going to skip or complain to my parents. I just kept the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach to myself.

We did the same things we did on day one: quad exercises, muscle stem machine, and knee bends.  I improved on every exercise that day.  On day one, I couldn't do all my quad exercises by myself.  I finished them all that day.  My therapist even raised the amps on my muscle stem machine too.

In therapy, the amount of degrees you can bend your knee to is a really big deal.  Like I said earlier, our goal was to get my leg to 90 degrees by myself by Friday.  Jessie told me I had to do ten knee bends (keep in mind knee bends are what killed me the day before).  I went up for my first one pretty hesitant.  Surprisingly, when I went down to straighten it, the pain was hardly noticeable!  I wanted to start screaming with excitement because that meant I wasn't going to have to feel what I felt Wednesday anymore!  After doing knee bends ten times, I passed my goal a day early.  I got to 96 degrees by myself and 106 degrees with Jessie's help!

Day 3 (Friday/Today)

Today I was back to my usual excited to be at therapy self! We had already passed our goal for the week.  Jessie and I decided that I would get to 115 degrees by myself and 120 with her help.  It was a little painful, but we reached my goal!

When Jessie said I would get to ride on the bike today, I was pumped.  I got to ride it for three minutes today.  It wasn't the easiest thing I'd ever done, but it wasn't even close to the hardest.  Riding on the bike involves moving your knee to 105 degrees.  I can do this but I can't do it fluently or without pain yet.  I might be getting too eager, but I'm thinking once I can bend my knee to 105 degrees easily, I can start using the bike as a way to get back in shape.  Fingers crossed!

Overall, I had a really good few days at physical therpy.  My advice to anyone who goes through this surgery would be: Don't get discouraged on your first day.  It only gets easier, and its only going to make you stronger.