Week 10 Knee Update: Mental Exhaustion from Physical Therapy

I think I am mentally exhausted from having to do physical therapy three times a day. It has been so hard to force myself complete the last two sets in the evening, and I have been skipping more often. I always do the 27 minute work out in the morning, but I'm starting to get a little burnt out. I begged my PT on Friday to add different exercises to my app, because I am getting bored. He said he would, but spoiler alert, he forgot again.

Today I did the bike on a high resistance level, then box steps (lateral and forward), squats, leg curls, Bulgarian squats, walking squats with a resistance band above my knees, balance ball squats (I was terrified to get on the ball), and finally resistance band lunges. Let me tell you something, I was almost in tears when he told me to get on the balance ball. I was like "please, please, please don't make me do this. I don't feel ready. What if I fall over and break something again." He rolled his eyes and said, "First of all you didn't BREAK anything, you tore your ligaments. Second, you won't fall over, just get on the ball." 

I figured out how to get on the ball eventually. I used the leg curl machine to hold for support and then balanced. My legs were quaking! It looked like when a baby giraffe stands up just after birth. haha. Anyway, I almost tipped over while trying to do the last exercises of the day. He told me to resistance band lunges because my legs to train my knee not to twist inward, but to push out. My legs were so tired. I was also pretty emotional about the Bulgarian split squats because of my lack of balancing skills. 

I got called out for "being sarcastic". I told him that I don't mean to be sarcastic, that I am actually trying to pep talk myself for the exercises. I explained to him that I actually really enjoy going to physical therapy and don't have a bad attitude, I just need a lot of verbal pep talks from myself to get going.  What I didn't say is that I am adept at mirroring, and reflect how other people act toward me... There is a lot of "okays" and "let's do this" and "grreeeeeat".

At the end of the session I was dragging. Absolutely wiped. I have never been more tired after a physical therapy session. I was sweating, breathing hard, and physically sore. 

Then when I got to work we had 5,000 t-shirts come in that I needed to organize. I ended up doing a lot of walking from one end of the office to the other. I may have overdone it, because my knee got swollen and hurty. I got a ride to my car from my office friend, because it was really hard to walk around without pain. 

I ended up icing and elevating my knee for a few hours after work, and the swelling went down significantly. I decided to go to the gym around 8pm to bike and walk, and my knee was feeling good. The only soreness I experienced on Saturday were located in my thighs and hips. (Bless)