Knee Update Week 6: Are Physical Therapists Sadistic?

Week 6 Update: I was officially released from my brace and the last crutch. It has been an exhilarating and terrifying few days. Exhilarating because I was finally able to wear pants for the first time in 6 weeks. Terrifying because I am walking without an aid for the first time in 6 weeks. I have a spot on my knee cap that causes searing pain when I walk for too long, so I am trying to take it easy. I am also super scared of reinjuring myself, so I have been taking very slow and deliberate steps.  

I saw the surgeon for my 6-week follow up appointment on Wednesday. I was excited to discuss my progress and healing. However, I was surprised to find him upset. I had the first appointment of the day, and he was 20 minutes late, so perhaps something happened before he got in to work. First, he was upset because I had a hard time relaxing my leg (as always). Then he told me my knee was too stiff and I needed to start moving it. He was concerned when I told him my flexion is at 85 with stretching. My surgeon also mentioned how my other knee hyperextends, but there is nothing he can do about that right now. (Hopefully, no surgery will be needed on the right knee.) Before he walked off, he reset the dials to full extension and flexion and told me that I need to have full range of motion by my 12 week follow up visit. I think he thought I was going to walk out without the brace and crutch, but there was no freaking way. Mentally I was like, "I respect you as my surgeon, and I will bring your concerns to my PT, but I will NOT be weaning myself from my aids without proper instruction from my physical therapist." So I hobbled out to the lobby, took notes on my phone and then went home to work. 

My PT appointment was scheduled for Friday at 4:30. I rolled into the hospital parking lot about 15 minutes early. I knew I would have to wait for a minute, so I got my headphones connected to my phone so I could listen to "Dead Romantics". As soon as I exited my car I saw my PT standing on the phone outside the building. Seeing your PT outside of the office is a bit disconcerting, it feels like it breaks the illusion. Like seeing your teacher in real life outside of school. I was relived when he walked inside before I reached the sidewalk. I hobbled in and talked to the front desk ladies about their weekend plans as I filled out my pain survey. I got called back before I could even start reading "I Am Not A Serial Killer". 

I knew I needed to find a good time to drop the surgeon's comments because it was going to piss him off. As I sat on the bike for my first exercise of the day, I dropped the news. As expected, he did not take it well. I said, "Listen, I am just the messenger. I know it's unreasonable to expect me to be any further along in recovery. I literally started walking on it like 2 weeks ago. Maybe he forgot about my meniscus repair?!" Oh to be a people pleaser... He fumed and checked his notes and saw that my surgeon did not write anything about my meniscus on his notes. 

I had to do a lot of new exercises and I was dying. As I walked on the treadmill, my PT vented to the older PT doing ACL workouts with another patient. The older PT said that since my surgeon is a former military doctor he may have different expectations for recovery. Then he talked about how they used to completely replace soldier's knees when they tore their ACLs in the 80s-90s. I was shook! 

I started with the bike and then my usual treadmill walk. When I was done with my usual exercises, he turned to me and said, "Gone are the days of easy PT for you, Cordova. Now it's time for the real deal." I started sweating profusely because there was glint in his eye when he said that. Then he made me ditch my crutch. I wined and complained and told him that I needed my emotional support crutch, but my pleas fell on deaf ears. 

I had to walk back and forth to wall (focused on my gait), then  mini squats with a band on my left leg (I almost toppled over), push a rolling chair back and forth with my left leg, marches, straight and lateral step ups, and staggered sit-to-stand. I was a mess. 

Then he was like, "Okay, on to stretching. You need to pull your leg to over 90 degrees today." My first couple supine heal pulls resulted in barely 90 degrees. I was excited because 90ish is close to being over 90 degrees. He told me it wasn't good enough and then he put HIS WEIGHT ON MY KNEE and pushed it to 95 degrees. I may or may not have cursed in pain. I was seeing colors and felt like I was going to throw up. I told him that was horrible and not to do it again. Then we chatted about B.O.B and his greatest hits as I gingerly continued the leg pulls. However, I think that may have been a trick to get me to put my guard down, because before I knew what was happening he started pushing my knee back again. I felt like I was going to black out because it caused so much pain, so in a attempted for relief I pushed myself away from him. I got chastised because he was OnLy TrYiNG to HeLp. 

Anyway, it freaking sucked and made me reconsider coming back in on Monday!! Then when my session was over, he didn't even ice my knee. I went home in so much pain, and ended up laying down and icing my knee for the rest of the night. 

I have been using the crutch for extended periods of walking or standing, because I get exhausted really easily. I had some holds in at the library, so I decide venture out of the house on Saturday. That's when my worst fear came to fruition. For context: My worst fear is being attacked (verbally or physically) by someone while being incapacitated (on crutches). I was walking out of the library with my crutch and I made eye contact with a lady across the parking lot. 

I prayed in my heart that she would keep on her merry way, but NO. She stopped me and said, "Is your ankle messed up?" I sucked in a breath and tried to be polite as I just said, "I tore my ACL and meniscus." Then she goes off on a spiel about a powerful herb that can heal any bone or ligament. I was like, "Oh okay, thank you. I'll totally look that up when I get home. *total lie* I already had surgery, so it might be pointless." Then the lady had the audacity to get mad at me and say, "Well there are so many natural remedies. You should NOT have had surgery. That was a mistake." I looked at her and said, "Um...Well....Okay, have a nice day." Then I opened my car and quickly left before she could say anything else. 

If anyone needs me please know that I am at home, avoiding people. I will just ask my mom to pick up my books in the future. 😑

 

Last full day with the brace on.

Friday work from home! Headed back to the office soon!

First time back in pants in 6 weeks!!

Bugging my mom at the grocery store! I haven't been to the store in 5 weeks. I had a great time.

Funny Physical Therapy Videos from Stretch Pad (@stretch_pad on Instagram). 

This was me on Friday. 😅