Week 9 Knee Update: Push It, Push It to the Limit, Limit

I was disappointed that I had 10-days between PT appointments, but I was finally back in the office on Friday. I started the session with biking with the difficulty set to 10, then I went right into the supine heel pull. Last week I struggled to get to 115, but this week I got to 120 degrees with very little pushing. My good knee is at 125 degrees extension, so I'm really close to getting full extension! Yay! My PT said that I need to start working on pulling my knee to my butt for flexion (I think). So I have added it to my daily exercises. Working on flexion requires laying on my stomach, putting my foot in a strap, and then pulling the strap over my shoulder to pull my foot close to my butt. 

It felt like personal training for the rest of the session. We worked on double and single leg squats, hamstring pulls, lateral and straight step-ups with a weight, balance, and walking (straight, backwards, and laterally) on the treadmill. I was able walk backwards on a steep incline without any issues. The hamstring pulls were surprisingly awful! My kneecap was in so much pain from the pulling, so he let me use two legs instead of one. 

I complained about being super sweaty and he told me that the AC was broken this week, so it was miserable for the last few days. I asked if they closed the blinds to keep the heat out, and he was like, "umm... no we didn't". I laughed and said, "well I guess not everyone is solutions oriented. Haha." He said they just complained about it all day. 

He told me that my supine heel stretch last week was "traumatic" for him. I scoffed at him and said, "Why??? Nothing happened to you? If anyone should be traumatized it should be Aspen. She's the one I accidentally kicked." He laughed and nodded. Then Aspen told me about his softball incident this week. Apparently he jumped for a ball and his shoes had no traction so when he landed he slipped onto his back. She was like, "Dang it, I should have told you earlier so you could have given him crap about it."

The notes I got back from him are that I need to push harder on the bike, and that I need to start doing backwards and lateral walking on the treadmill everyday. Overall though, I am doing well! I told him I was excited because week 9 is so different from week 6! I feel like I have so much more freedom now. 

I am kind of bugged that my appointment was so late in the week, because when I tried to schedule my next two appointments, my PT and his assistant were completely booked out. I have to see a different PT in two weeks (booo). I'm sure it will be fine, but I'm not sure my PT takes very good notes, so I'll probably have to give the other PT a debrief about my progress.