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Physical Therapy

My mother is undergoing physical therapy after a fall and it is bringing to mind my experiences with physical therapy.

I've had two kinds of PT over the years. When I was younger I had recurring back pain and went to the local hospital regularly for PT to help with it. I am grateful that it was a temporary condition; it was hard to stand let alone teach when it was bad.

Most recently I had my left knee replaced. It is apparently crucial to begin PT as soon as possible after the surgery to avoid scar tissue building up. Sadly I picked up pneumonia in the hospital, and whether that delay alone was the cause I had a bunch of scar tissue that limited what the PT could do. The knee no longer hurt sitting, standing, even walking, but it was stiff to the point of preventing me from going up and down stairs.

I had a good therapist that I saw in a clinic at first three times a week, than twice, then once a week, ending this past week. We ran through a number of creative ways to stretch my knee into bending, long holds on a stationary cycle, etc. Most of what he did was physically press my knee into bending and holding the position.

I still liked him but it's been years since anyone cause me that kind of physical pain. It was the pain of stretching, so I didn't have that oh-I'm-being-damaged reaction but it was not easy to bear.  I did a lot of focusing on my breathing. 

Five months after the surgery I can go up and down stairs, albeit not as gracefully as I once did.  That's true about a lot of physical activity though and I'm learning to live with that.

Comments

  1. Steve McKennaNovember 7, 2021 at 1:17 PM

    I'm sorry you've had to go through this......as it is, I didn't realize you'd had your knee replaced. And you say I'm getting old????

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JCNovember 8, 2021 at 12:40 PM

      Well, yes, because you are. Thank you, yes, it was literally a pain.

      Delete

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