Boy - I had my worst night since coming home from the hospital. (Well, maybe it wasn't the worst - but it was pretty bad!) I was up and in pain constantly during the night. I took meds at 10PM, 2AM, 6AM and 10AM. I haven't done that - not EVEN when I came home from the hospital (but haven't taken anything all day so I am still within my 24-hour limits). What I think caused it were the flutter kicks that I added in my pool therapy on Monday and did with a little too much gusto yesterday in my own pool.
I was glad to see my physical therapist this morning to have her evaluate the situation. She said the "danger" with pool exercises is that they feel SO GOOD while you are in the pool that you tend to keep going even when you've reached the number of reps prescribed by the therapist. She said I don't have to discontinue the flutters, just scale back - maybe twice for 10 seconds instead of four times for 15 seconds. Today when I was in the pool I didn't do any. When the "flare up" subsides I'll do her 2x10 recommendation. This will be my permanent therapist through August (she hadn't seen me since intake) and she was very impressed with my progress.
It seems that I've put away the cane - almost for good. I have it handy but have been using it less and less. I will just reiterate what I said the other day: If you are having this surgery do NOT do it in the winter if you have an ice and snow climate! I have to walk with a great deal of awareness in order not to limp, sway, or not walk normally in other ways. My therapist started me today with some balance exercises so that should make a big difference in the walking too.
I got the definitive answer on home PT. Twice ONLY. Either two land or one land and one pool. She said that in the evening if I am feeling restless I can use the bike and do some stretches but the heavy-duty things (like the range-of-motion exercises) or strength-building exercises (like the stairs) to not do more than two sets in a day. She added two exercises to my program, and now I'm feeling that it's really rounded out and this should keep me for a couple of weeks at least.
"NSV" - step over step going up AND down the steps going in and out of the PT building. The steps are very shallow though (only about 3-4 inches high) - I can't do it at home but it felt nice to do it SOMEWHERE! And only with the railing - no cane or crutch on the other side!
Have a great evening!
Miriam
p.s. One of my blog-friends linked her blog to mine today and I want to reciprocate but I don't see the function here on my site so I want to put it here - it's a great site, and I've learned a lot on it:
http://washdryandfold.blogspot.com
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