Harder, better, faster, stronger
Apr. 5th, 2016 01:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaThe story begins at Day 1. The short version: I fell over skiing and have ruptured ligaments in both knees. I've now started into the physiotherapy programme.
Um, what on earth number day am I writing about?
Ah, thanks Python. Day 40.
The knee specialist I'm seeing had a highly-recommended physio practice in Ealing - ten minutes' walk away in normal circumstances. I fixed up an appointment, and first went there on March 14th (day 23).
When I phoned them up, the referral letter from the specialist hadn't yet arrived; when they asked which part of me needed treatment, I said knees. Despite that, the appointment was scheduled to be in their upstairs room - the receptionist took one look at me shuffling in on the day and promptly did some switching around.
PhysioLady did her initial assessment, and gave me some simple exercises to do "little and often". She taped my knee up in garish pink tape, and sent me on my way. The general looming of Easter and holidays meant that scheduling another appointment with her was tricky; so the second appointment was with PhysioLady2. She seemed to have quite a different approach - not least in that she stated quite firmly that I should be doing a solid batch of exercises morning and night. She also, from my point of view, did a better job of explaining the whys of the exercises. And she didn't stick anything to me.
At appointment 3, PhysioLady was all horrified that I'd been on the tube. I told her than my right kneejoint still felt odd and squashy, as if it was sinking into itself, when I walked without the brace. Well, of course it would, there was an awful lot of damage there. At appointment 4, PhysioLady2's approach to the same problem was that that meant I was relying on the support of the brace, and should stop wearing it as much as possible. Also, why was I still using the crutches?
Both of them, however, have been very keen that the exercises I'm doing shouldn't be painful. Everything should be carried out in a "pain-free range". Both of them have been trying to persuade muscles in my upper leg to be less stiff, which is painful at the time (and can result in sore muscles after the fact) - but that's something that's a general problem for me anyway. I'm quite used to my regular physio doing it.
Despite her generally less sympathetic air, I think I prefer PhysioLady2. We agreed that I should still use brace+crutches when out and about, although they are almost as much about warning other people that I may be unpredictable in my walking as they are about actually supporting me. At home, or in my office, I should drop down to two of the (infamously metallic) neoprene sports supports.
I'm quite keen on the whole idea of being able to walk again, so am diligently doing my exercises. And, as strongly recommended, sitting with ice-packs on my knees for twenty minutes or so afterwards. The principal problem is that that's 90 minutes in the morning and 90 minutes in the evening, which is a big ol' chunk of time to lose. I'm currently getting up at 6am to fit physio in before work, which means early bed, which means starting evening physio by 9pm at the latest... it's taken me the best part of four days to write this, as there's not a whole lot of time for anything other than physio/work/eat/physio/sleep ;)
The biggest problem thus far is overcoming the body's natural defence mechanisms, which in this case basically boil down to doing everything possible to immobilise my knee. (In fairness, without modern medical treatment, this would probably be the best bet.)
Me: Come along, right Vastus Medialis Obliquus, contract.
RVMO: No.
I remain crap at human biology. I have recently learned that the quadriceps is not a muscle; it is a muscle group. Vastus Medialis Obliquus is one of the four muscles that give the group the quad- part of its name. It's a small muscle on the inside of the leg, it attaches to the medial ligament and controls the position of the knee cap. Apparently it's the most critical muscle to strengthen in recovering from ligament damage (or at least, my sort of ligament damage).
And so we go...
Me: Come on, let's get on with it.
RVMO: Shan't.
Me: This is important.
RVMO: In case you haven't noticed, I'm attached to a ligament which is ruptured. I'm not contracting. It's dangerous.
Me: PhysioLady says it's quite safe. And look, Left VMO is doing a lovely job of contracting despite also being attached to a ruptured ligament.
RVMO: Humph. He's only got a grade 2 rupture. Also, he's an idiot. It's not safe.
Me: Well, we're going to sit here until you get with the program.
RVMO: <faint twitch>
Me: Well done.
Um, what on earth number day am I writing about?
Python 2.7.6 (default, Nov 10 2013, 19:24:24) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import datetime >>> (datetime.datetime(2016, 3, 31) - datetime.datetime(2016, 2, 21)).days + 1 40
Ah, thanks Python. Day 40.
The knee specialist I'm seeing had a highly-recommended physio practice in Ealing - ten minutes' walk away in normal circumstances. I fixed up an appointment, and first went there on March 14th (day 23).
When I phoned them up, the referral letter from the specialist hadn't yet arrived; when they asked which part of me needed treatment, I said knees. Despite that, the appointment was scheduled to be in their upstairs room - the receptionist took one look at me shuffling in on the day and promptly did some switching around.
PhysioLady did her initial assessment, and gave me some simple exercises to do "little and often". She taped my knee up in garish pink tape, and sent me on my way. The general looming of Easter and holidays meant that scheduling another appointment with her was tricky; so the second appointment was with PhysioLady2. She seemed to have quite a different approach - not least in that she stated quite firmly that I should be doing a solid batch of exercises morning and night. She also, from my point of view, did a better job of explaining the whys of the exercises. And she didn't stick anything to me.
At appointment 3, PhysioLady was all horrified that I'd been on the tube. I told her than my right kneejoint still felt odd and squashy, as if it was sinking into itself, when I walked without the brace. Well, of course it would, there was an awful lot of damage there. At appointment 4, PhysioLady2's approach to the same problem was that that meant I was relying on the support of the brace, and should stop wearing it as much as possible. Also, why was I still using the crutches?
Both of them, however, have been very keen that the exercises I'm doing shouldn't be painful. Everything should be carried out in a "pain-free range". Both of them have been trying to persuade muscles in my upper leg to be less stiff, which is painful at the time (and can result in sore muscles after the fact) - but that's something that's a general problem for me anyway. I'm quite used to my regular physio doing it.
Despite her generally less sympathetic air, I think I prefer PhysioLady2. We agreed that I should still use brace+crutches when out and about, although they are almost as much about warning other people that I may be unpredictable in my walking as they are about actually supporting me. At home, or in my office, I should drop down to two of the (infamously metallic) neoprene sports supports.
I'm quite keen on the whole idea of being able to walk again, so am diligently doing my exercises. And, as strongly recommended, sitting with ice-packs on my knees for twenty minutes or so afterwards. The principal problem is that that's 90 minutes in the morning and 90 minutes in the evening, which is a big ol' chunk of time to lose. I'm currently getting up at 6am to fit physio in before work, which means early bed, which means starting evening physio by 9pm at the latest... it's taken me the best part of four days to write this, as there's not a whole lot of time for anything other than physio/work/eat/physio/sleep ;)
The biggest problem thus far is overcoming the body's natural defence mechanisms, which in this case basically boil down to doing everything possible to immobilise my knee. (In fairness, without modern medical treatment, this would probably be the best bet.)
Me: Come along, right Vastus Medialis Obliquus, contract.
RVMO: No.
I remain crap at human biology. I have recently learned that the quadriceps is not a muscle; it is a muscle group. Vastus Medialis Obliquus is one of the four muscles that give the group the quad- part of its name. It's a small muscle on the inside of the leg, it attaches to the medial ligament and controls the position of the knee cap. Apparently it's the most critical muscle to strengthen in recovering from ligament damage (or at least, my sort of ligament damage).
And so we go...
Me: Come on, let's get on with it.
RVMO: Shan't.
Me: This is important.
RVMO: In case you haven't noticed, I'm attached to a ligament which is ruptured. I'm not contracting. It's dangerous.
Me: PhysioLady says it's quite safe. And look, Left VMO is doing a lovely job of contracting despite also being attached to a ruptured ligament.
RVMO: Humph. He's only got a grade 2 rupture. Also, he's an idiot. It's not safe.
Me: Well, we're going to sit here until you get with the program.
RVMO: <faint twitch>
Me: Well done.
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no subject
Date: 2016-04-05 05:30 pm (UTC)Yes, on reflection that wasn't one of my best sentences :-)
I can read/write LJ while being iced, so long as I've already eaten my breakfast, careered through my email, and done all the other things that are getting relegated to the during-ice window! Admittedly, last night's ice activity was watching a bit of a documentary on the Antikythera Mechanism, which probably doesn't really constitute essential :-)