Here I am. One week post op. Yesterday was my worst day since this whole elective surgery thing began. I resemble all those patients who come to therapy post op week 1 or 2 complaining of increased pain and swelling, less motion, increased weakness, etc. As a PT I would ask, "Well, what have you been doing?” The patient always responds, “Nothing out of the ordinary.”
I can tell you right now -- that’s a lie. Because after about a week we (the patients) are tired of asking for help, tired of sitting on our butts, and tired of feeling gorked out on pain meds. So we stand a little (or a lot) longer, walk a little (or a lot) farther, and try to spread out our pain meds over a little (or a lot) more time. The result is more swelling, more pain, and less motion.
So today is the beginning of a new me. Less exercise, less impatience, more ice and elevation, and more positivity. Things I have learned about physical therapy from the patient side:
- I like cold hands,
- I would rather bend my own knee versus having someone else do it,
- EStim feels great regardless of whether it’s helpful, and
- it’s really hard to relax a painful joint even when someone tells you repeatedly that “they’ve got it”.
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