Physical Therapy

My surgeon approved six weeks of physical therapy at my request. Actually, I requested it because my chiropractor's office said they could provide it. The office has a PT and and MD on staff, in addition to the nutritionists and massage therapists.

The surgeon suggested both water therapy and the stationary bicycle. Water therapy consists of simply moving the injured leg around in a small pool of warm water, such as a hot tub. It need not be hot, just warm. Some rehabilitation clinics have pools designed just for this purpose. The intention is that being in the water reduces the weight one is placing on the injured leg, while at the same time the water provides some resistance to motion in the lateral dimensions where muscle strengthening is needed.

My chiropractor's office has an alternative to water therapy. It is simply a treadmill with an overhead harness. They strap me in the harness and they can lift anywhere up to my full body weight off the ground. Then intention here is to restore a normal gait while still reducing the weight I'm placing on the injured leg.

I was disappointed that they didn't start me on the treadmill right away. But the physical therapist really knows her stuff. They started me out with isometric exercises. These consisted of simple exercises like squeezing a pillow between my knees, lying down while pushing my foot into the floor, etc. These exercises started stretching and strengthening the muscles with very little initial impact. This first phase lasted about two weeks.

After two weeks, we started two kinds of stronger exercises. One used rubber cords as resistance, and I had to pull my leg in every direction against the cord. This provided an isolated exercise for
each muscle in the leg. They have these cords set up in the office.

The second kind of exercise was a set of leg lifts in every possible dimension with a one-pound weight around the ankle. This was initially painful in one or two dimensions, particlarly abduction
and adduction (lateral movement of the legs apart, together, and across each other). They instructed me what kind of weights to buy at a local sports store.

In this phase, it sped things up tremendously that Mary happened to have some of the rubber cords at home, so I was able to do these exercises at home as well as in the office. So after just a few days, I developed enough strength that I could walk a few steps without the walker or any other supports. When they saw this, they put me into the treadmill phase sooner than planned.

We started this whole series on November 29, right after Thanksgiving. They put me on the treadmill for the first time on December 16. With each new type of exercise I've been quite sore initially. But for the last three days or so I've been able to walk at will around the house without the walker. I'm using a cane for "moral support" but not often for physical support. (Using the cane causes more pain in my wrist than not using it causes in my hip.)

Maybe someday I'll find the time to scan the instructions for all these exercises and post them here.

We'll have new x-rays taken before the new year, and the first week of January we meet the surgeon again for another follow-up, hopefully the last.

Is it too optimistic to expect that I might be able to go to Mac World Expo in San Francisco in mid-January? Moscone Center is a huge building. At this point, I haven't even been to Costco or Wal-Mart yet. But you've gotta think big.