Fri, 28 February 2003

I had another physio session today. In summary, so much pain in so little time, but afterwards, wow - hardly any pain at all!

Before they started, they got me to take off the brace and the compression ("Ace") bandage and to do some leg raises, first on my back, then on my side.

Then Chuck worked on me. He first wanted to see how much I could bend my knee, so he was getting me to compress it as much as possible and was using force himself to help me get there. Talk about pain! He said afterwards that he didn't really try and push it (thank goodness!). He also wanted to see how far I could straighten my leg, and got me to push down on the knee with my leg outstretched. I'm out by 4° apparently.

Next, I stood and did more leg raises, to the side and to the back.  Next standing on my tippytoes for 10. That was hurting. Then doing crouches using the parallel bars for support, for 10. He wanted me to couch and go backwards, like I was about to sit in a chair, not just straight down.  This was to keep the weight of the knee. For now, its all about bending it. Now that hurt!

OK, next was the bike. He didn't expect me to be able to turn the pedals all the way round, just to use the good leg to stretch the limits of my flexibility of my bad leg. He got me to turn the pedal slowly until my knee prevented it from going further, then relax, and try and turn it a bit more, then to hold it for a few seconds. Then go the other direction. I did that for about 10 minutes. Ouch a lot!  He brought me a towel as I was sweating a fair bit.

I was wasted at the end.

Next was the good stuff. Chuck got me to lie down on my stomach on the bench and he started massaging my calf muscle and behind my knee. Wow was that good. It hurt at times, but he was really doing wonders. He also worked on one of the big bruises at the back of my knee. He kept going back to it. Then he iced my leg above and below for 10 minutes.

After that, the pain had mostly gone away. He put the bandages back on again, a bit more tight than the others had put it on, but it felt good. I could walk quite easily.

So, its seems that the pain in my calf muscle can be controlled with massage. I'll get him to do that again on Monday.