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Mon, 03 March 2003
Today I had both a doctor's appointment and my fourth physio therapy session. I brought the crutches with me, but didn't need to use them to walk into the office.
Removing the staples
 | At the doctor's appointment, Dr Kobs' Physician Assistant, Malcolm, remove the staples from each of my wounds. It was a relatively painless process — just a slight twinge as each was removed. He used a small pair of pliers (from a sealed sterile packet) and just gave each a slight twist to pull each one out. He then dabbed a bit of stuff on each, I guess to prevent infection, and covered them with strips of sticky gauze. That was it. He wrapped my knee in a new compression bandage, but said I didn't have to wear it if I didn't want to.
He also said I could get the wounds wet. (can you say shower?) The sticky gauze will probably last about 3 days. Just dab them dry when they get wet.
Next, Dr Kobs came in briefly. He had a quick look at the wounds and was happy with the result. He said the surgery it went to plan. He stressed my knee to test the rigidity of the ligament.
He asked how far I had been able to bend my knee, but was concerned that I had only bent it 78° so far. He said that he had hoped I had achieved 90° already. He said that if I don't make 90° within a week then to call him because it may be indicative of a problem and that he might have to "go back in". Not good.
My knee is still quite swollen
 | So I had a mission at my physio session: get to 90°. Kiron told Jodi this. It was quite a good session — not as painful as Friday's session but still a fair bit. With some effort, she got it to 85°. The straightness of my knee was also improved at 3° (it was 4° last week). The exercises we did we to work on the bendability plus the strength of the knee:
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Leg raises, front and side
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Bicycling (turning the pedal as far as possible — she said a full turn requires a 110° bend)
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6" step up & step down (ie not a full step)
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Crouches like I'm about to sit down
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Balancing on the bad leg, catching a soft ball
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Lying on my back with knees up as far as possible, squeezing a soft ball between my knees
At the end, she massaged my calf muscle some more, showing Kiron and I what to look for when finding knotted muscles.
Jodi said I should do these exercises myself between, but should still keep my brace on. She said that ice and raising my knee will help the pain in my calf muscle. The next physio session is Wednesday.
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