Weight

So my appointment with Dr. Trice was both good and bad. I'll start with the bad side.

Dr. Trice was not happy with my extension (straightening the leg) and was nearly about to make me wear yet another sort of leg brace/torture device. I really haven't been keeping up on the exercise that that helps this, which is called the prone position. You lay on your stomach with your leg straight out and the edge of whatever you are laying on only supports you from just above the knee and up. So, your knee and lower leg hang free and a weight is placed on your ankle to straighten the leg. Stay like that for 15 minutes. Sounds like fun, eh?

So, he asked me to do one of these prone stretches there in the office so that he could see how the knee extension looked afterward. Why it didn't occur to me, my mother-in-law who brought me, or Holly (Dr.Trice's surgical nurse) to note the time I started, I have no idea. One would think of the three of us that someone would have thought of that. So, my best guess is that I was in that position for 20 minutes or so. But, the knee sure did straighten after that! So, no new torture device was required. I am just supposed to step up the prone stretches to five times a day for 15 minutes each time.

The good news side is that Dr. Trice said I can put 25-50 pounds of weight through my leg and that when I reach the 8 week mark, I can work on getting to full weight-bearing. That is earlier than the generic protocol for the surgery! Woohoo!

So, in my PT session with Sandy yesterday, I did start putting weight through it. The heel of the bad leg goes down at the same time as the crutches, about 8-10 inches in front of the other foot. Heel and crutches, then weight, then good leg forward. It takes a surprising amount of concentration. I had random aches and pains from my muscles protesting, but my knee was silent. I kept putting weight on it when I walked all last night and this morning. The knee isn't hurting from the weight at all.

I am afraid to hope because after 16 months of pain and surgeries it seems like recovery is too much to hope for. Maybe maybe maybe oh just maybe this surgery might have worked!