TIGHT JOINTS

The last two days have been relatively good. My doctor told me to take the lengthenings back down to four a day, instead of six, then try to build back up slowly. So I've done four lengthenings the last two days, but I think I'll try five today. Hopefully my pain level won't shoot back up.

Sleeping has been a little easier the last two nights, too. Not to jinx myself, but I think I may have finally gotten the Vicodin/lengthening schedule down so that I can sleep for three hour periods at a time. I've been setting an alarm to wake me up for my pain pills, and I've actually been sleeping until the alarm goes off, and then I've been able to go back to sleep after taking my pill. Last night I was up from three a.m. to four a.m., but other than that, I slept the whole night.

And during the day, my pain level has been bearable enough that I'm starting to tackle a little more aggressively my knee and ankle mobility. I've been very good about my ankle, using a towel to wrap around the back of my foot, then pulling it toward me and stretching my ankle that way.

But I haven't been as good about my knee. It's pretty much just been resting on a pillow this whole time, so while bending it has been no problem, completely straightening it was starting to get kind of difficult. So I've been forcing myself the last two days to keep my leg resting straight out in front of me on the couch instead of on a pillow. I still can't sleep without a pillow under my knee, that's just too much pressure on my joint, but my knee mobility has greatly improved the last two days from keeping it straight. Phew.

I'm very lucky that my insurance has approved home physical therapy sessions for me. Three times a week, Steve the physical therapist has been coming to my apartment to crank my ankle and knee, massage out swelling, and force me to do things I don't want to do.

Here's Steve cranking my ankle as I wince in pain:



Steve really wants to do a lot more with me, get me up and putting weight on my leg and even trying out the stairs, but my pain level has been so high that we've had to put off that stuff until after the lengthening. But now that I'm feeling a little better, or feeling more used to the pain level, I'm hoping that I can try a few weight bearing exercises during my physical therapy sessions this week.

I'm not going back to work tomorrow, like I had originally planned, but I'm either going to go back next Monday or the Monday after that, and I have a long way to go in order to be mobile enough to get around my office.