Thursday, August 12, 2010

On the first day of physical therapy.... pain....

This should come as no great surprise but on the first day of physical therapy everything was awkward and interesting. There I was in the doctors black Utah Jazz shorts, and I was hobbling about with my two crutches, trying not to touch the ground with my injured leg. In short order I was again laying on a table. I was informed that they were going to run electricity into my leg, and that it would feel like it was falling asleep. The thought was not a pleasant one, but I realized 'hey, they wouldn't let them do anything dangerous in here, right?'. Sure enough they attached wires to my leg from a nifty little machine. The theme was for me to notify them when it was strong but tolerable. Tolerable, now that is an interesting tangent, I was beginning to think about what is tolerable and what isn't, 'Cleaning up after the kids - Tolerable, Best friends eating with a loud chomping sound - Tolerable, strangers eating with a loud chomping noise - Not tolerable, People who cheat on video games (esp MW2) - Very not tolerable,' and then oh ya my whole leg felt numb, and I realized that this was the limit on tolerable. A heat pack was added to my knee as the current cause me to have a sensation that I always imagined spider man had to tell him he was in danger, yup I was having a spidy sense. My brain was telling me that this was not only not natural, but probably not going to end up good. My muscles began to tighten and contract in my leg, in different patterns, this was both odd and annoying. About the time it was beginning to really get on my nerves, it was over, and I was informed that I was going to have an ultrasound.
"Will this tell me how far along I am?" I asked the nurse. Humor was now my only defense against the akward.
The nurse strained her eyes and her forehead furrowed, "Huh?" she asked.
"You know ultra sound, and all," I tried to explain, this made me look and feel pretty dumb, the nurse let out a complementary chuckle.
It seemed like only moment later before I was doing a series stretches, and being iced. Once the two hour long session was over I was hobbling around with my crutches again, and the doctor asked me how the pain was. 'The same," I replied. This was true at the moment, but when I returned home I noticed my knee not only hurt more, but it was far more swollen.
I should not have been surprised at the results, I was doomed to pain....

2 comments:

  1. I killed my knee in a 9th grade gym class. I had the joyful experience of the electric treatment too.
    I hope all goes well!

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  2. So far not so well... but you will be able to read all about it...

    ReplyDelete