3 Aug 07 Fri – 12 Aug Sun. D66 – D75. The 10th week.
Went to the 8th physiotherapy session at NUH yesterday. The physio said I could start learning to walk. However, I walked with great difficulty and efforts using the four-leg walker. To strengthen the walking muscles, he made me lean backward against a flat wall and slide slightly up and down, loading and bending the knees in the process. Later, on a platform with parallel bar handrail, I made tentative attempts at walking without crutches, between the parallel railings. I was happy that I could walk, albeit supported by the two railings and made several rounds, until stopped by the physio, as he did not want me to overwork the knee at this stage. The physio wanted me to continue with all the isometric exercises, as well as my twice-a-day cycling sessions at home. I’m now pedaling a total of some 50 mins a day at level 4, equivalent to cycling 13 km with 300 calories expended. My flexion angle however, has not improved. Unassisted it was only 105°, but could reach 125° when forced. The physio, however, was not worried, as he said it would improve with time, since my knee still had swelling, which restricted the bending in any case.
During last week’s 7th PT session, the physio introduced another 3 exercises. The first was the inclined cycle, pedaling horizontally instead of the normal cycle, which is vertical. This required more efforts. Lying on my right, I also did the inward leg raising with weights. With this, I’m now doing leg raising in all four directions. To strengthen my knee stability, an elastic band was looped over the knee while standing and by moving away from the anchoring point, increased the resistance. I also increased the leg press load to 4 kg.
With the new added routines, there are now some 20 exercises which I’m doing, summarized into the following categories – 7 in the lying position; 3 in the sitting position; 3 standing; 4 active motion / walking exercises and 3 on exercise machines.
Went to the 8th physiotherapy session at NUH yesterday. The physio said I could start learning to walk. However, I walked with great difficulty and efforts using the four-leg walker. To strengthen the walking muscles, he made me lean backward against a flat wall and slide slightly up and down, loading and bending the knees in the process. Later, on a platform with parallel bar handrail, I made tentative attempts at walking without crutches, between the parallel railings. I was happy that I could walk, albeit supported by the two railings and made several rounds, until stopped by the physio, as he did not want me to overwork the knee at this stage. The physio wanted me to continue with all the isometric exercises, as well as my twice-a-day cycling sessions at home. I’m now pedaling a total of some 50 mins a day at level 4, equivalent to cycling 13 km with 300 calories expended. My flexion angle however, has not improved. Unassisted it was only 105°, but could reach 125° when forced. The physio, however, was not worried, as he said it would improve with time, since my knee still had swelling, which restricted the bending in any case.
During last week’s 7th PT session, the physio introduced another 3 exercises. The first was the inclined cycle, pedaling horizontally instead of the normal cycle, which is vertical. This required more efforts. Lying on my right, I also did the inward leg raising with weights. With this, I’m now doing leg raising in all four directions. To strengthen my knee stability, an elastic band was looped over the knee while standing and by moving away from the anchoring point, increased the resistance. I also increased the leg press load to 4 kg.
With the new added routines, there are now some 20 exercises which I’m doing, summarized into the following categories – 7 in the lying position; 3 in the sitting position; 3 standing; 4 active motion / walking exercises and 3 on exercise machines.
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