First Session of Physiotherapy - at last

My First Session of Physiotherapy went well. I discovered that my meniscus was sprained and the hamstring muscle strained. Other than that I am doing very well. My four days of absolutely not stepping on my left leg with any weight worked really well for me. But I did do my calisthenics where no weight bearing was on that leg as well thus keeping myself well exercised in as much as one can be. As it turns out my osteo-arthritis is just there but not the cause of any of this except perhaps the stiff knee which I keep at bay by moving my leg to and fro as I type away.

I have two sets of exercises to do and will do them four times a day as that worked very well for me when I tore the rotator cuff years and years ago now. This was not a tear; I knew that from the beginning because you can tell you tore something from the burning sensation in your muscle. This was strain/sprain complicated by my being 74 years of age although I think my recovery has been really good.

Possibly because I worked in the hospital although must admit that is the last place that I want to be in unless I absolutely need to be there, my first thought when my leg collapsed was not to go to hospital but rather to rest and do nothing with that collapsed leg! It took six therapy sessions to get me on my way with my torn rotator cuff and then five years of doing the ten exercises four times a day to completely heal it. But I am prepared to do that length of time hoping to get back to running but I can start to do some weight bearing as it turns out and I will start using the stationery bike on low once again. I think though, if recommended, that I will do a monthly review just to make sure I am on track to good recovery given my 74 years.

I will continue using the walker because it is a strain walking any distance and do not yet feel comfortable giving up the walker especially as I can sit on it if I feel the need to stop for a bit. Not really into crutches, but I think that one should use the assists that are available and not feel that one should be brave; better to protect our muscles. I do have a little nerve damage in this leg which flared up at first but gradually subsided once again as it did years ago (I think it is more than 30 years since I had twinges of pain in that leg).

Valtoren is the greatest lotion and I used it quite liberally the first few days so that I could sleep as the leg was aching quite a bit. What a way to get acetylsalicylic acid into a wounded area. Great stuff!