It was back to Banchory today for more torture with the local PT. She showed us a new - and very painful - stretching exercise, which Jo is going to enjoy inflicting on me.
Generally, however, she is happy that I am now back on track and she doesn't need to see me at all next week - but I must keep up the discipline of the exercises.
I walked from there - with two sticks - to Tease, where I met up with Colin Kilgour, Richard Simcox and John McWhinnie for a coffee. What have we come to? The bar across the road is open and here we are sitting in a coffee shop, like old crones.
I walked home from there and we had lunch, did my exercises and then Raymond and Myra Orr arrived, so that was the afternoon gone. It's dark again - nearly 6 pm - and this is me just catching up with my daily knee blog.
Tomorrow, of course, we head south for Kieran and Julie's wedding. I'll be the sober one then.
Ian R. Stewart Family Blog
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Wednesday - back to work!
Slept not too bad. Sat up at 7 am and took my meds, then Jo brought my usual breakfast, after which I did my exercises and then showered. Then it was time for massage and further knee stretches. Jo oils my scar daily and also massages my hamstrings, part of which are stiff and gnarled. She then exerts pressure on my shin and thigh to try to get my knee to straighten out - she takes it to the point where I can't take any more pain and then three 10 second holds.
After that, it's time to put the compression stockings on, then the frozen peas are applied to my leg.
All of this takes 2-3 hours every morning.
We set off to Aberdeen for my physio appointment at Albyn at 10 am. He seemed reasonably happy with my progress so far, and he showed Jo how to do some more massage on the fluid on the front of my knee. I had to tell him we would only be coming back in to Aberdeen if we couldn't get sufficient appointments with the Banchory physio.
It made sense then to pop in to the office at Bridge of Don, where we picked up Jo's new laptop and I said hello again to a few of the staff. We didn't hang around however and soon we were back on the road to Banchory. Lunch then a snooze and before you know where you are it's 4 pm already - and I haven't done any exercises since the early morning ones. Must crack on.
After that, it's time to put the compression stockings on, then the frozen peas are applied to my leg.
All of this takes 2-3 hours every morning.
We set off to Aberdeen for my physio appointment at Albyn at 10 am. He seemed reasonably happy with my progress so far, and he showed Jo how to do some more massage on the fluid on the front of my knee. I had to tell him we would only be coming back in to Aberdeen if we couldn't get sufficient appointments with the Banchory physio.
It made sense then to pop in to the office at Bridge of Don, where we picked up Jo's new laptop and I said hello again to a few of the staff. We didn't hang around however and soon we were back on the road to Banchory. Lunch then a snooze and before you know where you are it's 4 pm already - and I haven't done any exercises since the early morning ones. Must crack on.
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Tuesday addendum
The downside of my early morning physio appointment was that I missed our usual FaceTime call with Kelly, but she sent me the photo she took as she called us:
Tuesday Physio
Early morning blog post today. Just back from physio. Fearing the worst after last week's telling off, I was pleased to get a little pat on the back today. She measured my knee bend, which had only been 50 ° last week when lying on the bed, and it had improved to 75 ° this week, so she seemed quite pleased at my progress.
When sitting, my knee bend is better than 75 ° - or so it seems to me anyway - but it's much harder when lying down to bring your knee up.
Her primary focus today, however, was on knee straightening. I can't get the back of my knee down on to the bed - but then again, I haven't been able to do that since I had the original injury back in 1970. She did feel I need to get more straight however and thought that my inner hamstring was way too tight, so she did some massage here - and showed Jo how to do it at home.
She also showed me a few more exercises designed to improve the straightening:
Seeing the heavy bruising still on my calf, the physio said there was still a lot to come out, and thought that I must be slow healer.
Our next session is on Thursday and she will focus on the knee bend then, but generally this morning was quite encouraging - and it was good to have Jo in there too to see what was required, and it was good too that she has been shown how she can help with some of the exercises and massage.
Tomorrow it's the physio at Albyn. It'll be interesting to compare and contrast.
So, back home now and I'll get on with some work. No more prunes today, however.
When sitting, my knee bend is better than 75 ° - or so it seems to me anyway - but it's much harder when lying down to bring your knee up.
Her primary focus today, however, was on knee straightening. I can't get the back of my knee down on to the bed - but then again, I haven't been able to do that since I had the original injury back in 1970. She did feel I need to get more straight however and thought that my inner hamstring was way too tight, so she did some massage here - and showed Jo how to do it at home.
She also showed me a few more exercises designed to improve the straightening:
Seeing the heavy bruising still on my calf, the physio said there was still a lot to come out, and thought that I must be slow healer.
Our next session is on Thursday and she will focus on the knee bend then, but generally this morning was quite encouraging - and it was good to have Jo in there too to see what was required, and it was good too that she has been shown how she can help with some of the exercises and massage.
Tomorrow it's the physio at Albyn. It'll be interesting to compare and contrast.
So, back home now and I'll get on with some work. No more prunes today, however.
Monday, 18 November 2013
Monday Medical Matinee
It's nearly 6 pm on Monday and Lucy and Jo are on Face Time, whilst I lug in. Kelly had been on first thing this morning just after our breakfast.
Today's been a funny day. I slept reasonably well again last night and, when I awoke, I only took half my usual meds and I haven't had to top up since then.
I felt good this morning and started to do some work. One of the complications of taking meds for a while is what it does to your digestive system and I decided it was time to start on the prunes again. Dan Corbett then phoned me and asked if I fancied going for a coffee, so he came and picked me up and we went to the Douglas.
I'm not a regular coffee drinker, and the combination of this and the prunes meant I had to cut short our little chat and get home quickly. Let's just say it's been a fairly delicate afternoon.
That apart, nothing much happening. Three consecutive days of physio coming up.
Today's been a funny day. I slept reasonably well again last night and, when I awoke, I only took half my usual meds and I haven't had to top up since then.
I felt good this morning and started to do some work. One of the complications of taking meds for a while is what it does to your digestive system and I decided it was time to start on the prunes again. Dan Corbett then phoned me and asked if I fancied going for a coffee, so he came and picked me up and we went to the Douglas.
I'm not a regular coffee drinker, and the combination of this and the prunes meant I had to cut short our little chat and get home quickly. Let's just say it's been a fairly delicate afternoon.
That apart, nothing much happening. Three consecutive days of physio coming up.
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Sunday
Last night I returned to "my side" of the bed. Since I came out of hospital, I had been sleeping at the nearest point to the toilet, but my constant need to turn during the night had been pulling the duvet off Jo, so we now each had individual duvets. I also needed a pillow for my bad knee to rest on when I rolled over on to my left, and this was constantly falling out of the bed when I slept on that side, so we thought we would revert to norm.
Jo thinks it worked fine - and she noticed that, for once, I wasn't bathed in sweat when I woke up. My leg was still tired and heavy however and so I took full meds first thing today, but hope to stay off them until bed time.
Otherwise, nothing much to report medically. I spent the morning watching the golf from Dubai, then had a couple of hours with the Sunday Times when Jo brought it in after church. I did finally manage, however, to complete another episode of Renshaw's Chronicles.
Jo thinks it worked fine - and she noticed that, for once, I wasn't bathed in sweat when I woke up. My leg was still tired and heavy however and so I took full meds first thing today, but hope to stay off them until bed time.
Otherwise, nothing much to report medically. I spent the morning watching the golf from Dubai, then had a couple of hours with the Sunday Times when Jo brought it in after church. I did finally manage, however, to complete another episode of Renshaw's Chronicles.
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