#788 postmanip day 2

Last night I had physical therapy with my usual doctor, Lance. The first thing he asked was how I was feeling. I said I felt fine. He took a look at my knee and just started shaking his head in what I discovered was disbelief. He said that usually after a manipulation, the knee is all swollen and usually quite bruised because of all the ripping and tearing of the scar tissue. "It's all bloody in there, you know," he said, "from ripping that scar tissue." When I asked why I wasn't bruised, he just shook his head. I have some swelling, but no bruising at all. He's the third physical therapist I've seen in the past three days that seemed pretty amazed at my knee and how it's handing the manip.

Lance thought it might be due to a couple of things. First, Dr. F gave me a cortisone injection prior to the manip. The cortisone is anti-inflammatory. It is also unusual for that injection to be given. It seems like a good idea to me, though. Second, I didn't really have that far to go to get to 125 degrees. My best bend was 119, so that's only six degrees more. Maybe if Dr. F had pushed it to 130 or 140, I'd have a messed up knee. I don't know, though, because he didn't push it past 125. When I follow-up with him on Tuesday, I'll have to ask what was going on there. I thought he'd go to 130.

For the past two days, I have been really working on keeping the mobility and flexibility where it should be. I ride my stationary bike for seven to twenty minutes three or four times a day. Then I do the bending exercises. I can feel the scar tissue re-forming and I work like hell to push through that scar tissue and keep the knee bending. After that, I prop my heel up at least one inch on something so that the knee is dropping on it's own due to gravity. My goal there is that when I remove the prop, I will have the back of me knee flat against the ground.  I am also slowing adding back in other strengthening exercises that I was doing before. After all that, I love to sit for 20 minutes with ice on my knee to reduce the swelling. Then I relax for about 90 minutes, then repeat. The day goes by pretty fast when you have a schedule like that.

Tonight at physical therapy I worked with Dan again. He added a couple of extra strength and balance moves, and I admit I'm feeling a little sore. I'm going to take a pain pill and put my leg up and watch a little TV and relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow, I'll go after it again. I'd really love to pull a 125 tomorrow! I think that if I can get 120 cold for Dr. F on Tuesday, he'll be happy. We'll see. I've still got work to do on that.

Be good, be safe, be kind <3 br="br">