2021-02-01 On the Road to Recovery

Okay, enough with no photos. Sunday, the home health PT supervisor and nurse both showed up. The nurse was a nice woman but the whole interview was just tiring going over my meds, etc. to set up her records. The worse part was that they weren't able to get carbonless forms because apparently all that paper comes from China so every single form had to be done twice and signed twice....lengthy process. I mentioned that she could scan them with her phone and then print them out back at her office. She said she looked into a portable scanner but it was $400-500. I told her I had a free scanner downloaded onto my phone which worked perfectly and made perfect copies.

The PT Supervisor went over my exercises and we practiced them all. He was very good. He said I looked like I was ahead of schedule which was nice to hear. He set up a PT person to come. I had a choice of T-Th for three weeks or M,W, F for two weeks. I chose three times a week. These are what I started with on Sunday.

Monday afternoon, Chris showed up. I had already done the exercises several times Sunday and again on Monday. She said I was ready to move on. So we started exercises on a chair.

Ankle Pumps, Kickouts, Marching, and Thigh Squeezes.

We went through all of these. She had me walk around the house with the walker and she watched me walk up and down the stairs. Up is the easiest. Down is harder mostly because you are suppose to step down with your surgery leg first so your weight is held on your good leg the longest. I have to reach past a column to the stair rail. There is only one rail on the left side for the upper staircase. The hardest part is remembering to start with the left leg. 

Wednesday was more of the same. I should add that Chris takes my temperature and blood pressure every visit. She also takes a photo of the surgery area. Of course, the only thing to see is the bandage which will not be touched until February 9th when I have my follow-up visit with Dr Ursone.

In between, I'm doing all of these on my own. Friday, we added the above exercises in addition to the earlier ones with the stick figures. I'm also walking around the kitchen using just my right hand on the counter. Everything is going well. I told Chris that everything was going very well. The only thing that bothered me was stepping off on my left foot going down the stairs when I have to lean so far forward. She asked if I thought my left leg was strong enough to use it first going down. I told her that I was positive it was because I had forgotten once or twice and had no problems. So back to the stairs we went and she watched me do it and said, no problem, do whatever feels best to you. So that problem is solved.

On to today when we added Hip Rotation, Hip Flexor Stretch, and Mini Squats. Everything seems to be going very well. I do the exercises 3 to 4 times a day. Plus I stretch out with my feet above my heart for 20 minutes after each set of exercises. So far, no bruising or too much swelling. I keep cutting down down on the pain meds and I'm still doing okay. Enough for now. Every day is one step closer to getting my wheels yet and on the road for a little RVing.