Day 14 -Progress

Today is my 2 week anniversary from the surgery on 3/17/09.

Within these past two weeks, it's amazing to see and feel the progress from Day 1. In the hospital, the nurses had to hold my ankle and literally guide my leg from bed to floor -I had absolutely no strength in the leg at all. In those first 3 days I felt as though my leg would NEVER be the same. It only a matter of a few more days, I was able to move my leg myself from bed to floor. Thank God!

I have been working on all the exercises from the physical therapist several times a day. The leg lift really frustrated me. A simple movement of lifting the operated knee to hip height is so difficult!! In my first attempts, the foot only came about 1 inch off the floor, I'm now up to about 7 inches off the floor. All of these exercises are so frustrating since I'm a former dancer and pilates instructor -I was once able to do all of these with no problem.

I understand my range of motion is still limited because 1) I'm recovering from major surgery and the muscles need to heal 2) For the past 6 years I have shifted my weight onto my left leg ALWAYS. I can't even balance my weight on my right side. Therefore, I need to re-teach the right hip/butt/thigh muscles how to hold my weight.

I'm looking forward to continued outpatient physical therapy to improve my balance, strength, and walk.

The PT is coming today -hopefully he will see an improvement in me too.