Well, its another 3 weeks on now, and i am starting to feel a little bit stronger.
One thing that i wasn't aware of with my recovery process would be the pain involved as the muscles started to come back.
After my last trip to the physio, i was told that by the 2nd week of June (5 weeks later), she wanted me full weight bearing on my injured leg. She also said that i would start doing lunges and standing on 1 leg and balancing.
So, armed with this information, i went back home and did twice the amount of exercise that i would normally do in a day.
The following day also happened to coincide with a bit of work that i had to do, running through for the next week.
When i woke up in the morning, i could feel that my leg was pretty sore. The muscles were screaming at me, and were very tight.
I soldiered on through the day, hoping that the following day the muscle pain would lessen somewhat.
It didn't.
I stopped doing all my exercises, and just tried to rest my leg each day when i got in from work. I was also on constant pain killers throughout the day in order to make it to the evening.
The pain was located mainly in my quad muscle, and felt like a torn muscle. Very sensitive to the slightest movement or question being asked of it to do some exercise.
Even rolling over in bed was so painful that it woke me up, which made sleeping through the night impossible.
The last 2 weeks has been without exercise now, but i am finally at a point now where i have begun my walking exercises in the car park again.
My knee certainly feels a bit stronger, and the muscle pain is still there, but bearable to do light exercise again.
Tonight i will get back into my exercise routine.
The range of motion of my knee has remained constant at about 90 degrees, but i have not been stretching for the last 2 weeks, so i haven't tried to extend that as yet.
My quad muscle is still very tight and knotted, and i have bought sum Arnica oil with Deep Heat infused in it, for massage every evening to try and break down the muscle tightness so that i can start stretching it again.
It's only 2 weeks til my next visit to the physio, but i certainly wont be at the point she suggested by the time i see her.
But, although i have been through a lot of discomfort over the last few weeks, the extra strength and stability i can feel in my knee gives me great encouragement that i will be back to walking again before the end of the year...
Monday, May 28, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
3 weeks in...
Well, its been about 3 weeks or so now since i officially started my physio program.
Lets get this straight though....my use of "physio program" involves me doing an exercise program that i largely put together on my own from info on the net.
I suppose the normal use of the word would involve going to a physio and actually having a professional go thru a program with you for about 45min to an hour each visit.
Anyway, i dont have the cash for a physio program in the true sense of the word, so let it just mean "home exercise" from now on...
In the last 3 weeks there have been ups and downs in my workouts.
In the beginning i was struggling a lot with some of the exercises. Simple things like lying on your stomach on the floor, legs straight, and lifting my injured leg off the floor keeping it straight, and holding it for 2 sec before returning it to the floor.
It sounds really simple, but the Gluteus muscles involved were so weak that i could not even lift my leg no matter how hard i tried or focused.
Now, i am happy to say, i can do this exercise with relative ease.
My knee is still giving me a fair bit of pain, but i think that either i have become accustomed to the pain and am taking it more in my stride, or it is not as acute. The frequency of pain is still around about the same, but i am beginning to realise that this is certainly not going to be a short term thing to get back to full health again.
Where my leg was giving me pain only in the exterior/lateral side just below the knee, at the top of the fibula, before, it is now painful just about everywhere, especially in my quad muscles.
This may sound like a bad thing, but i have concluded that it is actually very good news!
Just like exercising any muscle in the body, after a gym session, possibly a day or so later, the muscles are sore and stiff. This is the same pain i am experiencing in my left leg.
But this makes a lot of sense, as i am exercising muscles that had 5 months of non use in them. In order to get them back to full strength, there will have to be pain and stiffness!
Like i said before, my leg is certainly feeling stronger after the first 3 weeks or so, but there is sill a long way to go.
The instability i felt in my knee is still there. I expect that to be the same for some time yet. I am beginning to realise the massive role that the upper leg muscles play in the overall stability of the knee and leg.
As i mentioned, my quads are pretty sore and stiff, but it seems clear to me that these will be the most time consuming to get back to full strength. And until i do, i wont be able to hold my body weight up on my leg, so walking will be out of the question.
We have a fairly big car park area at my parents complex that they stay, so i have been going out for 2 circuits of the car park on crutches every day as well to train my leg into walking normally. It takes me around 15min to complete the 2 circuits. I find that it is a bit painful in the knee area when i start, but once i am going it clears up and i can push a little harder. If i stop to rest for a minute or more, then i have the same pain at start up again. As before though, this goes away once i start walking again.
This is definitely helping me with overall fitness of the leg, and along with the stretching and strength training, i am really pleased with my progress.
My eyes are still firmly set on xmas time as a deadline to be walking again, and i believe i can achieve this with a lot of hard work.
According to internet research i have done, it is mostly the case that recovery from muscle atrophy takes a lot longer than the actual period spent in inactivity. My period of inactivity was around 5 months, so, i should be looking at around 10-12 months to recover fully. The docs said 12-18 months, but i am sure they give you a worst case scenario, as otherwise you would be very upset with them when after a year you were still not walking!
Well, thats the exercise part of things so far...
As far as the DR is concerned, my cases that i had over there seemed to have dissolved, or maybe were never put into motion in the first place? I think the latter to be the more realistic verdict!
I have heard nothing in the last 3 weeks from my "lawyer" back there, and have asked a friend to make a call to the insurance company to find out if there was even a case lodged with them.
She phoned them, and got thru first time! Apparently, my lawyer said for 4 months repeatedly that he could not get hold of them!
Unfortunately, i do not have the surname of the insured, the wife of the driver that hit me, otherwise i could inquire further. They cannot help me without this information.
It is a pity, because i would like the hospital to get their money. It may be a lot of money, but they did save my life, and i am on the road to recovery because of them. Unfortunately, i do not have this money, and without an insurance payout to cover it, they will probably never get paid!
I do not feel responsible for this though. I have tried my utmost over the last 6 months to find a resolution to my situation, but have come up empty handed. At the end of the day, the Dominican Republic has screwed me over with its corruption, and as such, have screwed their own.
It is a vicious circle that does not seem to have an end as far as the tourist or foreigner is concerned, but i am just a statistic in this country. One of many that has seen an ugly end to their experience there.
A great pity indeed, as it is a fantastic place to visit...
Lets get this straight though....my use of "physio program" involves me doing an exercise program that i largely put together on my own from info on the net.
I suppose the normal use of the word would involve going to a physio and actually having a professional go thru a program with you for about 45min to an hour each visit.
Anyway, i dont have the cash for a physio program in the true sense of the word, so let it just mean "home exercise" from now on...
In the last 3 weeks there have been ups and downs in my workouts.
In the beginning i was struggling a lot with some of the exercises. Simple things like lying on your stomach on the floor, legs straight, and lifting my injured leg off the floor keeping it straight, and holding it for 2 sec before returning it to the floor.
It sounds really simple, but the Gluteus muscles involved were so weak that i could not even lift my leg no matter how hard i tried or focused.
Now, i am happy to say, i can do this exercise with relative ease.
My knee is still giving me a fair bit of pain, but i think that either i have become accustomed to the pain and am taking it more in my stride, or it is not as acute. The frequency of pain is still around about the same, but i am beginning to realise that this is certainly not going to be a short term thing to get back to full health again.
Where my leg was giving me pain only in the exterior/lateral side just below the knee, at the top of the fibula, before, it is now painful just about everywhere, especially in my quad muscles.
This may sound like a bad thing, but i have concluded that it is actually very good news!
Just like exercising any muscle in the body, after a gym session, possibly a day or so later, the muscles are sore and stiff. This is the same pain i am experiencing in my left leg.
But this makes a lot of sense, as i am exercising muscles that had 5 months of non use in them. In order to get them back to full strength, there will have to be pain and stiffness!
Like i said before, my leg is certainly feeling stronger after the first 3 weeks or so, but there is sill a long way to go.
The instability i felt in my knee is still there. I expect that to be the same for some time yet. I am beginning to realise the massive role that the upper leg muscles play in the overall stability of the knee and leg.
As i mentioned, my quads are pretty sore and stiff, but it seems clear to me that these will be the most time consuming to get back to full strength. And until i do, i wont be able to hold my body weight up on my leg, so walking will be out of the question.
We have a fairly big car park area at my parents complex that they stay, so i have been going out for 2 circuits of the car park on crutches every day as well to train my leg into walking normally. It takes me around 15min to complete the 2 circuits. I find that it is a bit painful in the knee area when i start, but once i am going it clears up and i can push a little harder. If i stop to rest for a minute or more, then i have the same pain at start up again. As before though, this goes away once i start walking again.
This is definitely helping me with overall fitness of the leg, and along with the stretching and strength training, i am really pleased with my progress.
My eyes are still firmly set on xmas time as a deadline to be walking again, and i believe i can achieve this with a lot of hard work.
According to internet research i have done, it is mostly the case that recovery from muscle atrophy takes a lot longer than the actual period spent in inactivity. My period of inactivity was around 5 months, so, i should be looking at around 10-12 months to recover fully. The docs said 12-18 months, but i am sure they give you a worst case scenario, as otherwise you would be very upset with them when after a year you were still not walking!
Well, thats the exercise part of things so far...
As far as the DR is concerned, my cases that i had over there seemed to have dissolved, or maybe were never put into motion in the first place? I think the latter to be the more realistic verdict!
I have heard nothing in the last 3 weeks from my "lawyer" back there, and have asked a friend to make a call to the insurance company to find out if there was even a case lodged with them.
She phoned them, and got thru first time! Apparently, my lawyer said for 4 months repeatedly that he could not get hold of them!
Unfortunately, i do not have the surname of the insured, the wife of the driver that hit me, otherwise i could inquire further. They cannot help me without this information.
It is a pity, because i would like the hospital to get their money. It may be a lot of money, but they did save my life, and i am on the road to recovery because of them. Unfortunately, i do not have this money, and without an insurance payout to cover it, they will probably never get paid!
I do not feel responsible for this though. I have tried my utmost over the last 6 months to find a resolution to my situation, but have come up empty handed. At the end of the day, the Dominican Republic has screwed me over with its corruption, and as such, have screwed their own.
It is a vicious circle that does not seem to have an end as far as the tourist or foreigner is concerned, but i am just a statistic in this country. One of many that has seen an ugly end to their experience there.
A great pity indeed, as it is a fantastic place to visit...
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