I had an evaluation at the end of my physical therapy session yesterday. This is always done near or at the end of a doctor’s script. I have one more session before I see the doctor, which is next Tuesday.
The improvement is very noticeable. A lot of my range of motion has come back. Though I still have more to go. Plus the strengthening of the muscles, though we have started on that this past week. The biggest improvement is when pulling my foot upward. (I think it’s called the dorsal movement ……. but I am probably wrong. I can never remember it.)
When I first went into physical therapy, I could only rotate my foot in that direction 1 degree. My other foot could obtain 15 degrees of rotation. The physical therapist who runs the rehab center, Brian, then moved my foot for me, but could only come up with another 4 degrees. He mentioned that doctors are looking for around 10 degrees of rotation to give the go ahead for physical activitiy such as tennis. I was a bit worried that my days on the court were pretty much over. But Brian mentioned too that we hadn’t even started, and it could be obtained, especially since the swelling needed to go down.
Earlier last week, Leslie (the physical therapist working with me) had mentioned that she saw a lot more rotation then I had when I started. I was skeptical that I was doing that well. But when I really started examing it for myself, I got more optimistic. So I really looked forward to last night’s evaluation to see how I was progressing, hoping that I could now get that 5 degrees of rotation on my own. To my surprise I got 8 degrees! The evaluation was done in the middle of my session, so I still had exercises to do. And given my excitement, I had to slow myself down so I didn’t hurt myself.
I am looking forward to doing more. Especially since my progress has been good. And I would love to ditch the brace soon, too. I really hope I can build enough strength so that I can before it starts snowing. I don’t like the prospects of walking in snow and slush with it on.
Of course my excitement was thwarted with another issue that reared it’s ugly head last night. But that is another story that I really don’t want to go into right now.
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