Physio

So a major part of my life at the moment is Physiotherapy or Physical Therapy as it is called here. 3 times a week, for about an hour and a half each time.

For those not aware of the back story, I had what seemed at the time like a minor spill off Robyn's mountain bike. It turns out that stepping of that bike at speed I did a good job on my left knee. Tore the meniscus and busted an ACL. I have since had surgery to correct the meniscus which is when the ACL deficiency was discovered.



Anyway back to the physio.
Anticipating it brings a mixture of dread and expectation.

Dread at the pain. My knee still doesn't straighten. There are chunks of busted cartilage in the joint it seems. So my lovely Polish therapist believes that the best approach is some deep tissue massage (ouch) followed by using all of his weight to try to brute force my knee straight.

It's funny because I kinda look forward to it. It does help it feel better afterwards.

But during, I just try to not make too may funny noises, not make any fingernail holes in the table and not break any teeth.

Sometimes I take a couple of Vicodin about half an hour before I go. It seems to go straight to my head and I feel like I float in on a bubble. But I'm not sure it actually makes any difference to that sort of pain.

At times while it is being brute forced it feels like there will be a massive pop and either my knee will free up or something else will break and I will be exploring a new sort of pain.

The people there assure me this is all normal, but I haven't seen anyone else cop any similar treatment or making funny noise due to pain... maybe I'm a wuss I don't know.

After the "fun" part it's just some simple stretches, 10 mins on the cycle, leg kicks, and ice.

My knee usually feels much more free at that point and I'm optimistic.

But then I need to try to sleep with it which is hard. The lack of regular exercise doesn't help. And in the morning it will be stiff and sore again.

Walking around on it means my ankle needs to bend a little more than usual, so that begins to give trouble too.

I'm learning what affect sleep deprivation and long term pain has on a bloke's psyche and physical health. Physically there has been cold sores, and a head & chest cold, just from a run down immune system I guess, and the foggy slow brain.

Then there is the, how shall we put it, less than stellar attitude & outlook on life at times.

Luckily I have a few positive influences here whose corrective forces range from "HTFU there Chopper" to "I understand what you are going through, relax, you'll be better soon, look at all this neat stuff we can go and do when you are better".

There is a quote on a plaque at a nearby church around here:
"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost"

Too true.