The Leg

Just after I bitched last week about how I hated my knee being the first thing that I thought about every morning, I had a few mornings where I woke up and my knee felt nearly normal. Of course, the first thing I have to do is roll over and get out of bed at which point I am instantly reminded by my crutches of my continuing convalescence. Still, I crossed some sort of threshold that I can feel.

My flexion continues to improve, and I continue to feel less and less stiff through the mid-part of my range of motion. Extension continues to be a problem, so I have a new exercise that I am doing. I start by filling a grocery sack with two five-pound weights. I step throught the handles of the sack so that it can hang from my ankle. I then lie on my bed with my knee hanging from the end of the bed, propped on a rolled pillow to serve as an elevated fulcrum, and let the weight hang while my knee is straightened. I try to make it three minutes, give myself a one minute rest, repeat, and repeat again. I like the exercise because it is passive and because I can lie there and not do anything. I hate it because it hurts after about 45 seconds and because I can feel it in my knee for hours afterwards. I'm sure that means it's working. I've only been doing it for about the past six days, but I've been diligent about doing it twice a day as I have an appointment with my doc this afternoon, and I would hate to show up and to not be any more flexible than I was four weeks ago.

My latest bitch is my crutches. I'm sick of 'em. I'm ready to walk without help. I'm ready to be able to carry things in both hands - or either hand - when I walk. I'm ready to get up from a chair and a sofa and a bed and to not have to stop and reach out for my crutches. Maybe it's just from having seen American Hardcore and hearing a bunch of Minor Threat: "Never want to use a crutch!" There's a wee bit of irony there considering how completely loaded (to just the right point on the blotto continuum) I was going into the movie and then singing along with Straight Edge.

Jonathan 11/09/2006 09:09:00 AM