Meet my torturer

Or is it my incentivizer?? SGT Price from the Tripler Physical Rehabilitation Center.

Tuesday was a bad rehab day. Really bad. Tight, painful, locking knee. Par for the course, I think that it's just that I'm screwing up somehow and not measuring up to expectations. SGT Price has a different suggestion. I'm doing too much.

No way. Not me. (I hear that snorting)

Hmm. Let's turn our crutches upside down and take a look and see what's happening.

Oh. Maybe I am doing a little too much.....but how can walking be bad for you? Definitely bad for the crutches.

Anyways, I took yesterday off from stretches and strengthening exercises, spent quality time manipulating the knee and icing down (after finishing yet another paper). And sleep, I did that quite a bit as well. Guess I'm catching up finally. Wayne came home, and it was out for haircuts and dinner.

So this morning I was skeptical of my ability to progress, go figure.

I took off the brace, noticed very little stiffness in the knee, and didn't have the customary 2 minutes before the knee was warm on the bicycle. I did my quad sets and actually saw the formation of a quadricep muscle. I lifted my leg and there was no lag behind the knee!

And it just kept going well, deepest squats I've been able to do thus far, pressing 60 pounds on the leg extension, adding a 3 pound weight to my ankle on the hamstring curl. It was great! Plus I noticed a change in the swelling of my knee. First shot is 10 days ago, second shot today:

It almost looks like a knee, only bigger.

Now as for my girlfriend, she had an extended talk with her husband this morning, and I went over at lunchtime with wine and cheese in hand. Well, wine and poke. We both had a glass, and she seems to be doing quite well, better than I would be. She has quite an extended support family here in Hawaii (in addition to her actual family), and we're all rallying behind her. I left her after an hour as she was heading with her eldest to the mall. She wants a return visit so we can use the hot tub and drink some more wine. I can probably handle the wine, but may need to avoid the hot tub for a week or two more...must ask doctor...also must ask about extending the short term disability another 4 weeks at 20% so I can go to pt two days a week without having to worry about making up the time.

And my new Nike + iTunes iPod Touch arrived in the mail today! Now getting the old one ready to ship back home, along with my 3rd gen Nano. They'll get more use there. And I can now start tracking my miles! With the assistance of the old crutches, that is.

Aloha!