Physical Therapy: 3rd outpatient visit

Today Mary had her 3rd Outpatient Physical Therapy visit. It was with the Therapist we had at our first appointment.  Unfortunately the pin site infection and probably the natural tightness that comes with the lengthening has taken a toll. 

• Our number one focus in PT is getting Mary to straighten her leg as much as possible. Totally straight is 0 degrees. Dr. Scott wants anything from negative 10 to 0. If it's more than negative 10 he is going to make us pause lengthening.
• The measurements are not precise and vary by the person measuring. 1st visit = negative 15, 2nd visit = negative 9, and today he measured negative 20. Again probably not precise but we definitely went backwards.

• He also mentioned her toes seem tighter. We have been working on straightening them out vs. the curling from the wire through her tendon. I was very surprised he thought they are tighter.

We learned a couple of new exercises to add into the rotation:

• lay on her tummy with a towel under her knee and let the hamstring stretch

• gently rub a towel on her left leg to help prevent it from getting super sensitive to touch
• push down on her quad right above her left knee to straighten her leg, gently rocking it back and forth = hold for a minute

• every time she stands up she should put her left foot flat on the ground and straighten her leg (hold for 10, 3 reps)

At one point the Therapist said you could do PT with Mary all day! We typically get in 5 sessions a day. It is amazing how fast the day goes when you are home with her.

He worked Mary hard today. I gave Mary Tylenol before PT as recommended, in the afternoon and before bed since he worked her so hard.

As Mary was walking to leave he was watching her walk with the walker. I asked what he was looking at and he said he was just watching. I pointed out how she turns her right foot in when she walks and he said "Mary, you and I will be friends for a long time." Meaning we have a lot of work ahead of us...

He also busted Mary because she has been using the pad on the wheechair that supports your calf as a foot rest meaning she is bending her knee all of the time vs. keeping her leg straight. She is going to love us nagging her about that :-)