Rehab Week 7: A Matter of Degrees

Honestly, this hospital stay is getting pretty tedious. But that’s good news really. I seem to have fought off the MSRA infection successfully. Latest swabs are not growing any cultures, blood tests are clear and the wound looks clean with no signs of inflammation.

The remaining wound is getting smaller, if only by millimeters per week. It’s about two centimetres deep now and pretty skinny now, so hopefully I’m on the home stretch with that.

On the rehab front, well there’s only so much arm work I can do and I’m basically fit and strong enough to go home, it’s just the medical issue with the wound to be cleared up. Walking around on the crutches is a bit tricky. I’m good on the crutches but as I’m still hooked up to the vacuum unit, it means someone has to carry it along behind me if I want to have a walk.

The main rehab issue now is the range of motion of the knee joint. Over the past few weeks I’ve been working to improve the amount I can straighten and bend it. Right now I’m getting to 10 degrees in the straightening motion and 82 degrees when bending. I’ll need a lot better than that for riding. The doc says that it’s the amount of scar tissue inside that’s restricting the motion and that once I have the prosthetic on I’ll have much more leverage to help improving. Let’s hope so.

That’s all folks!