Knee surgery follow-up, calendar updates, card exchange updates, and some exercising…

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Though my alarm was set for 7:30, I was awake at 7:00 and finally got up at 7:20.

I had my first knee surgery follow-up appointment this morning, and that beautiful P.A., Jeremy, checked out my knee, which as expected, he declared making great progress.

I told him about this recurring pain I’m having up in the area where my leg meets my butt, and he said he thought that was part of my back issues, not anything to do with my knee, which is just what Joe said when I told him about it last night at dinner.

He offered to set me up for physical therapy to work on both my knee and my lower back if I wanted to. I went ahead and made an appointment. “You can always cancel it,” he said.

The first available appointment was not until January 13th, so I went ahead and took that one, with the intent of doing lower back exercises on my own between now and then. Hopefully, I’ll just be able to cancel it when the time comes.

Since I had the most incredibly restless night, I took a three-hour nap during the day today.

I got my personal calendar updated with my January appointments, and logged into work and put them on my work calendar as well, to avoid the situation I got into with my pre-op appointment that I completely forgot about until the morning of, because it wasn’t on my work calendar.

I caught up on the elaborate record-keeping of my holiday cards, which is explained in excruciating detail in this January 2006 entry. 🙂

I did about 45 minutes with of lower back and lower abdomen stretching and strength-building exercises:

 Exercise

 Description
Ab crunches Hands behind head and lifting shoulders, 5 sets of 15 repetitions.
Bicycle crunches Left elbow to right knee, right elbow to left knee, 5 sets of 39 repetitions.
Knee to Chest Hands clasped behind thigh and pull it towards your chest, with other leg flat to the floor; hold for 30 seconds. I did five of these for each knee.
Pelvic Tilt Small of back pushed into the floor by pulling lower ab muscles up and in; hold for 5 seconds. I did 10 of these.
Hip Rolling Arms crossed over chest, turn head (trunk) to the right as you turn both knees to the left. Reverse directions. I did 5 of these in each direction.
Pelvic Lift Arms crossed over chest, tilt pelvis and and push lower back to the floor, then slowly lift buttocks off the floor as far as possible without straining; hold for 5 seconds. I did 10 of these.
Lower abdominal
  1. Both feet flat to the floor, both knees bent. Bring one knee toward chest, and hold for 5 seconds. I did 5 of these.
  2. Both feet flat to the floor, raise knee to chest, hold, extend knee up and out, hold. I did 5 of these.
  3. Both feet flat to the floor, raise one leg keeping it straight and hold. I did 5 of these.
Curl Ups
  1. Slowly reach arms in front of body as much as possible, curling trunk. Keep the neck muscles relaxed. Breathe normally. Slowly return to starting position. I did 10 of these.
  2. Fold arms on chest. Tuck chin to chest and slowly reach elbows to knees, curling trunk. Keep the neck muscles relaxed. Breathe normally. Slowly return to starting position. I did 10 of these.
  3. With hands behind head, slowly curl head to chest and then trunk. Relax, breathe and then slowly return to starting position. I did 10 of these.

I got to Flex at about 9:30, and it was quite dead in there, and it remained that way until I left at about 10:30.

Before I left, I gave Kurt, the bartender, a $10 tip. Got to take care of the people who take care of me all year.

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