Just under 7 days after the op and had my first 'formal' session of physio on Tuesday. I say 'formal in inverted commas as I've been doing a load of quad tightening and straightening of the leg over the pas t few days, but this was the first session with a physio at the hospital.
And I must say, it was quite a pleasant surprise as the pain wasn't excrutiating. Now don't get me wrong, it definitely smarted a bit, but I wasn't nearly in tears for most of the time, and after my ACL recovery, that's progress I can tell you!
I think the main reason for this is the lack of exercises I can do at the moment. Those of you who have had a PCL repair will know it is so important not to over-bend the knee in the first few weeks to avoid stretching the graft and ending up back at square one. So I'm only allowed to do stiff leg tightening and raises (to activate and try and minimise quad mnuscle reduction) and some limited extensions from about 15' of bend. The only potential pitfall was the passive straightening done by the physio. I was apprehensive about this for two reasons, firstly not wanting to over-stretch that damned graft, and secondly 'cos it hurts. But luckily I already have a significant bend in my knee, measured at over 80' (I'm not allowed to go beyond 90' in the first 6 weeks so to reach 80' already is great). As I've got a good range of motion already I think the physio let me off lightly. And as there is not much for them to do right now, I don't got back for a couple of weeks.
So all good so far, although I know I'm storing up for some hard graft ahead. Gotta make this op stick so the re-hab is so important. Despite work pressures I've been keeping up my home physio for once, you can always do more but I least I'm doing regular exercises. In case no-one reads this I'll tell myself, Well Done Paul, keep it up!
Take care out there.
Paul
