More Flexion

I am now one month out from the quadriceps tendon repair surgery. Yesterday I had yet another appointment and my brace was opened up to 70 degrees of flexion. I can’t bend it that far, yet. As you might imagine, after a few weeks with my leg locked in place, my knee is reluctant to bend. In fact, bending it feels very much like lifting weight. Or perhaps more like trying to bend my knee with a huge rubber band taped to it. Suffice it to say that moving it ain’t easy.

I suspect that the difficulty is a combination of a few weeks of immobility plus the fact that my tendon is now shorter. The tear is repaired by anchoring the tendon to the knee with surgical thread until it attaches on its own. So, getting it to bend is both a matter of working on flexibility and probably also getting the tendon to lengthen a bit.

Since the lower leg is under tension, I’ve found that if I pull it back it will pop forward like a catapult. Surprisingly, my cats really enjoy being catapulted across the room-I just place a cat on my foot, pull it back and zip, there goes a cat. It did take a while to get my aim and power down right, as a few cat size holes in the ceiling will attest. I’m sure PETA would be thrilled. I’d be happy to give them a ride, too.

I start physical therapy on May 11. I’m sure that will be suitably painful. I’m working at having full range of motion by then so that the PT won’t have to “help” me by applying a winch or something to my lower leg. My prescriptions says I’ll be in PT for six weeks and I have about another eleven weeks of visits to the doctor’s office (although it is now down to a two week interval). It will be good to be back to normal. Well, as normal as I get.