I did my first sets of my rehab exercises at home - well, I tried to do my exercises at home. I felt like my leg was simply dead weight. I tried the standard task of putting a rolled up towel under my knee and then trying to tighten my quad. (If you are able to strengthen your quad, your heel will come up off the floor.) I could not at all get control of my quad and there was NO movement in my right heel - that heel was stuck to the floor. I had no way of tightening it. The left leg did its thing and I felt the quad tighten and saw it tightenting but I could not tighten my quad in the right leg. I just could not!
Another exercise is lying on my bed on my stomach and tieing something around my foot and using my hand to hold the other end and then pull my knee up so it bends. OUCH! I'm suppose to hold it for 30 seconds. You got to be kidding. After this one, I simply let my ankle drape over the side of my bed forcing the leg to extend. OUCH! I'm suppose to do this for 5 minutes.
Last but not least, are the heel slides. Sitting on the floor, you slide you heel as close to your buttocks as you can. I am only able to slide my heel in about 6 inches. I also do some leg lifts and am having no problems with them but I think I am doing the wrong: I am using another muscle instead of my quad.
So, needless to say, this is a bit discouraging. Yes, it only was my first day but nonetheless, it sucked. And, walking is still a drag as I need to go ever so slowly. I mean really slowly.
Well, today is a new day and I'm hoping things will progress and I will start to be able to regain control of my quad.
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2 comments:
Where were you before your surgery with these types of exercises--just curious. I run and bike a lot but I still cannot fully flex my quad and completely straightening out my leg or pulling it behind me to bending it is a task but it does do it eventually. UGH. Good luck, I truly feel your pain and soon I'll be doing these myself post-surgery.
Kayla,
At first my surgeon thought I would not need surgery and the rehab would be enough. So, I was doing the rehab exercises for over 3 months before surgery. Like you, I was not able to fully extend and then the surgeon said I needed surgery to correct this. Basically, the stump of the ACL was preventing full extension. You may have the same problem. Start doing the rehab exercises now if you are not already doing them.
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