Physical Therapy

When I got to work this Tuesday morning I had a voice mail from the physical therapy about setting up my appointments. The physical therapist I wanted to see was taking off the rest of the week (it is spring break) but she had a 3pm appointment on Tuesday. I was anxious to get started on this PT stuff, so I took that slot. What I found out before even going to my appointment was that my PT will be for 3 times a week, 30 minute sessions, and insurance covers 80% so my cost is $15 per session. Well, do the math. $15x3x4=$180/month. My prescription is for the next 6 weeks. Anyway, as usual, I'm concerned about my personal cost in all this.

So I got acquainted with my therapist. I had gone on the recommendation of some other friends, and from the get go, she did seem very attentive. I printed my x-rays from this blog to show her the broken bones and she seemed happy to have the printout. My ankle is stiff from being in the cast so she measured the angle of moving my ankle up & down, using my good foot for comparison. I suspect she'll measure it regularly to track my progress. So as not to stress the metatarsals which are still healing, she showed me how to stretch my toes up and down, and ankle up and down and sideways.

On Monday, I had asked the doctor about hydro therapy. When I brought up hydro and massage therapy, it must have made him think that maybe I would be better off going for some PT because that's when he offered up giving the prescription. I'm persistent enough that I don't think I would have walked out of the doc's office, not making sure I had outside therapy. I knew I could not do all this on my own, and I would need someone to push me past the pain barrier that I would hit. So my PT brought up the contrast bath without me even asking. I start each session out with the contrast bath to loosen up a bit. My contrast bath will be soaking my foot for 2 minutes in hot water, 2 minutes in ice cold, 1 min. hot, 1 min. cold, 1 min. hot, and end with 1 min. cold. The PT's young assistant fetched the two buckets of water. The hot bucket WAS definitely HOT!!! I asked how hot it was supposed to be. 98 degrees. I asked if they actually took a reading. The PT said with a smile, "She's supposed to" Another wards, she is but maybe she didn't. Well, it wasn't until I got home that night, I realized she couldn't have taken a temp. reading. It had to have been 105-110 degrees based on my water at home which was 98-100 degrees. I really like hot water and this was almost unbearable. So I'm going to take my own thermometer next time.

One of the exercises was to try to grab a towel off the ground with scrunched toes. You know how you can curl up your toes and almost pick up a pencil. When I scrunched my toes, you could hardly tell they had moved. The therapist said something like "No, really, move your toes". I'm like "I'm squeezing as hard as I can squeeze and I can definitely feel something but you see no movement". Today at work, it did seem like my toes moved ever so slightly so I feel like a little progress after 4 sessions. The doctor had said that I may never get that kind of detail with that foot but I guess time will tell.

The therapist wanted to know when exactly I could be weight bearing in a shoe. I guess I walked away from my doctor's appointment not really understanding when I should try on a shoe. So she's going to call and find out. She agreed with me that from the x-ray the 2nd metatarsal doesn't look very strong. I'm sure she doesn't want to risk damaging the metatarsals anymore.

My first visit lasted a little longer than a half hour. I was sent home with a sheet with all my exercises. At home I made a schedule for the next week, since I won't go back until next Monday. It's going to take about 25 minutes per session and I have to do 3 sessions a day. I'm going to do one in the morning, maybe one at work, or the day I have PT will count as one, and then one in the evening. If I can't do one at work, I'll try to fit two in the evening at home. I still have the 20 minutes of bone stimulation, too. So we're talking 1 1/2 to 2 hours of stuff to do.

We went shopping for new pails since I wouldn't want to stick my foot in anything we already had at home. When this is all done, I'll have two new pails for cleaning my house, which desperately needs it, at this point. I also bought a countdown timer, and a meat thermometer. The PT will just become another routine in my evening. I also got setup at work to do the same therapy. It's a little more difficult to figure out how to get hot water, and cold water. I found a countdown timer for the computer so I can sit right beside my computer. I can even use the timer for each toe. I set it on 1 minute and move each toe back and forth, then move to the next toe. The timer will repeat over and over, counting down from a minute or whatever time you give it. I have a refrigerator so I can freeze ice cubes. The lady next door at work has a water heater. The kitchen sink is somewhat nearby but the bathroom is a ways from my office (for pouring out my nasty foot water). At home the water coming out of our tap is over 110 degree so I cool it down with some ice cubes. The ice water is about 40 degrees. The first time in for 2 minutes really hurts.

That's all for now about PT. Now I need to be good and do my best with it.