A lot of you have asked me over the past few weeks how things are going and how in the ‘intelligent lockdown’ (Corona Crisis) in The Netherlands, how am I managing to keep everything moving.
Well even though it may seem unfair to others who need physiotherapy, I can still go every week. On my own, gloves on, with my own physiotherapist (Michelle) in the room. All apparatus and us at a social distance of 1.5 meters and we work on keeping my new joints moving. Other patients do receive online training and schedules to do at home, but I need the equipment and I notice that if I miss a week, everything feels stiffer.
This August 2020 it will be a year since my fourth and hopefully final operation a new knee joint as I told you in previous blogs, and my sessions run under a so-called ‘chronical indication’ until then.
Sometimes when we are working I often think how incredibly amazing it is that I have two joints in my body. The scars have faded and I hardly ever think about it anymore, unless I sit for a long time in one position and get up. Then everything feels stiff and I need to bend and stretch a bit before undertaking anything physical. For a writer who spends a lot of time behind a laptop, this happens a lot!
When I look back on what I could do when I started (which was virtually not a lot as everything was so painful) and what I can do now and how much the pressure and effort increased each and every week. Where I started doing a thing 10 times on a piece of apparatus, this is now more times, more pressure to keep stimulating the muscles. You know, so many times, rest and repeat so many times.
One quite painful session is the straightening of my leg. Michelle does this by applying the majority of her body weight (lucky for me she is not that heavy) onto my knee and pressing it down to make the leg straight. A huge improvement has been made for sure and I think we are virtually at the stage that it is as straight as it is ever going to go. My ankle has much more movement too having been held in one position for so long last year.
I suppose to summarize I can do virtually everything now. Not signing up though for the next marathon anywhere, but in moderation all is possible, apart from getting down on my knees. We have had to adapt things here around the home and make them higher up. A sure sign of getting older. But it just doesn’t put so much pressure on the joints when getting up is easier. So why bother and it does not matter. Better to admit to things that are more difficult than keep plodding on regardless just to keep up appearances.
Shorter blog than normal but just wanted to share a couple of photos taken last week at Fit & Fysio. Just me, an empty room, all apparatus free and enjoying a burst of lovely spring weather, hence my colour.
So determination, will power and a lot of help from Michelle, getting there and improving all the time. I really enjoy these sessions and will continue, I think, after August with a once a week training group session.
Huge thanks to Michelle Roos and Fit & Fysio.
Images: private collection Jill Kramer (copyright).
