What is physical therapy like for a torn tendon and strained ligaments in your foot? Oh , well I am glad you asked because I have done 2 whole sessions of therapy so far.
Does your foot hurt? Yes. Have you been doing your exercises? Yes. It still hurts? Yes.
Hop up on the table and get a stretch band and flex your foot forward, pulling the band back as tight as you can. Sure...that's not to hard. Do it 100 times. ACK! I got up to 30 before the searing pain kicked in, but I powered through and got up to 100...thank goodness Sesame Street taught me how to count that high. Now my Achilles tendon is feeling like someone sliced it with a red hot poker...nice...hey, wait a second...my Achilles wasn't hurting BEFORE I got here!
The physical therapist dude is a nice guy, but he causes a lot of pain...so I am not liking him very much. He grabs my foot and starts stretching it into Gumby type positions that a foot is not meant to go. Does this hurt? Ummmm....yeah, does it hurt when I stab you in the eye with my car keys?
He then feels around all the tendons and muscles and says, "you sure do have a lot of scar tissue in this main tendon". Okay, should I be worried? Proud? Excited? I have no idea. Lets put you in the whirlpool to loosen that up.
You don't actually get IN the whirlpool now. The tank is much higher than my waist, in fact. They attach a little ledge thing on the side and then tell you to "hop up there". Excuse me? No step ladder...no grab bar on the wall? I have to get up there and swing my leg around and plunge it into this 105 degree water. Somehow I manage to do this with no assistance and he tells me that I need to stay there for 15 minutes and move my foot constantly. Draw the alphabet with my foot in the water (yet another reason to be thankful for Sesame Street). He puts on some kitchen timer and leaves me there. There is literally NOTHING to do..nothing to look at, but a flickering fluorescent light that goes out about every 3 minutes and then buzzes loudly and pops back on. No one else is down there in the whirlpool room...no one in the hallway..no one anywhere. I am drawing the alphabet with my foot and humming the ABC song absentmindedly. Water is splashing up onto my shorts and my foot is literally being pummeled by this jet and it is supposed to feel good, but it doesn't feel good AT ALL. It feels like someone shooting b.b.'s at my ankle. I sit there and daydream a story that I sit here for 25 minutes and finally give up and get out of that whirlpool and go looking for the staff...no one can be found and suddenly I am the only person left in the whole town...abcdefg...where did everyone go while I was hidden away in the basement of physical therapy...hijklmnop....
DING! The kitchen timer goes off and my physical therapist pops magically back into the room, I guess I have to come back to reality. Be careful when you get out because there is water on the floor...geee..thanks for the warning.
My whole leg is now super tingly and feeling like jell-o as I hop back up on the table. He gets out this goose grease stuff and then "massages" my Achilles and the tendon on the side of my foot. Seriously, I broke into a sweat because it was soooo freaking painful. He looks at me and says, "you think this is bad now, just wait until tonight when your whole leg hurts, you will be cursing my name." Wrong...I am already cursing your name! LOL
A few more stretching exercises with the band and instructions on what to do and what not to do over the next few days and then I am out the door. It takes an entire hour to finish one session and it's seriously excruciating. To make it even worse , my insurance really sucks and I have to pay 40.00 for every single visit. So, I am PAYING for this torture...sheesh!
It's been 4 hours since I came from therapy and I can't even walk at this point. I've taken Aleve...and some Motrin...nothing really helps. When I get off of here I have to stand in the kitchen and make dinner, which isn't recommended, but I HAVE to do it or we will starve tonight. I can't afford to eat out when I am forking 40.00 over for this therapy stuff. My Achilles tendon feels like it's full of broken glass and the whole side of my foot and bottom of my foot hurts to touch it, so standing on it is suicide. Oh well...
If I could go back in time, when I was sitting at the orthopedist and he said, "we can cast it or try therapy first, what do you want to do?" I SO would say, CAST ME, CAST ME NOW!
That's all for now. I had to complain someplace and get it out of my system. Thank you Internet for listening
2 comments:
I feel the same way about therapy. It is a waste of time but you feel like you should give it a shot anyway. Good luck. It actually gets better but you usually give up way before you are supposed to. It just takes way too much time and they never can guarantee it will be worth it, so why bother is what goes through your head the whole time. UGH!
Sounds like tons of fun!! Well at least his comment that you'll really hate him came true, which means he has experience... and that's always good. It's supposed to hurt. Sounds awful though :(
I think you made the right decision not to get it casted because you'll heal up and be able to use your foot a lot faster than you would have in a cast... besides casts are for broken bones, not tendons.
Keep your chin up!
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