My knee ached as we drove to ATI. It was a constant ache that has been constant for 274 days. It’s been 274 days since my knee was injured. It is an ache that I am very familiar with, used to it but still not comfortable with it. It hurts! It’s an ache inside of my knee and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do to get rid of it.
I’m not sure if Brad saw the desperation in my eyes or the frustration or the pain; probably a combination of all three because that’s exactly what I felt! He started off with traction to relieve some of that ache. It looked like he was counting so I just laid back and closed my eyes because it felt really good!
He worked on the inside of my knee when he was finished with the traction. He worked on my calf as well and I asked him about the ache. Why is it aching so much?! He told me that there is still some swelling, that the inside of my knee feels tight and my calf feels tight as well. Hearing this frustrated me!
After he did this, he bent my knee a little bit and told me that we were going to work on lifting my foot again. For my first couple of times, I tried too hard and tensed my body. It didn’t really matter; I didn’t really move AT ALL! He told me not to tense my body so much and instead tapped on my kneecap to help activate the muscles as he had me try to lift my foot off of the table again. It did start to move but definitely not like the movement I used to get when I was going to Barwis.
When I finished this, Mira set me up with ice and stim. It is only during these 15 minutes that I feel true relief. As I write this post, the outside of my knee is aching tremendously! It hasn’t ached like this since before surgery. It is the ache that I used to describe as a little bits that needed to be sucked out of my knee and then my knee would feel better.
The healing process is very slow and is concerning to me. Putting up with this ache for 274 days is BEYOND taxing! But, I know that the only way to get through this is to get through this! There is no other way and to me, that’s sad but true.