Physical Therapy; Rehab is Court Ordered.

So my mornings are spent trying to return my leg to fighting shape. Stationary bike, stair master, leg lifts, leg presses, mini-lunges, mini-squats. It is all quite, well..., we must do it.

I was sitting at the Pour House having a nice meal with the wife, when one of the bar denizens came over to say hello and shoot the shit, when I mentioned that I was rehabing the knee. His response was "Therapy. Rehab is court ordered." I chuckled at that and then he stayed 5 minutes longer, or 5 minutes too long, to be exact. However, that comment got me to thinking of the nature of P.T. vs. rehab.

In his world rehab has quite a different connotation; a long stint in the County facility with no booze and no drugs. Physical therapy, on the other hand would probably be worse. After about 5 minutes on the stationary bike the booze would be flowing freely from every pour. Another couple of minutes and he would be hacking miserably and looking to get outside for a smoke. It would be either hilarious or pitiful to watch.

My therapy is progressing much better than that, however. We have a beautiful, brand new, rec center in town, not two blocks from the house. It is chock full of fancy equipment, basketball courts and a sweet, climbing wall. I cannot yet partake of the wall or the hoops, but will in due time. The goal at this point is to get to outdoor bike riding and then to running.

After 3 months or so, my body will have converted my dead man's ligament into my own. Unfortunately, at that point the tissue will be at it's weakest, but hopefully the muscles will be much stronger. After six months we will be fully back, just in time for the snowboarding season. It is a tad frustrating, since I am back to form walking and feel as though I should be good to go doing anything, but I must stay true to the doctor's advice. It has yet to fail me.

I did go bowling the other night. I wore the brace, since all of my weight is on the left leg at the time of release. I wasn't able to give it all that I would have liked. I kind of shuffled up to the line and slowly chucked the ball down the lane. I did, however, crush the competition. There were about 12 of us and no one could keep up. The men all tried to huck too hard and the women, frankly, didn't give a rats ass about knocking over pins.

So, there it is; day in and day out at the rec center. I do go to physical therapy once a week, where they push and pull, massage and electrocute my knee. They have been very good to me and I appreciate all that they have done. It also gets me out of work a little early on Fridays.