Nick went back to see the physio today. Generally happy with progress but did re-iterate that this will take some time. The main issues are twofold. Firstly his nerve is still tethered somewhere, which is why he still cannot get beyond about 40 degrees in the straight leg raise or bend forwards to touch his toes (with his knees straight). Secondly, a lot of his other muscles have tightened up, eg his hamstrings, glutes etc as a result of his limited movement for such a long time.
So, she is stepping up his activity levels. Nick felt ready for this too so is happy with the idea. The main extra activities are
- Cycling, but starting off with only a few minutes and gradually building up and avoiding hills or bumpy roads. Nick will start off indoors until he can manage a reasonable amount of time.
- Lunges, for 2-3 minutes
- Bridge with a stability ball, holding for 10 seconds, 10 times over
- Wobble board balance. Total of 20 minutes a day. Nick struggled just to stand still, but once he can manage that to try squats
- Standing hamstring stretches for 2-3 minutes at a time
- Sitting. To limit to 20 minutes, then walk, then resume sitting (rather than sitting until it hurts)
- Swimming. He can start swimming lengths if he wants to.
Nick also tried out the cross trainer but found that it caused pain in his calf, plus we don't have access to one at home so we decided to leave it out.
Overall, the physio felt that Nick should be reducing the amount of time he spends lying down so we've decided that he should follow a rotation of the above to keep him moving. Not great news for his exam revision!
Will get a page up tomorrow summarising the three weeks post op routine with a few photos.
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