Two main aspects to the last week...
- Nick is gradually increasing how many lessons at school he can make in a day, and
- Working on improving his pelvic mobility.
Our weekly summary.....
- Sitting. Can make it through a double lesson (1 hr 20 mins) but gets up in the middle to loosen his back. Doesn't enjoy the double periods and really they are still a struggle for him but he is managing them
- Standing. As before, stands well when not in pain but tilts his pelvis when in pain
- Finds lying down the only really effective way to alleviate pain. Still needs quite a lot of lying down time to recover. Is now lying on his front propped up on his elbows as part of his physio exercises which he seems to like
- Muscles - Nick says that they don't feel tight any more so it looks like all that stretching has finally paid off!
- Bending forwards. Still not great, about a quarter of the way down his shin but he is trying not to focus on this in favour of focusing on improvements elsewhere
- Physio exercises - see new 9 week post op tab. Now working on pelvic mobility
- Has asked for another sports massage as he found it really helped
- Emotionally - says 'Don't feel too bad', and he seems generally more cheerful
Schooling
Has managed three full days and one half day. He was ill with a 'mini-flu' type thing on the fifth day. So missing some classes and only just about keeping up but this is an improvement overall. The downside of the extra time at school is that he spends more time in pain, which results on poor posture, and it can be hard for him to do his physio exercises. He now gets up at 6 am to do a set before he leaves - not easy for a teenager!
Pelvic tilting
His physio felt that Nick needed to correct his posture, and in particular his tendency to tilt his pelvis when in pain. However, Nick finds it really hard to do pelvic tilts, so he is having to learn how to do them. See tab on 9 weeks post op exercises. Hard work getting him to do them often enough (they're just not cool for a teenage boy).
Nick is the taller one on the left. For this photo he is trying to stand straight but is still tilting his pelvis. The other boy is my older son, one year older than Nick - he does a lot of strength and conditioning work as he is rower so perhaps not a very fair comparison for Nick!
Emotionally
Nick seems much more calm and settled now. It's possible that being back at school helps to distract him from his back, plus he gets to see all his friends again which cheers him up. But he is really looking forward to the half term break next week so that he can rest more plus have more time to do his physio exercises more often.
Posted with Blogsy
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