I have now been going to Physical Therapy twice a week for 2 weeks. The feeling of having an extra joint in my injured leg is gone. Why? Because they’re merciless on the massage! My hubby and I have a joke: “What is the difference between a Trainer and a Torturer? You pay the Trainer!” We paid about $650/month for our trainer. She made us feel guilty if we didn’t go to the gym, and always challenged us and pushed us. She was very good! Hubby lost weight and is down to about 330 lbs. I didn’t because the laws of physics and biochemistry do not apply to me. (see all my other entries on losing weight…) Nevertheless, seeing the Physical Therapist costs me $50/visit. So the difference between a Trainer and a Therapist is about $200 less, and 2x the pain.
In essence, the therapist goes to the injury and looks for tightness and lumps of scar tissue and rubs it really hard to break up the scar tissue. I have very deep bruising from this. My leg is now painful to the touch. Then Monday, I experienced dry needling. She sticks this needle into my muscles just above my knee (where I felt that phantom joint) and goes until it starts a twitching in my muscle. She was using only needles, no other devices or machines. I say that because it felt like it was electric! At first, it just felt like pressure, then, when it hit the problem area, it felt like a shock. She’d remove the needle after a few seconds and put in another one at a different spot–8 in total. When she was done, it felt like I’d had an hour session with my trainer and we only worked the quads on my left leg! It was tight and felt sore like after an intense workout, not sore like I’d gotten stuck with needles. Why would anyone submit to this? Well, because I’m limping less! The therapist also gives me really easy exercises to do, with 1 exception.
The nastiest exercise I have now is marching. Take a step, lift the knee, take a step, lift the knee. No problem lifting my left knee (injured leg), but I can’t get my right foot off the floor! I will keep trying though. I am making some measurable progress!
Measureable progress 