Observations/tips two days ish after LL surgery

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notes for me next time:

- when get in taxi, duck head extra low/bend over even more forward to avoid head bump into taxi

- maybe try out the greek salad w/o the cheese

- gonna try just constantly having two very small pillows under one tibia in bed so I can start stretching that leg's hamstring whenever I went (just by leaning forward slightly)

- put towel under elbow when use computer at desk

- what are the most common messages to put into google translate to turn to Greek to show someone? "please wait for my friend before you drive the taxi"

- figure out two sets of clothes to rotate for which are being cleaned and which are ready to be worn

- might as well ask for cold water when go to physical therapy center

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At some point are you thinking of doing internal tibias in Athens?

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The walker/wheelchair use seems to be affecting my dreams. I had a dream where arm movements, especially tricep movements, cause me to float / fly in the air

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A nurse helped me to attempt to walk without the walker one time up a very very small set of stairs up to the hotel (he held one of my arms and I used my other arm on a wall)

Its odd, like my legs felt a bit unstable/wobbly but I had the strength to do it in the quads/etc

I can't wait to use the antigravity treadmill at physical therapy (basically uses pressure/inflatable pads or something around your waist to hold your upper body up) and then you can walk on the treadmill as your upper body sort of floats above

I still haven't encountered the "flat ass" syndrome LLers have warned me about, and maybe with my body fat amounts I'll never bump into it ---but I still might experiment with bringing a little cushion to the hospital to use to sit on those hard chairs outside the doctor's office

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I've still been lazy and haven't done any grocery delivery yet. I wonder what would be most useful to get if I ever did?

Er lets see

Fruits that I can't get from the breakfast buffet. Maybe bananas are the easiest since I don't have any kitchen stuff.

Uh what else

Probably soda tbh. I can buy soda from the hotel but its like 3 euros for a small bottle.

An omega 3 fat source? But I keep reading that omega 3 supplements and some high omega 3 foods like flax seeds may mess with something related to blood, I think Dr. Giotikas told me not to get krill oil

I probably should pick some fish dish at the hotel to try at some point

If I did grocery delivery, I would probably want to get alot of stuff that can last a long time so I can just do one big delivery and use it over the course of several weeks. I could fill the hotel cooler with soda I guess.

alright alot of soda
maybe some bananas
what else

I don't see the value of getting protein powder or anything like that, I can just force myself to eat more eggs in the morning it seems, no?

Maybe I should eat less chocolate cake during breakfast, but its the best tasting food they have for breakfast at the hotel

The green apples seem to last a bit longer than the red apples from the hotel (don't seem that fresh), or maybe its just the sour taste masking the mild aging

The nutrition I'm missing from my diet seems to be vegetables, omega 3 fats, and I could probably be eating more protein. I still think I don't feel that motivated to get grocery delivery, I could just try out the greek salad dish later, try out a fish dish later, and force myself to eat more eggs in the morning instead of chocolate cake

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Toying with this idea for stretching hamstrings in a way that doesn't require any arm strength w/ the strap

1. Put wheelchair at edge of bed, but not facing the bed (90 degrees)

2. lock the wheelchair

3. scoot up towards it

4. put leg on the soft wheelchair arm rail that is closer to you

5. bend upper body forward slightly -> hamstring stretch

Not sure if its a good idea, but this would avoid having to use the arm strength

It still requires scooching towards that end of the bed but it seems like it otherwise would be a 'lazy' way to stretch hamstrings easily

Before in the handicap room, I did something similar with a chair but it wasn't as soft. And now I'm using my chair in a different position in the non-handicap room closer to the side table of the bed to hold stuff

The other easiest way seem to be

1. tuck one leg in

2. straighten the other leg, maybe put a pillow under it

3. lean forward -> hamstring stretch

I don't know why they seem to emphasize doing the hamstring stretch with a strap, but probably because at the start your mobility is worse and they are thinking about the situation of being stuck on your back in bed in one spot

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I used to rotate between the hamstring, quad, adductor, and abductor stretches doing them in roughly 1:1:1:1 ratios in terms of time

I don't think that's a great idea anymore -> I'm not having any significant pain from adductor stretches in physical therapy  and the only pain I'm having from abductor stretches is from nerve pain, not the muscle pain

I'm having the most pain in the hamstrings and quads during physical therapy -> so it seems like I should spend most of my stretching time on hamstrings and quads, no? Quads are the easiest muscles to stretch by far from a sitting position, you just sit up and then heel to butt -> quad stretch

hamstrings with the wheelchair idea above are also pretty low effort to start doing and maybe I should just spend more of my time in a position (closer to the edge of the bed where the wheelchair is) where I am only 1 or 2 seconds away from starting a hamstring stretch if I wanted to do one (just lift leg onto the soft arm wheelchair rest -> insta hamstring stretch)

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Quote from: SpeedDialer on October 03, 2022, 01:19:03 PMAt some point are you thinking of doing internal tibias in Athens?
Nah. Half a year of being wheelchair bound doesn't appeal to me I also have concerns about potential knee damage from doing tibias

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Note to self:

montaza food

the greek salad that costs 8 euros is mostly cucumber and tomato, the only new vegetables you get from it that you can't already get from breakfast are onions and peppers, and its not that much more. the greek salad is also pretty massive and is hard to finish

the falafel wraps look delicious, at least from what I saw afar, I might want to try one some time

still not that easy to get a large amount of protein for dinner, its mostly carbs for most meals, maybe I've overlooked a dish?

wish they had souvlaki but I can see why they would not invest in the equipment needed for it

another patient is telling me the hotel doesn't allow takeout delivered to the hotel. However, I don't see how they can possibly enforce that if someone just does the delivery to a nearby address and walks over. And they also can't stop grocery delivery, which could include precooked meals so I'm a bit confused

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other notes:

tuck in fingers not using during wheelchair, don't want them to bump into the metal wires of the wheelchair wheel

difficult to force myself to eat more eggs in the morning for protein, the chocolate cake and orange juice are easier to eat because of the sugar

Somehow when I'm in alot of pain, I don't feel like eating the tomatoes or cucumbers at breakfast at all,, not even the apples

hard to deal with temptations to skip a day of clicking "cmon just one day of rest won't hurt" though I wonder if this could cause any problems with premature consolidation later

today was the coldest morning I've been through yet in Athens, usually the past weeks weather was amazing even at 7 am

hoping when the ice packs to the hotel and pedal machine gets setup I will have an easier time

it is psychologically unpleasant to see the flexibility gains you make worked against by the lengthening (I got more flexible but now that muscle will be tighter again because the leg is now longer) \

the stationary bike they give you cannot really fit in the non-handicap montaza hotel room, be warned

dreams are getting strange, probably from the longer dreams resulting from not being woken up by the strip club music is contributing to that

right leg clicking is much harder than the left leg for me. The fact that the big click comes first for the right leg makes it harder I think, but I'm not sure. yelling helps. Clicking was going so well a few weeks ago, but once the whole thigh is sore again, clicking becomes painful again