I think the mornings are a bit rough because at that point the legs are very stiff/sore and I think it is possible that by that time the painkillers have worn off
In the evenings I sort of find myself waiting until the tramadol kicks in, that sleepiness and then I feel its time to do the clicks
My technique seems to be getting better (not having legs tucked in too close -> feels a bit crammed) or starting at a position that lets me use gravity and angles better to be able to click more easily with less force from my arm
I remember seeing a youtube vid wishing there were left and right specific nails and I sort of wish that was the case. It is just much easier if the first click is the small click, I can't explain why
I have not yet tried the two arm method of clicking, I mean it looks really efficient but requires you to engage your arm/upper body muscles just slightly a bit more than the way the nurses show you
In a day it feels like there are three kinds of painful experiences:
1. Clicking (though I did have a period where clicking was virtually painless briefly when my amount of total lengthening was low but my technique was improving alot)
2. Exercising (except bicycle exercise, bicycle basically never hurts and feels fantastic) - walking with the walker is not bad but my hands/wrists are starting to hurt, maybe being lighter will help for this. Its also just not so pleasant to walk with the walker when the thighs are sore in general obviously
3. stretching, especially at physical therapy is the most painful part of the experience I think. I mean I still like it because I think to myself "there is no way I am going to achieve those ranges of motion by myself, its better pain now as opposed to more pain later with also less walking function"
I know they want us to walk like an hour a day. On a day to day basis, the fear of the pain during physical therapy gives alot of motivation to do at home stretches to decrease that pain (though in practice the pain might end up being the same, they'll just go for even more range of motion). There isn't something as visceral to motivate you to do more walking.
There is one person doing externals now that I know of here in Athens, and I am under the impression that even small stretching movements cause him great pain due to the pins. the female physical therapist tends to get annoyed because from her perspective, she is hardly moving the legs/feet but it causes groans/screams of pain. I have to think that this disconnect is frustrating for externals patients.
The physical therapy room as of oct 2022 is on the 3rd floor (not in the hotel ,not in the hospital) (it will say in the elevator in Greek "physikotherapia" for the third floor where the ph sound is the greek letter phi and the th is theta and capital rho looks like a P for R sounds). The pavement around the physical therapy center is slanted/old so be careful when using the walker on it
I'm still trying to figure out what "peristo" means, I hear it alot from Greek speakers
Observations/tips two days ish after LL surgery
I think a second pair of slippers might be helpful in case your first breaks but slippers are probably cheap/really easy to replace in athens
I have to remember to bring like actual shoes and socks when I start using the anti gravity treadmill, maybe I should ask them what is the first date I should bring shoes
Its getting alot colder too now, I miss the September weather already
I keep forgetting to check the weather in the morning, might be helpful to know when to bring my raincoat to protect my smartphone
There is a worker at the montaza hotel with a small black beard / stubble who seems naturally tall and handsome and sometimes I wonder if he understands what he has. He's friendly/polite, comes in and brings meals for room service, and I wonder if he realizes he naturally has what alot of these patients are going through alot of pain trying to just get a small bit of
In youtube vids about Greece from the Easy Greek language learning channel, I would sometimes see in those vids Greek guys saying that Greek girls are hot- it seems to be true, but I am possibly getting a distorted view because montaza hotel is near a bunch of strip clubs + there were plenty of young tourists from other countries around who might have just been wearing less clothes back in September because it was very warm
I remember leechlet's diary years ago where he remembered seeing some tall, good looking people in France and he felt a bit bad about himself
At physical therapy, there are alot of leg lengthening patients, and it feels a bit like gym/physical education class in school except we are taking turns occasionally screaming or groaning in pain. We're sort of all united in one view, which is that height has value and the lack of it can cause problems, but on a day to day basis we don't really talk about those kind of societal issues and its more of like friendly pleasantries (how are you feeling, how is the hotel, where are you from, etc)
there are lots of people from australia I feel. Just two people I think right now from the USA, which surprised me a bit. Actually, that makes sense because I think that the USA has more LL doctors than Australia. With an international group like this, English becomes the main language in the physical therapy center except when the nurses/physical therapists are talking amongst each other. And it makes sense there are no British people here since Dr. Giotikas has a British office. And it probably makes sense there are no Greek patients that I've seen yet because they can simply just live at home and find local physical therapists in their area
I'm finding that after closing my eyes/resting after using the ice machine / electricity / pressure machine at physical therapy that (like waking up from a nap), my voice is a bit muffled and hard to understand, especially under a mask
When there are too many people in the physical therapy center, they tell us to wear masks
I got 4 covid shots done before I came and sometimes get lazy with mask usage. after I ate the meal on the airplane ride, I've been a bit lazier about putting a mask on since I already basically broke my rule on the airplane
test
Have you decided whether you will move to Novotel yet? Also, any update on the SUV or are you still taking taxis?
Quote from: thankscience on October 06, 2022, 06:42:00 AMHave you decided whether you will move to Novotel yet? Also, any update on the SUV or are you still taking taxis?
I'm staying at Montaza for the whole time, I feel like w/ gnail I can handle the non handicap room well. I took a shower with Evi's help and I feel like with practicing once or so more I can do it on my own (but I am not really motivated to shower on my own when I can just wash my hair while sitting on the toilet by reaching my arms over to the sink's water stream)
I asked Evi about the SUV, she told me to just wait and she would tell everyone about it when they were ready so I'm in the dark
I still am considering novotel if I do internal tibias one day (I'm thinking of doing maybe like 4 weeks montaza handicap room -> then move to novotel but I wonder if my idea is stupid or not, I can't tell. I can't tell how much greater frequency of nurse visits will even be a thing or how much it will matter.)
Evi's great, she even came last Sunday to help, it feels like she is constantly working and rarely takes breaks
What are your thoughts on what to do for food? I don't know if Novotel has a microwave or a bigger refrigerator or anything. At Montaza, I feel like I can fit my extra large cold packs (coming in a few days), some water, maybe some soda in the cooler they give us but I don't really feel like dealing with storing meat or anything like that. I find myself just eating the burger meal with pasta at montaza, I paid a bit more to get the pasta I think but it was still less than 8 euros per meal. It is still a mostly carb meal (maybe unfortunately?) but at least it seems like a step up over eating french fries everyday, which I was beginning to be afraid of health-wise
Novotel seems like a more upscale French-influenced (in the menu) hotel and their food seems significantly more expensive but maybe better. I don't know why but I'm having some issues uploading pictures, but I tried to upload the montaza menu but the forum wouldn't let me, not sure why
Quote from: thankscience on October 06, 2022, 06:42:00 AMHave you decided whether you will move to Novotel yet? Also, any update on the SUV or are you still taking taxis?
Still taking taxis, Evi told me to wait until they are ready to announce the SUV info to everyone
Taxi costs are indeed cancer but I am thankful that there is another patient who goes to physical therapy at the same time as me and we can share costs
Quote from: SpeedDialer on October 06, 2022, 07:31:52 AM
Evi's great, she even came last Sunday to help, it feels like she is constantly working and rarely takes breaks
What are your thoughts on what to do for food? I don't know if Novotel has a microwave or a bigger refrigerator or anything. At Montaza, I feel like I can fit my extra large cold packs (coming in a few days), some water, maybe some soda in the cooler they give us but I don't really feel like dealing with storing meat or anything like that. I find myself just eating the burger meal with pasta at montaza, I paid a bit more to get the pasta I think but it was still less than 8 euros per meal. It is still a mostly carb meal (maybe unfortunately?) but at least it seems like a step up over eating french fries everyday, which I was beginning to be afraid of health-wise
Novotel seems like a more upscale French-influenced (in the menu) hotel and their food seems significantly more expensive but maybe better. I don't know why but I'm having some issues uploading pictures, but I tried to upload the montaza menu but the forum wouldn't let me, not sure why
Is Evi the only nurse that visits you?
Hmm I would order groceries with mostly vegetables/pre-made meals to save money (if it works out cheaper)...tbh I'm a vegetarian so it's important to me to get vegetables and protein powder, but that doesn't seem to be an issue for you. (I'm thinking about stopping vegetarianism when I get the surgery but chicken is the only meat I like). What do the others staying at Montaza do for food?
Quote from: thankscience on October 06, 2022, 07:47:21 AMIs Evi the only nurse that visits you?
Hmm I would order groceries with mostly vegetables/pre-made meals to save money (if it works out cheaper)...tbh I'm a vegetarian so it's important to me to get vegetables and protein powder, but that doesn't seem to be an issue for you. (I'm thinking about stopping vegetarianism when I get the surgery but chicken is the only meat I like). What do the others staying at Montaza do for food?
Sometimes Bill comes instead. There are two visiting nurses in total (Bill and Evi), I'm under the impression usually at most one of them is at Montaza
Though actually recently I don't really need as much help as before and they spend more of their time helping the guy who uses externals. I think people on externals might want to stay at Montaza for the more frequent nurse visits because of the pin cleaning/infections/etc, not sure
I'm really only aware of what the guy doing externals (lives in Montaza also) is doing for food, and I am under the impression he is begrudgingly eating the hotel's food but wishes it had more protein and wishes he could get takeout. I think he is eating some falafel dishes and sometimes the burger dish. And sometimes they'll have like a chicken leg and a big plate of rice flavored with lemon. There also seems to be a variety of dish of the day traditional greek dishes, which I'm under the impression are often mixtures of pasta, red sauce, cheese, maybe some meat, and other things
I am under the impression with all the greek salads/falafel dishes it should be easy for a vegetarian to get by at montaza but it might depend on what someone likes. I feel like the amount of food they give you is pretty large
Although, according to the guy doing externals, the montaza hotel says they don't allow takeout from other places, I think a way around that is to simply set the address to be a nearby address, then go outside and accept that food when it comes. It is a hassle but oh well
I have not done the math, but I am not sure if premade meals put into the fridge come out to be cheaper when factoring in delivery costs. The other issue is that you will have no way to warm up the food unless you count using the kettle they give you to boil water and pour it in. So actually I guess if someone wanted like ramen meals/oatmeal meals/pour in hot water types of meals or something then yes it would be cheaper than hotel and maybe I'll try that sometime. I guess and canned soup meals should obviously be cheaper than the hotel too if you're willing to eat them at room temperature.
Quote from: thankscience on October 06, 2022, 06:42:00 AMHave you decided whether you will move to Novotel yet? Also, any update on the SUV or are you still taking taxis?
Ah good timing, they just sent an email about it to everyone just now, it's probably in your inbox
if not I will ask if I can paste the info here but basically it is approximately these costs:
SUV
montaza -> physio is 7 euros
novotel -> physio is 4 euros
(One way costs for everything)
Thank god, I think this cuts the costs way down even less than taxi sharing (er its a good reduction but not as much as I thought. I was paying 20 euros * 4 is 80 euros per week with taxi sharing cutting my old costs in half. So now it will be more like 7*2*4=56 euros from montaza per week for physical therapy travel). I didn't include doctor visits in my calculation since those are only once every two weeks
hospital for both cases is like 11/12 euros ish
to airport is like 32 euros
starts mid october, we have to inform the nurses if we want to use it, I think we will have some kind of help getting into the vehicle not sure
What are your thoughts now for Novotel vs Montaza? That 4 euro one way cost for novotel does indeed look good, but it doesn't really make up for Novotel's more expensive cost. Then again, the montaza handicap room is a bit expensive like 61 euros per day and novotel is 86 ish I think
In a week so you'd save uh lets see (7-4)*4*2=24 euros per week I think? So for travel costs for Novotel now you would only save 24 euros per week if my math is right? So Novotel is significantly more expensive than Montaza still but the good news is now that with the SUV everyones costs go down overall
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