Observations/tips two days ish after LL surgery

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I've learned:

don't say "my X muscle is tight" to the nurses/PT. They sometimes interpret you as blaming the result on something out of your control or you claiming that your muscle is more tight than other patients. They may feel your muscle and say "oh no, its about as soft as other patients"

I think instead you can say like "the current range of motion of X muscle is low/not many degrees" which is an objective observation

The crutches feel way better than the walker, less hand pain. I like walking near the front desk in case I drop a crutch or fall down and can call for help. But I feel that is unlikely-- the only places I'm really afraid of is the awful cracked/old/uneven pavement around Athens during the rain.

I'm somewhat under the (possibly false) impression that especially if you can stay near the doctor for longer and if your bone consolidation is not too fast, then it becomes more possible to just slow down the lengthening, which helps alot in the short term in terms of pain/range of motion. Is this impression wrong?

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Ok I think I have found another way to max out how much quad/hamstring stretching you can do in X time

1. Sit on your wheelchair

2. To stretch quads, tuck feet in, still with feet on the ground, and knees forward  (can scoot wheelchair wheels forward)-> stretches both leg's quads

3. then, still on the wheelchair, scoot the wheelchair wheels backwards, legs more straightened, heels into the ground, butt still firmly planted in your wheelchair seat, slightly lean forward -> insta stretch of both leg's hamstrings. I don't think its a problem if your hands are on the wheel circles, you can't fall down, the legs hold you up, your butt is still on the wheelchair seat, + you can just roll forward to safety w/ the wheels + you're not really that forward leaning just slightly

And then just alternate between 2 and 3 and you can get in alot of quad and hamstring stretching pretty easily in a small amount of time

I don't know if this is a good idea or not but I'm toying with it in my mind, trying to just get as much quad and hamstring stretch as possible

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Alright I'm gonna use the walker on days it rains, screw it

I know the physical therapists/nurses all prefer you use the crutches over the walker at some point, but for rainy days, screw it

Not gonna use the crutches on raining days, why take that risk?

Why risk falling? If you slip in the rain and fall when using crutches, you basically land on your arms/wrists, you cannot really use your legs to brace the fall as someone warned me

If you use a walker, guess what, its four metal legs always + your two legs, its really hard to ever fall down

I know some nurses think it will be fine on crutches in the rain because the walk from the taxi to the physical therapy center is relatively short----but what exactly do you gain for that risk? Like literally the benefit is only a few more minutes of crutches practice instead of walker practice, that's it. (also the pavement around there is awful, uneven, cracked). Why use the crutches outside in the rain when I can, at any time, do indoor crutches walking practice whenever I want by the front desk hotel workers near people who can help me?

 I'll take the scolding by the physical therapists for using the walker on raining days, I'm using the walker on raining days anyway, they can bite me 

I'll check the weather the morning right before physical therapy- if there is significant chance of rain, I'm taking the walker, not the crutches to physical therapy

Why not use the wheelchair on rainy days? Well the thing is that there is not always a gentle slope up to the pavement of the physical therapy center depending on where the cars are parked. It is probably workable if I just ask the taxi driver to get me up to the sidewalk but then the physical therapists will be even more pissed to see me on a wheelchair as opposed to a walker

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how are you ? it seems Dr. G has a lot of patients nowadays. is this correct or is just my perception due to the increase in forum diaries.

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Quote from: canterk on October 13, 2022, 03:52:15 PMhow are you ? it seems Dr. G has a lot of patients nowadays. is this correct or is just my perception due to the increase in forum diaries.

There's like 5 new Dr. G patients in this hotel (Montaza) including myself that weren't here in September 1st 

It feels like there are new patients every 2 weeks or so, I might be wrong but it feels that way

I feel like he's super busy with new patients and this like doesn't even include his UK office

What are your thoughts on Novotel vs Montaza hotel for internal tibias in Athens? I'm still thinking about this, kinda wish Montaza had better fruit selection for their breakfast buffet and more desk space

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Alright so I think right now actually to get in alot of stretching there's this simpler method:

Sit at edge of bed, rotate between these three stretches:

1. Lie on back, pull one knee to chest -> hip flexor stretch on other leg

2. Sit upright, knees forward, heels in -> stretches both legs for quads

3. Sit upright, heels of feet into ground, lean forward -> stretches both hamstrings

I am willing to bet that your hamstrings/quads/hip flexors will be bigger problems than your IT band/adductors but evidently that's not always the case, I've bumped into one person who had alot of problems with IT band (but I'm confused by how that works, I don't have problems w/ the IT band itself after the IT band release, just the nerves that are stretched during the IT band stretches)

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Quote from: SpeedDialer on October 13, 2022, 07:51:08 PMThere's like 5 new Dr. G patients in this hotel (Montaza) including myself that weren't here in September 1st 

It feels like there are new patients every 2 weeks or so, I might be wrong but it feels that way

I feel like he's super busy with new patients and this like doesn't even include his UK office

What are your thoughts on Novotel vs Montaza hotel for internal tibias in Athens? I'm still thinking about this, kinda wish Montaza had better fruit selection for their breakfast buffet and more desk space
thanks for the info!
about the hotels, sorry, i have no opinion. only the patients in athens can answer this. if you are not liking or if you are not comfortable where you're staying then the obvious choice would be to move, yes?

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So far in Montaza's hotel food:

I haven't had much luck w/ the Greek dishes, I think my body isn't liking the kind of faintly sweet almost cinnamon like flavor in alot of meat/pasta dishes. That and the yogurt/cheese of certain sauces or bases can be very hit or miss for me, I guess I probably  should have predicted this, maybe its common for mediterranean food 

Think I'll just stick to foods that are closer to American dishes that I have a better idea of, less of a dice roll. I will say that I think their most expensive pizza dish (like 9-10 euros or something, has tomato, feta cheese, some meat on it, mushrooms) quite filling and large, I feel like it lasts two meals easily so it might actually be the most cost effective option even better than the burger, which they bumped up the price to 7.50 euros for

I know one patient who is concerned about not getting that much protein from dishes- > I don't think there is really a cost effective way to get protein except the breakfast eggs. Though I sort of wonder if a protein powder might actually be a good idea so I just don't have to think about that on a day to day basis and can just enjoy my carbs in peace

Then again, like do we really need that much protein? None of us here are that big or muscular, I feel like just even a modest amount of animal protein has a good effect and then you also get some in the milk and smaller amounts in other foods ..

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So I think the main thing now stopping me from buying a protein powder is I will go search it on amazon and be like "what is all of this stuff, like all these big letters, colors in the advertising, chemicals they put in them, will all these chemicals cause weird cross reaction with any medications I'm taking or have weird effects w/ leg lengthening? Do I even want to find out? "

https://www.amazon.de/s?k=protein+pill&crid=1DF1AV3M424QO&sprefix=protein+pil%2Caps%2C151&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

And I keep going back to the same thought "eh fk it, I eat alot of eggs for breakfast, like do I really need that much protein? I eat some animal protein in each meal, is that not enough?"

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Just buy a normal protein powder.....