Left Knee Problem ..

Greetings Everyone!

I've delayed postings on Ernie's progress - because well, his left knee seems to have 'stopped' making any progress.  We were hoping things would improve - but not so.  A big disappointment to both of us - especially for Ernie.

Although his left knee is lagging, Ernie's right knee is doing fantastic.  It exceeds his left knee in it's ability to flex, bend and stretch - and has progressed to the point of being at the one year goal!

However, the left knee has 'stopped' gaining and is loosing flexibility.  Ernie can only bend his knee now at 82 degrees - a far cry for the normal goal of 90 degrees at this point in time. 

Why? It seems the left knee has developed 'considerable scar tissue' which makes it very difficult to bend or flex - the scar tissue build-up is suspected of being the result of Ernie's two set backs with his left knee.

Now what?  Ernie will go back into the hospital on Friday, April 20th for out-patient surgery to have 'a manipulation under anestishia' - which means - Ernie will be 'put under' and the doctor will 'force' Ernie's left knee down - hopefully, not breaking any bones.

After surgery, the same day - Ernie will be discharged to go directly to  physical therapy and begin intensive physical therapy.  From our understanding, Ernie will go every day to PT for two weeks and have lots of homework. 

Although we are both a bit down from the news - we know Ernie absolutely must have the ability to bend his knee in order for us to return to our life style at the cabin. 

Below is a photo of Ernie walking the halls of my brother's condo.  He is using a cane now which has made a big difference in his mobility - other than a stiff left leg.

In spite of all the gloomy news today - we extend a HUGH HEART FELT THANK YOU  to our friend, Mike!  He took it upon himself to bring our 4-wheeler in from the cabin to be repaired and serviced.  (Mike towed it across the lake ice, loaded it onto his snowmachine trailer and brought it into Anchorage).  Having the 4-wheeler up and running again will be a tremendous asset when we return. Thank you Mike!! 

Also - a few followers had some questions - so I'll answer those questions.

Has Ernie lost weight?  Yes, he's lost 25 lbs.

What do I do besides care taking?  Well - my brother is a bachelor - so I've taken to spring cleaning his condo. (My brother works on the North Slope, he's seldom here and he's given me permission to 'feel at home').  I'd be spring cleaning at the cabin if I were there - so spring cleaning my brother's condo is the next best thing.  I also read, run errands, take Ernie to his PT, assist him with home PT, call family, think about writing a book, spending time with Ernie joking and making things up.

Thank you everyone for your support, emails and phone calls! 

Moving Along ...

Hello Everyone!

Physical therapy continues and is moving along.  At Ernie's last session - the surgical tape strips were removed.  Now Ernie's scars are exposed to continue the healing process. 

Below - Cortland - the physical therapist - is inspecting Ernie's knees to access the healing stage so that he can determine how far to push Ernie during physical therapy.

For the curious - Ernie will have scars on each knee - the left knee scar is 7 3/4 inches long and the right knee scar is
8 1/2 inches.  Not sure why - possibly because two surgeons operated on him.

Today, Ernie's PT exercises were  expanded to include equipment workouts - designed to strengthen muscle, bending, flexing and stretching.  Below - Ernie is on the bike to bend his knees through rotations.  Interesting enough however, he was only able to do  2/3rds of a revolution. 

When the physical therapist found out that we have access to a professional grade workout bike (thanks to my brother's condo workout room) - he assigned Ernie bike homework - three times a day.  With the weekend coming up - that will give us two days to see if Ernie can complete one or two full revolutions on the bike.

Below - Ernie is on a sliding bench that he has to push back and forth with his legs.  Cortland is giving Ernie instructions on how many repetitions to complete while his toes are pointed upwards. 

Below - Cortland has changed Ernie's toe position - outward - so that Ernie can push back and forth using hip muscles.  (Cortland has a timer and measuring instrument in his hand)

 Below - Ernie's feet are at the bottom of the 'board' - pushing back and forth using the balls of his toes.

 Ernie continues to progress.  His right knee can flex/bend at 120 degrees and his left leg can now flex/bend at 90 degrees and both knees/legs are relatively 'flat' when he lies down.  We believe Ernie's jump in progress has been due to Cortlands' homework assignments - for both of us. 

After PT today, Cortland told Ernie he might want to consider using a cane to walk short distances - and to continue using his walker for longer walks - down my brother's condo hallway - which is 150 feet round trip.  As Cortland said "... we are very lucky to have distance, stairs and equipment ..." to get Ernie back to a full recovery.  So a BIG thank-you to my brother!!

 We'll keep you posted - in the meantime, have a Happy Easter Holiday!!!

'Our Physical Thearpy' .....

Greetings Everyone!

Ernie's out-patient physical therapy has begun!  Correction - 'our physical therapy' has begun.  And to think I thought my role would be to drive him there  - sit back and read a good book for an hour in the waiting room.

Not only did the physical therapist - Cartland - give Ernie homework - but I too was assigned homework.  Who would have thought?  At home, Ernie is to 'step-up' the flexing and stretching routine for each leg and increase his walking distance.

My homework - three times a day - is to massage Ernie's legs, manipulate his knee caps and apply intensive cold therapy! The physical therapist showed and instructed me on how to therapeutically massaging Ernie's legs and how to move his knee caps back and forth - up and down - left and right.  At first I was a bit hesitant - but I realized it was all for the good and learned something new.

After those demonstrations, I was taught how to apply intensive cold therapy (ICT) to each of Ernie's knees.  The process involves wrapping cold towels and flexible cold ice packs around each knee and leaving them in place for 20 minutes.  According to the physical therapist intensive cold therapy is needed 3 times a day to reach the deep muscles and tendons - which traditional icing does not do.  ICT is designed to reduce swelling and blood pooling more quickly. Oh yes - I cannot forget - as Ernie goes through ICT - I have to cover him with a blanket because he does get very cold.

Below the physical therapist - Cartland - takes Ernie through a routine of flexing and stretching.  Although Ernie appears to be taking it easy - he's focused on breathing techniques to get past the 'pain point' - I think he must be thinking of the rhyme '... smell the flowers (inhale) and blow out the candles (exhale).'

Near the end to the therapy session - electrodes are applied to each of Ernie's knees.  They are designed to emitted low electrical pulses to relax the muscles, breakup blood pooling and increase blood circulation.  The black/blue pads are Velcro straps that will hold the flexible cold ice packs in place around Ernie's knees.

Ernie is doing much better since our last blog.  The tiredness is going away - which means the iron pills (3 times a day) and high iron diet are doing their job.  The physical therapist is pleased that Ernie is ahead of schedule with flexing - the goal is for Ernie to have 100 degrees flexibility at 3 months.  Currently, Ernie can flex his right leg at 113 degrees and his left knee at 85 degrees.  By the end of PT - in May - he will have both knees flexing over 100 degrees - but he will need to continue working towards the range of 125-130 degrees.

In addition, Ernie is now walking short distances without his walker. He reached the point where he was carrying his walker as he walked rather, than pushing it along. He still has to use the walker for longer distances however, but we suspect he'll be using a cane soon.

Take care - and thank you for keeping us in your thoughts.