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!!!