Start putting weight on it now!

On By Sara HolmIn Zack's knee

Zack had another follow up with the PA today and got lots of great news including that he should start to really push himself to straighten and flex to 100 degrees, start putting weight on it to get to full weight bearing in 2 weeks and can get off crutches in a week or 2!

I came home from school today and the laundry was folded. I giggled with excitement, which Molly took to mean I should feed her dinner right away! Right after Zack was told he can be off crutches a bit, he folded the laundry. So exciting!
But first, back to Thursday when he joined 5 other friends with Aphasia at an undergrad Speech class at UNR. Dr. Brancamp (we call her Tami) asked them to be a panel for a discussion about activities they would like to do this semester.
Here, Zack’s explaining that usually he is skiing every day in the winter but “this” pointing to his brace.
Reba, Brett’s wife, brought a lot of her tie dye samples and explained how the speech students could use them for a fundraiser.
Zack was a good sport on Saturday and came to National Girls and Women in Sport Day at UNR with me. I volunteered for Girls on the Run Sierras for a couple hours then we watched the game.
The girls got to dance with the cheerleaders at halftime and we all had our picture taken with the 3 mascots after the 3rd quarter.
We went to the Incline office of Tahoe Orthopedics this morning. I was able to go thanks to my coworkers who juggled their schedules to be with the kindergarteners.

Paul the PA is a fast talker! Here are the notes I took while he was in the room with us.

February 3 2020
Try to use heat to warm up. Or shower or hot tub to warm up and stretch in there since wounds are fully healed.
Continue anti inflammatory to decrease swelling around knee
Goal: Full extension and flexion to 100° in next 2-3 weeks
Also work on knee cap manipulation to stretch our tendon and muscle. Massage and loosen up the front.
The time to push yourself is now – next 2 weeks!
Can get off crutches in a week or 2. Start putting weight on it now. 6 week mark fully weight bearing.
Brace angle should match what Zack can do. ie when Zack can bend to 110°, the brace should be moved to 110°. Other side of brave can be 15°
** Wear it until rom is 120° or to keep safe
Can’t stretch out/fully extend enough. Have to balance it with flexion. Right now at 12°. Want to get to 5° then 0°
Foot has been cold. Keep doing foot pumps and move weight bearing will help.
Decrease icing and move to warming instead

Taking the last of the steri strips off. The incisions are totally healed so Zack can hot tub if he wants. in fact, it’s recommended to warm up his muscles before stretching and extending!

Now we’re home and watching the Iowa caucuses not yet return any results. I love participating in the NV caucus and am so happy to have some different and more positive political news to watch. 🙂

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