A.J. Walker

Multiple Sclerosis etc

August 2024

Second Physio Visit

A couple of months or so since my first physio appointment it was time for my second earlier today. It went well. I mean my knees—especially my left one—are a little sore and stiff of course but the physio visit itself was fine.

Turns out my left knee is a bit more mobile than it was and on the measurements both knees could move to a degree classed as normal for people even without osteoarthritis. So maybe the physio I have been doing has actually been doing some good. Who’d have thunk it!?
I’ve been doing the physio a bit ad hoc though, so hopefully if I can arrange myself so that I can do it regularly three times a week or so, rather than ad hoc it’d be even better.

Last time I went to physio it so happened that my movement was better than normal (of course), and today was a little better than normal too. But in the week following my last visit I had a ‘
trick knee’ episode for the first—and so far only—time. That is when the knee out of nowhere just suddenly fails to do its job and I went sprawling. I was fine straight afterwards and it hasn’t happened—or felt like happening—again. It was disconcerting at the time and for a couple of weeks I suffered from a little paranoia that it would reoccur.

The physio said, ‘Yeah, that can happen.’ But there’s nought to do about it, ultimately ‘It is what it is’ I guess.

I told him that I am aware that sometimes when my knee is a bit more sore or stiff than usual I find myself almost tiptoeing on the left leg—that is, not fully straightening it out to avoid the pain. It’s not THAT painful but I guess it is an automatic thing to try and avoid even a little, when you can. But I said I was also conscious that by not walking properly with that leg (fully extending it) then I was weakening the leg by not ‘exercising’ it properly. And that I was fighting the urge to do it when I could.

Anyway, in summary everything I have been doing (or think about doing) is pretty much there and he said that I didn’t need to come to another appointment quite so soon, if I didn’t want to. I was in agreement and said maybe three or even six months (I could always contact them in the meantime if something changes). He wasn’t sure an appointment six months away was possible ‘but give it a go.’ In the end I’ve got one arranged for three months hence. It wont be with the same physio unfortunately (they work on rotation) but I need to continue with the physio (more regularly) and go out on my bike another once or twice a week too. Should be able to do that.
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