Day 11 - 2nd day of PT - Shopping

When I refer to my PT I would normally be speaking of my physical therapist; however I'm thinking this PT guy I have now, Drew, is more like a physical torturist.

Now come on, I've done a lot of physical therapy over the last two years with 3 torn meniscus surgeries and I've never started out with 4-pound weights and leg lifts! Usually they ease you in a little bit and start with like 2 then increase up to 6. I've never used more than 6 pounds in any of the PT sessions I've ever had. Drew says 2 pounds is for old people; HELLO, I feel like I'm 75! So I survived the exercises, but barely and instead of doing 3 sets of 10 of each exercise it was more like 10 sets of 3! I'm usually the one trying to push it too fast, but even to me this seems just a little aggressive. He also informed me that he could remove my sutures for me; no thanks, I think I'll have a qualified medical doctor do that for me. Afterward, I was hooked up to the "Game Ready" device that provides compression and an icy cooling pad; it was like the machine I have at home, but much more intense.

The swelling looks way better today and I can almost tell there is a kneecap there! Ok so that was before the PT session with little Hitler. So I'm sure I've posted enough pictures of my swollen and bruised knee so I'll cease at least until the end of the first 2 weeks. The bruising my have stopped spreading.

After PT I met with a friend and we had breakfast. I've realized in handful of times that I've been out that handicap parking spaces are never available. It was raining and I wound up parking pretty far from the entry door. I can't hold an umbrella. The door is heavy and even though I've learned how to stick my crutch out to hold it after swinging it open I still have trouble getting through the door. Inside I encountered a mat for the first 5' then after that it was slippery tile. Normally I wouldn't have even noticed the tile, but once you've have a crutch slid out of control as you put it down and propel your weight forward, you become very leery of slipper floors. After breakfast my friend went with me shopping. I parked in the handicap spaces at each of the first three stores. The first one was Michaels. Yes, I'm a chick! The floor was slippery here too and there were several obstacles in the isles making it difficult to crutch my way through. The second store was Home Depot. Yes, I'm a chick that builds stuff too! Here I found an electric cart. I encountered two problems with using the electric cart. 1) There's no where to put crutches; it needs like a ladder hanger like you see on the side of some work trucks. I made due with putting the crutches in the basket albeit they stuck out to one side by at least 18". Fortunately I didn't take any one out or knock down a display with them. 2) There are a lot of obstacles in the isles! There are buggies with stuff that is being put away, 5 gallon buckets of paint jutting out on the floor, display bins in the isles and those huge rolling steps to reach the top shelves in the isles too. The isle I needed was tools and I was barely able to maneuver the turns. The 3rd place we went was a tiny hobby shop where in the last very small isle there were 2 stools on the floor to navigate in already very tight isles. I had to put one foot next to the stool and lift my other crutch over it.

Sure that was boring and painful to read, but these are the things you will encounter when venturing out. Actually finding something you want and getting it to the register is a whole other story! Good luck!