Physical Therapy

Several years ago (about four), Sharon fell on the road on some black ice and bent her ankle way under her leg. At the time, mom wanted to take her to the Dr. but the person that they were living with told Sharon to "walk it off." Sharon tried, and eventually, got over it, but it seems as though she should have indeed gone to the doctor as it appears she had a very bad sprain.

Poor judgment on the part of the person they were living with, but as I explained to Sharon...given how often mom ran Sharon to the Dr. for the littlest things, the person they were living with may have felt that Sharon was again "crying wolf" (aka: being a baby) and that is why she was told to walk it off. I honestly cannot say for sure, but the bottom line is...it's four years later and now her ankle is "frozen."

Okay, so she definitely did some damage to the ankle. And when she was working her last job in California she was on her feet for 8 hours a day. Eventually the ankle hurt her so bad that mom pulled her from the job. Yep, I question how much it really hurt her and how much mom really wanted companionship...I think there are good arguments all the way around. But she was definitely still experiencing some discomfort when she got here.

We took her to an orthopedic surgeon and he sent us next door to a podiatrist. Sharon's ankle was definitely stiff, but I do have to say that when anyone touches either of her feet, she stiffens up like a stone. I am sure it is a reaction to the time when it was hurting her, but DANG I don't think I have ever seen anyone react like that.

Sharon was given a cortisone shot by the podiatrist (which she handled way better than I think I would have) and is prescribed physical therapy. Therapy is a good thing, my having to take her -- not so much. She is prescribed therapy three days a week for many, many weeks. Holy crap...can I work some time? Between this and other appointments for her I think I could have a full time job, but am still trying to do my PAYING full time job.

So we do the therapy and we are cracking the whip at home making sure she gets the therapy done at home as well. She actually is pretty good about doing the therapy, but she isn't real great about doing it right. She has made some progress in the movement of her foot/ankle. The unfortunate thing is that she was released from Medicare for her therapy only six weeks into it. Now what? She doesn't have full range AND she was making progress...why was she released?! They couldn't justify further progress. Greeeaat.

Well, we have been making Sharon continue with her therapy. She gets ticked at us because she thinks she should be able to stop because her ankle doesn't hurt anymore. I say to her "do you have full range of motion in your ankle?" "No." "Then what do you need to do?" "I guess my therapy." Right-o!

We still have to be vigilant because she tries to cut the exercises short or she wants to be with the family so she "forgets" that she still has exercises to do. It is so tiring! She will be starting to work her job this week (thank the Lord!) and I keep telling her she needs to keep up because she is going to be on her feet for many hours again...how does she think that is going to feel? She knows. I say, "when you start to shortcut your exercises, there is one word that should go through your head and it's my name. Why? Because I am the one that suffers if you have to start going back to physical therapy. But you should not have to do that because you should want to get better and that means doing these exercises every day, many times a day."

I have to admit, I would not like me either if I had me pushing me to get these done. Such is life.