Today was my first active session of PT, and it really kicked my tail. Most of the activities were fairly easy to do, more about stretching and repetitions than about any real weight-bearing or force, but at the end of the session, the therapist, who reminds me a bit of a pixie for some odd reason, peeled the backing off three adhesive electrodes, and hooked them to the long muscle on the top of my thigh leading down to my knee. That's when all the real fun began.
The electrodes were hooked to a battery pack which released a charge every ten seconds. The charge fired for ten seconds and rested for ten seconds. The therapist adjusted the intensity to something just under pain and told me how to perform a set of exercises using the electric shock as an extra stimulant to pull the leg muscle and therefore the knee tight.
Unlike some of my electrical engineering friends, I have never had a deep personal affection for electrocution. I never stuck a fork in a wall socket (D -- you know you did it, if you're reading), I don't work with electronics and come home with arc burns in my hands (Dad), and I've never felt the need to tinker around inside my home computer or electronics to see what "that wire there does" (that one applies to so many of my friends that I will just let it hit whomever is appropriate). The feeling of electricity coursing through that big muscle in my leg was a brand-new thing for me.
The pixie therapist asked me several times if I was in pain, and I wasn't exactly. Pain wasn't the right word. I don't really have a word for what it was. It didn't hurt, but it wasn't like something you'd want to have going on all the time, either. Maybe it was like a million little things dancing a jig with a million little pointed metal feet inside my skin. My main answer when asked how I was feeling was, "Strange. Bizarre." I think this must not have been the standard answer she was used to receiving for this treatment because she looked at me a little oddly. I'm almost immune to that, though. After all, it's not like that's the first time I've gotten an odd look.
When the session was over, she took measurements again for how far the knee can bend and straighten, and I was thrilled to hear her say that it has come remarkably far since even Monday. I reduced the numbers that needed reducing and increased the ones that needed increasing, and although I'm still not able to do simple things like drive or be crutch-free, I have taken some important steps toward getting there. I left feeling buoyant. I may not be kicking very high, but at least I'm kicking.
I was hoping they'd spare you that electrode thing. When I think of what hell must be, I think of that thing. The rest of PT, to me, was a necessary evil. The electrode was straight out of the Inquisition.
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