Thursday, August 2, 2012

Sweet and Sour

Today I had my Phs. Therapy checkup. I have to go in daily for treatment and progress check ups. My knee is feeling tons better from the MRS (they gave me another one today) which is one of the types of treatment I have to have. The doctors told me that my knee injury was not sudden and was a thing that had to be developed over time. Kinda like a bomb, you set it, then all of a sudden it blows up! As a ballerina, (mostly) you have it set in stone that you are supposed to have long, lean, muscles. Now, when the doctors told me that part of the reason my knee was injured was because my 'glutes' (in normal words, your butt) were not strong enough, therefor putting un-needed pressure on my knees, I wasn't surprised. Now I have to do lots of therapy exercises to strengthen my knee and my glutes. I have to do a million squats, which are hard for me, ride my bike for 30 min on a flat surface, swim and do 'bunny hops in the pool, and lots of more fancy things that are supposed to help me recover. The good thing is, that the doctor said that it was VERY common for regular, and ballerina, people to be weak in the rear. What happens, is the quads take over, and then your knees get unnecessary pressure, which can cause problems over time. The doctors taped my knee with special tape that gives my knee cap, and my muscles extra support so i don't die when I start to walk. The tape is water 'resistant' but I still have to wrap my leg with a mile of plastic wrap and duct tape to keep it from getting wet when I shower or get in the pool. It does NOT work. Today they gave me an electric treatment which didn't hurt, but tingled in a weird way. they hooked me up to this machine and put these stickers on me, with wires attached to the edges of them. I sat there and they turned the knob on the machine up until I said stop. As for dancing, sadly the doctor laughed at that notion. I am physically incapable of dancing right now with out hurting, and possibly destroying my knee. It is getting tons better, and quickly too, but the doctors said that I couldn't even test to see if I could dance until I could jump up and down on my left leg (the one with my 'crippled' knee) 50 times without it hurting at all. Today, I did 12 jumps. They want an active recovery, so I am doing the therapy exercises and icing it a ton! Tomorrow I go back to therapy at nine and they are going to re-assess me, and re-tape me and do whatever else God has planned for me. At least they have good magazines to look at! Today I learned how to de-clutter your bathroom from some home decor magazine. Apparently, it's 'IN' to paint your bathroom white, and have jars of sand and rocks that cost more than a car sitting on your toilet. Okay, so maybe not as much as a car...


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Drawbacks

I have been having knee pain lately, but i ignored it. I am dancing every day for 5 weeks for seven hours a day. I went to physical theorpy today and, because I was ignoring it, I tore a ligament and strained a tendon. If you ever get hurt in any way, do something about it.  Tomorow I go in to theropy again and they are going to tell me if i can continue to dance. I am healing though, they gave me an MRS which is like a magnetic treatment. I also got laser treatment:) which made it feel tons better. wish me luck for tomorow!