Day 10.

Sunny.  Fifteen degrees.  No wind.  And even though the ski trail was already perfect, the groomer just went by again.  Guess I'd better get used to it.

At the risk of jinxing any future improvement, I have to say that yesterday was encouraging.  The home physical therapist's thoughtful big-picture assessment and suggestions, left me with a therapy protocol more worthwhile than crossing line items off the perfunctory list I'd been given earlier.

A few pieces of my new logical list:
•Instead of getting up 3 times a day and walking 10 minutes (from the perfunctory list)...get up every hour and walk 5 minutes.  Just getting up is a big deal (i.e. not easy) for me and I get more practice doing it.  I get the blood flowing more often and it plain-old feels good to move.
•Toe raises.  No pain even though I was sure there would be.  Easy.  Good for muscle tone and weight bearing.
•Take pain medication as directed so I can do the therapy I need to do to progress. 
•Put heat on the thigh right above the knee. Put ice, higher, on the new injury.  The thigh is still really swollen which makes bending the knee difficult (i.e. impossible).  I was icing the whole thing but putting heat on the old injury gave me another 5 or 10 degrees of flexion. 

This is what it looks like if 'they' go in and pin things instead of giving you a cast. 

 

Home health came to take some blood and check my wounds.  All this attention...I feel like a princess.

When I realized that spending a week blinded by feeling sorry for myself was plenty, I decided to start feeling sorry for Vince who has to take care of me (again) and is even more worthy of pity.