Sunday

Yesterday, in the early evening, my leg began to ache. Every so often a slight movement would hurt with intensity. Sleeping was pretty rough, and at one point I managed to roll slightly into my side (So heavenly to get off my back!) but when I rolled back and tried to lift my leg to put it back on its pillow....I felt like I was stabbed in the side of the knee!! Then it ached. I sat up and gently massaged it until the acute pain subsided, took a pain pill and was able to go back to sleep.

So I concluded I did too much yesterday. I don't think it was the long walk...that simply feels good every step of the way. The exercises are a different story. Each exercise is supposed to tire the leg, but not cause pain. Sometimes it hurts before I realize it is going to. 

The goal today is to do the same walk, but skip the exercises. If my leg hurts in the evening again, then that should indicate the walking is the problem. 

It hurts, the same as last night. I am still not convinced that the walk is the problem. So I need to evaluate the problem.

As I look at today's activities, I decide that perhaps the problem is walking around in the house. When I take my outdoors walk I use the crutches so that I can focus on correct gait, and have extra stability over bumpy surfaces and the slight hill. However, in the house, I simply carry a cane along, and hardly use it at all. I also puttered about a lot during the day..transplanted some seedlings into little pots (sitting on the porch steps), fixing my own lunch (multiple trips back and forth to carry things) and sitting up more than lying down.

The biggest pain creator is when I get up or down and swing the leg out in space. If I don't move slowly, and support the leg with a strap around my foot it hurts. 

So tomorrow's plan is to still walk, lie down a lot, elevate,the leg, and use only crutches. My therapist is scheduled to come, and maybe she can shed some light on it.

Onward!!