223 // 365
facebook page.

I have no idea what this little guy is called as there wasn’t a label on the pot when I bought him last week.

Moaning out of the way first – I got bit a further 7 times yesterday, I assume from doing the lawn. Add that onto the 54 I was dealing with last week then that’s 61bites in 2 weeks.

I did however have a positive meeting with a different physio this morning (advice: at the start of the holidays do not make appointments for 830 in the morning at the end of the holidays, you will not appreciate it when you’re not used to getting up at 730!)

Originally when I went to the doctors with problems with my knees I was told I was hypermobile and referred to a physio. This physio didn’t once mention that and instead told me that my issues were from an underdeveloped quad muscle (which upon Googling the internet said could be fixed in 6 weeks). I can’t remember the in’s and out’s of that first physio appointment, but what I do remember is coming home and crying (and I never cry) because I didn’t feel like she’d listened to me at all; saying things like “You shouldn’t be kneeling anyway it’s bad for the knees so try to avoid it” when I told her that I couldn’t kneel down because it hurts too much, “you shouldn’t run away, running isn’t good for people” when I told her that I had to stop jogging because if I went I was in agony to the point where I couldn’t move and the solid advice of “if it hurts then don’t do it” after I’d told her that walking can aggravate it.

She made an appointment to see me again at the start of the six week holidays, and again I felt she was dismissive. Upon being asked how it was I told her that it is hard to judge because they have always hurt less when the weather is hot, she informed me that she was glad they were getting better.
I had decided that if this appointment was as bad as the first then I would go back to the doctors and ask to see a different physio, but as she was booking me in for another session (today’s) she told me that she wouldn’t be there as she was going to be off so I would be seeing someone else.

The chap who saw me today was great and I came away feeling a lot better, despite the general conclusion to the meeting being “it’s not fixable, you just have to learn to manage it”.

In a nut shell, my ligaments are loose – making me hypermobile. This means I have more movement than I should in my joints. Because my hips are all over the place (wobbly) then my knees try to compensate, but as they are wobbly too it’s not an aware winning combination. When you add in the fact I have “long, willowy legs” (to quote) it just makes it a bit more difficult.
My knees have, over the years, pushed themselves to the left of where they should be and the pain I’m experiencing is to do with them rubbing. The reason that it hurts less in summer is because ligaments have more lubrication in them when it is hot, and they contract when it is cold, so he said.

If I keep up the exercises then it should get better, but if I stop then I am back to square one. They will keep giving me different exercises to do, to build on what we have started but I need to make sure that I keep at them : )
I was also told that I can run, and in fact can do any exercise I want but I need to build it up really slowly to give my ligaments/joints time to adjust.

So on that front I am feeling a lot better 🙂
Oh, and he also gave me a yellow stretchy band thing which I’m to put around both my knees when doing two of the new exercises he gave me, which I have been dutifully wearing as an attractive 80s hair metal bandanna type thing.