Physical therapy

To change things up a bit from yesterday, I thought I'd write about my physical therapy session this morning.

My knee's been bothering me off and on for a while, so I finally started seeing a kiné, and it appears I have an inflamed tendon.

The therapist poked and prodded my legs for a bit, then moved my leg in a circle to help with my right hip, which is apparently a touch higher than my left hip, and contributes a little bit to the problem. I had to push my knees together, then apart, and flex my feet.

After that, he announced he was going to hook up some electrodes to my thigh to cause the muscle to contract and work on building strength around the knee.

Let me tell you, the electrode thing was weird. It didn't hurt (so don't worry if you have to have it), but the machine started with a "warm up" cycle, which felt like my leg was shaking after an intense work-out. Then I received 4-5 seconds of electricity, followed by 8-9 seconds of rest. The electricity felt like my thigh was tingling, a strong but localized "pins and needles", and then it was gone when it stopped. I had to contract my thigh with the machine (just lying there without doing anything doesn't work) and after the 10 minute cycle my thigh was actually a little tired. At the end, there was a "cool down" cycle which consisted of sending light pulses for about a minute. The electrodes are put on the skin with a gel which helps with the conduction of electricity and the physical therapist wiped off the goo once I was done.

I have two more appointments this week, so I'll probably have a few more electrode sessions. I suppose it'll get less weird the more times I do it, but it certainly is strange to have your muscle tingle and vibrate without you doing anything.

The therapist I've been seeing is a young guy, about 28 I'd say, and he asked if he could tutoie me. I'm going to take that as it's okay for me to tutoie him as well, because I have no shame in saying I hate using vous with people. It's just more complicated. I had a "duh??" moment when he asked me if my knee still hurt when it was "flechi". I didn't know if that meant bent or straight (it means bent, so not related to flèche), so I said it hurt when it was "plié". B said I should have just asked, but strange words come up so often in medical situations, that I hate to always ask for them to use simpler words.

Next post: My bizarre experience at a beauty salon.