We were pretty cocky yesterday, with the pain being low and Dodie showing how the knee could bend. Cycling friends, like Erika Paxman, Tricia Graham, and Kathleen Classen - knowledgeable and experienced - warned that tougher times were coming, at least for a week.

They were right, and today Dodie had lots of pain and the knee not wanting to bend hardly at all. The nursing staff had been somewhat clueless about which of the various pain medications to use when, and the pain was definitely out of control this morning. Dodie did get a shot of hydromorphone, and then struggled to stay awake until the physio would appear. So far the physio department had not shown up.

But someone did come, and they started off with the 'kindergarten" exercises - the ones in the book for before the operation had even happened. The main one of these is to be lying down and to use a towel or sheet around the ankle to pull the knee into a bend. After a bit they got the knee to 89 degrees - a good start.

When Tricia had written that the first challenge was to be able to (unassisted) bend by 90 degrees, I got on my bike to see just how much bend is used in cycling. It is surprisingly a lot, depending on seat height. The physio guessed it at 110 degrees. She also said that pretty much full flex is 130 degrees. It will happen, in time.

I showed Dodie a picture in the exercise book of going up one's first stair. But she said she was not interested in learning to climb stairs. All she wants to do is cycle! No wonder this blog is on Cycleblaze.

The physio will be back this afternoon, and promises to assign some further moves. Dodie feels she should stick in the hospital a day more yet, for pain control and access to the physio. It will be a bit of a long pull back onto the bike!

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