I have been going to a Physio for a while for physiotherapy for my knee, which started from a torn meniscus. I had to postpone my appointment recently because I had pneumonia, so we haven’t really seen each other for a while.
Anyway, he was asking me a few things about how my knee is doing and then he said this, ‘Are you managing your Parkinson’s differently? Your face seems more animated and I can’t detect any tremor. If I didn’t know you had Parkinson’s I would never have guessed from how you present today!
Boy was I chuffed! I said to him that one of my fears is having an expressionless face and his comment was just the perfect thing to say. I am not doing anything differently, but nice to think that I am still not an obvious Parkie person!
He also gave me a tens machine to help with pain management of my knee, but it can be used anywhere it is needed. There are four pads that you put around the area where the pain is and then there is a controller that lets you set the level of the machine. At the moment it is on 3 and gives a sort of sharpish tingly feeling, but not painful or too hard to handle. I learned one lesson this afternoon and that is to make sure when going to turn it off, that you make sure you are turning the dial in the right direction. I accidently turned it up on one side and it made me yelp a little bit!
The machine is free for me to keep, so will be a good thing to have around if either myself or my husband have anything particularly painful.
We also had a chat about my upcoming appointment with the Orthopaedic Surgeon next week. I said that I thought it might be good to have another injection in my knee just before we go on our UK trip and he thought that would probably be a good idea if the Ortho agreed. He also had a letter from the Ortho which indicated that he did not think an operation was warranted for my knee at this stage, but that it is likely that I will need some kind of knee op in the future. We’ll face that one when/if we have to!
So, all in all a successful physio appointment.
My journey with Parkinsons 