Today was a good day

 Highlights from the day...

• Amaya had a good night and great day!
• Her pain was managed and she was able to attend school
• Amaya navigated stairs with crutches 
• They started knee stretches and Amaya had some pain, but it was manageable
• Her knee bent to 77 degrees after the first exercise! 
• With a bit more work Amaya was able to get to 84 degrees! Woohoo!
• This was painful and she felt tightness above the knee
• The therapist did some massages that helped 
• The therapist said we now need to work to maintain the 0-84 range and build off of that
• They worked the hamstring while maintaining the 84 degrees to gain and maintain strength
• Today is our 7th day of lengthening, so we've gained about 7 mm of new bone! 
• We should be getting x-rays in the next couple days (its been lots of calls to try to make that happen; wish me luck!) 
• We don't go back to PT for 5 days so its crucial we do our PT homework (twice a day, every day)
• Amaya said she felt better today about the work she did at PT; she said even though there was pain psychologically it feels good to know she's made progress and that 90 degrees is within sight
• We iced her knee at home and that's been helping

Amaya doing her PT homework; she does a great job of doing it twice a day, even when it hurts! 

The first thing the therapist had Amaya do today was to teach her how to safely walk

upstairs while using crutches. She felt it was important since Amaya will be in crutches a minimum of three months and there may be a time where she has to navigate stairs. At home we only have three steps up to the house that she needs to do and the rest she can access on the same floor. Her school has a lot of stairs. Like a lot, and it's uneven and has slanted paths. Thankfully there is an elevator and some accessible walkways so she doesn't have to use the stairs. The going up was hard but not as hard as the going down. Going down Amaya felt safest and most "steady" using one crutch and holding the rail with the other hand. 

The therapist working to bend Amaya's knee and stretch her muscles. Amaya is growing bone but that also means she has to stretch and grow her soft tissue as well; muscles, blood vessels, nerves, skin, etc. This is the part that is most painful for Amaya. She doesn't feel when we pull the bone apart or while it grows new bone. But she does feel the soft tissues growing and stretching. 

Amaya holding a bent knee position for about a minute. This was pretty painful and challenging.