Long story short: I fractured my right patella on March 31. Had ORIF surgery on 4/10. My patella fractured in 3 main pieces. I only have/needed one screw to hold it all together. No wires. I was told to weight bare as tolerated and wore an immobilizer/brace for 4 weeks.
My ROM at 4 weeks was 70 degrees. On May 14 I started physical therapy at 80 degrees ROM. At the last of my 8 sessions on 6/12 I was 130 degrees. In between, I started going back to my spin/group cycle classes, would walk a fair distance (occasionally a mile or so), got married and was able to walk down the aisle
, returned to work, started driving again, and attended TRX/circuit training classes where I would do squats and other leg work.
Swelling has gone down significantly. I don't really have pain (only when I've been sitting funny for a while). My quad is still smaller than my good leg, but the difference isn't as significant.
My physical therapist requested and my doctor/insurance approved me for 8 more sessions to "strengthen and challenge" me. It's not costing me anything to keep going other than my time. My problem is that by the mid/end of the last series of appointments I was bored out of my mind. I didn't find PT painful or hard (maybe because my ROM was good right off the bat? Or because of minimal hardware?).
What can I say to the physical therapist to make sure it's a good use of my time? I want to get back to running. I'm a long distance runner. I can go up stairs normally (although it's a bit hard) and can go downstairs normally if i concentrate. It feels a bit weird though.
