Chapter Text
A short month later and he felt like he was making progress at a sprint. From being stuck at a relative stand still for half a year, to one month after the assumed last surgery be able to finally put weight on his leg, made it feel like he was being launched from a catapult.
The first time was scary though. Firsts often were.
“Alright, you’ve been going through the movements of walking for a month now. Without putting weight on your left foot, of course…” the physical therapist said as he stood beside the double bars, “Normally one month after meniscus reconstructions I’d say just trust your leg. But, for you… I want you to go at this like a grandma getting into some kinda cold water.”
Luca chortled, “What?”
“Take it slow, test out the water first. Your leg hasn’t taken your full weight in a really long time, and it might not be ready for your full weight without threatening to buckle.”
Luca nodded. He had his hands on the double bars, his crutches were rested against the wall.
“So, first… I want you to try and shift some of your weight onto your left leg. As much as you’re comfortable with. Keep your hands on the bars.”
Luca nodded, and started leaning less on his right. “If my leg feels okay, can I lean all my weight on my left?”
“As long as you feel comfortable about it, yes. If your knee starts wobbling or hurting, then I don’t want you to put more weight on it straight away. That’s a sign that it’s more than the knee is ready to take.”
Luca nodded, still leaning more and more weight on his left.
The therapist nodded to himself as he studied Luca try it out.
“Can I try to lift my right foot a bit?”
“Well, that’s certainly an important part of walking…”
“Huh?”
“Yes, you can.” the therapist dropped his head into his hand, “Yes, as long as you’re comfortable doing so. I really need to work on not answering the first thing that comes to mind…”
Luca chuckled, then he tried lifting his right foot an inch off the ground. Then he placed it back down.
“I can’t describe it, but…” Luca shook his head, “It feels weird.”
“Weird how? Painful?”
“Not painful.” Luca shook his head, “More like my leg is delayed. Like noise under water.”
“But you don’t feel any sort of pain or discomfort when you put weight on it?”
Luca shook his head again, “No.”
“It might just be because you haven’t actively used that leg for so long, or it might be because you have some sort superficial nerve damage. Or any other reason…” the physical therapist shrugged.
Luca nodded, “I do have a pretty big area where I can’t feel things like if I run my fingers over the skin there, or similar things. Would that do it?”
“It might be because of that, or it might be because the leg isn’t used to being used.” The therapist shrugged, “Truth is, I can’t make an educated guess before we see how this plays out over time.”
“Okay?”
“It could be one of them, it could be a combination. It doesn’t really change anything what it is. The way we rehab your leg will be the same either way, and the end result is mostly based on the work the doctors put in during surgery, and the work we put in now.”
Luca nodded, it was probably obvious that he was nervous about his leg, because the therapist didn’t stay quiet for long.
“The nerves that control the gross motoric functions of your leg are intact.” The therapist shrugged, “We’ve concluded with that time and time again for the past month, when you’ve done non-weightbearing exercises.”
Luca looked up and nodded, “Yeah, that’s true…”
“Why don’t we try to take a few steps. Just start like you’ve already done on your crutches, without putting weight on it. Then you gradually put more and more weight on it as you walk along the bars. Okay?”
Luca nodded, “Yeah. Sure.”
“Only if you’re comfortable with it.”
“Yeah.” Luca nodded, “I’m just… I’m nervous, it’s silly…”
The physical therapist shook his head, “No. It’s understandable. We can postpone this to the next appointment if you want to…”
Luca shook his head, “No. I want to try this. It’s just… It’s messing with my head.”
“Okay, want to explain that to me?”
“No.” Luca shook his head, “It’s just a mental block. Like the first time you rappel down a highrise or the first time you jump out of a plane with a parachute on your back.”
“Yeah, that’s two things you would never have been able to force me to do…”
“It’s really not that big a deal once you’ve done it a few times.” Luca shrugged.
“Well, I have a crippling fear of heights, so… Nope.” The therapist shuddered, “But I’m guessing you’re speaking from the point of view of someone who’s not really troubled by fear of heights.”
“Probably…” Luca chuckled, “It used to be easier to get me to do that stuff than to poke me with a needle.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope, that’s my phobia…” Luca chuckled, then he took a deep breath, “Alright, here goes nothing…”
SWATSWATSWAT
In the end, he wasn’t able to walk with his full weight on his left leg. It didn’t really hurt, but his leg didn’t feel stabile enough for it yet, and it caused his entire leg to shake like crazy.
“Looks like you’ll have that down by this time next week though…”
“You think?” Luca looked over at the therapist.
“Yeah, you almost had it now.” He nodded, “A bit more time and practice, and maybe we’ll be able to toss those crutches soon?”
Luca chuckled, “That would be awesome.”
The physical therapist nodded.
“Alright, the restrictions…” Luca snapped his fingers a couple of times, “It was ‘don’t put weight on a my leg while the knee’s bent more than 25 degrees’, right?”
“That’s right. And no running yet…”
Luca chuckled, “You think I could end up running one day?”
The therapist sighed, “Given your injury and all of that, there’s a lot of reasons why I should not believe it could be a realistic goal for you… But…”
“But?”
“But, considering where you’re at NOW…” the therapist shrugged, “I wouldn’t bet money against you… That’s for sure.”
Luca chuckled, “So, a small sliver of hope?”
“You’re not going to be Usain Bolt, or anything… But able to technically run, I could definitely believe that.”
Luca grinned, “Probably not fast enough to pass any kind of qualifier, but I would be able to say that ‘I’m going for a run’…”
The therapist nodded, “Something like that, yeah…”
“That’s better than anything I could hope for six-seven months ago.” Luca grinned wider, “This, this right here is unbelievably much better than what I could hope for back then.”
“You’re right about that.”