Expectations… It’s complicated.

A common reality I hear from clients is the lack of clarity around what we should expect as we recover. 

Many moons ago, I had a car accident. I was very lucky. I punctured my knee joint, somehow missing all the other parts of my knee. After 27 stitches, 24-hours of IV antibiotics, and 14-days with my leg bandaged with compression bandages from my calf to my thigh, those stitches came out. The result was I could barely lift my foot off the floor and I could no longer bend my knee, not one degree, without excruciating pain. The doc said “I don’t need to send you to PT, you know what to do. 100 seated leg lifts a day and work on bending your knee.”

I went off and did exactly what I was told. Two-weeks later I was sooooo proud. I was sitting on the table with both my knees bent to 90 degrees. Not gonna lie… It hurt, but I was doing it.

Then I was told I was doing a terrible job because my knee was not bending to 120 degrees.

What?

You said 100 leg lifts, bend my knee. I got 90 degrees… This 120 is new information. I asked what I needed to do. My doctor’s response might surprise you.

He said, “There is nothing structurally wrong with you. You need to push to more pain.” 

He wasn’t wrong when we first met, I did know what I needed to do. I continued doing it and three weeks later I was at 120 degrees and I was dismissed from that doctor’s care.

The point is we don’t always get the bottom line goal when we are being sent off into the wild. Without clear expectations of the end goal, setting a plan to get there might be challenging.

Can you relate to moving targets in rehab?

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