The Advanced Class

I'm fairly certain that when normal people hit the gym they follow a progression. Stretches and simple exercises, exercises with resistance, more resistance and then maintenance. Something along those lines, probably. Physical therapy works in a similar manner (ideally). You usually stop going when the insurance runs out and at least in my case maintenance is unreachable. Things change so often I am always playing catch up.

This week we did the same warm-ups, but instead of the mat exercises we had been doing we moved on to resistance. I will say he doesn't spend to much time checking on me. He generally just asks me if I feel ready for more. The first time he asked I said "No." After some thought I inquired if it would always be this hard. It seems so silly to me how tiring these simple exercises are! Then again when have I ever been well rested when I did them? This week when he asked if I was ready for more I decided I was as ready as I'd ever be.

We broke out the...Theraband! Therabands are colorful pieces of rubber to pull against. The color signifies how much give each one has.He scientifically determined that since I already had a green band at home, green was the perfect resistance level. Once again, it was difficult. With these I found it way tougher on the left side than the right. After we had done the list I was winded and sweaty (and slightly embarrassed). I mean if I can't be a super star at upper body PT when can I? Sigh.

He sent me home with the new exercise list, an orange Threaband (they were out of green and he was worried that the one I had would be to short) and orders to do these new ones twice a day. I left tired with sore shoulder blades wondering where in my day I'd find time for this. I'm pretty sure after my follow up with the Ortho on Monday I won't be back for more PT (I hope) so I've got to solider on with this alone.

I'm grateful for the reduction in pain, but I really resent the time and money I've had to invest in this. If it were my back, my knee, my hip anything other than my upper body I'm sure I'd feel better about it. I feel annoyed every time I hand over a co-pay thinking about the groceries that could have paid for. I wish life were fair and only the broken bits caused problems while the good stuff stayed good. Instead the good stuff pulls the weigh of the bad stuff until everything's broken. Fingers crossed, this was my last visit to PT for a long while.