Physical Therapy

I started physical therapy in January, and I haven't missed a week, even when I was injured or not feeling well. Most days I drag myself in after work and a long Metro Access ride. The sessions aren't easy. I do leg lifts wearing four pound weights, heel raises, getting up and down from a chair, balance exercises, stationary bike, and table exercises: clams, bridges, and leg raises with one pound weights. The leg raises on the table and the bike are the toughest parts of therapy for me. My legs are yelling at me and feel like jelly when I'm done. I leave feeling worn out, hungry, and thirsty, but also pleased at what I've been able to accomplish so far. It all feels good, even though it's tough.

My goals with physical therapy are muscle strength maintenance, balance improvement, and weight bearing exercises to hopefully keep from my osteoporosis from getting worse. I plan to continue the therapy indefinitely. Perhaps at some point I will drop down to maybe once every two weeks. But I'm definitely in it for the long haul. It's a long day when I go to therapy, but I'm pleased with the results so far.

I'm surprisingly compliant with doing the exercises at home, but I need to be more consistent. It's difficult to have the time and energy to do all the exercises every day. I'm supposed to do them twice a day, but it's tough. I have very little time in the morning, and very little energy remaining by the end of the day. So I need to work on consistency. I also need to do more walking, and maybe get back into swimming this summer.

I also need to work on the critical voice in my head - the one that keeps telling me I can't do it, it's too hard, I'm not going to get through it and will have to give up - not completely, just that particular day. When I'm doing my five minutes on the bike, I don't focus on the time, because if I look at the clock I keep trying to convince myself that it's too hard and I'm going to have to stop before the five minutes is up. I try to concentrate on positivity - telling myself that I can do it. I did it last week and I'll do it again this week. When I'm doing the balance exercises - standing in different positions on a big piece of foam, I work on meditation skills - willing myself to hold steady while not holding on to the bar. Again, I try not to look at the timer. I try to breathe and stay centered.

Yesterday at PT my therapist had me start on the table exercises as usual. But it was a busy time with several other patients in the work out area, and I had to lie on a table that was more in the middle of the room. I have a very hard time with middle of a room because of my inner ear disorder. I didn't want to lay down, get vertigo, and then not be able to get up by myself and start to panic. My therapist was working with two other people while I was there, so she couldn't stay with me. I tried to lay down and start my exercises, but I just couldn't do it. It was causing me too much anxiety.

My therapist saw me just sitting on the table, and asked me what was wrong, so I told her. She was great about it. She didn't force me to do it or make me feel like I was weird. She just said, "Let's do your other exercises and then maybe you can do the table work at the end of the session." And that's what happened. By the time I was ready for the laying down exercises, a table was available that was near a wall. I was able to lay down comfortably and complete my exercises. I didn't fail at my workout; I completed everything on the list for that day, and I didn't have to do anything that made me anxious or uncomfortable.

I'm feeling very good about physical therapy, and that gets me through it every week.

librarianintx