My physical therapy is progressing nicely. I'm not saying it's easy, it's certainly not. But I can see some progress and that's encouraging.The exercises I'm doing are still very difficult. They are intended to build my strength. (Let's not forget I'm a weakling.) But strength is not built overnight. It's a slow process and success is measured with some pain..at least in my case.
I'm still not able to stand on one foot with my eyes closed. And I can't stand on one foot on the squishy square thing even with my eyes open. I have to admit, that is driving me crazy! But at least now I know it's because my ankles are weak. (weebles aren't the only ones that wobble)
Another thing I'm having a lot of trouble with is the incline sit up. It LOOKS easy...SHOULD be easy...I can barely do it. Kiera (my therapist) and I were laughing as I'm struggling to do even one sit up! The problem is I'm supposed to keep my feet on the floor and apparently I need to flail my feet and legs around to do a sit up. I keep asking her where the hidden camera is because I just know I'm going to see myself on t.v.. at some point and I want to make sure they get my good side.
Then it's time for the torture bands. That's what I call them. I don't know what she calls them. I can't hear well over the screaming of my muscles. To use these bands you put them around both ankles...they are wide and not very long. The exercise entails stepping two times to the right and one to the left, making sure your step is wide enough to feel resistance from the bands. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well, it's not! Especially when you have to do this side step the length of the room and back. It takes about 5 steps before it starts to hurt...deep in a muscle on the side of your thigh/butt area. This is a muscle that will strengthen the hips...a muscle I've never met before...and there's one on each side; both of them screaming very loudly at this point!
The very nice part about this exercise is that Kiera does them with me. She's a marathon runner and she said these muscles are weak in her too so she lines up facing me and we go the length of the room and back together. Her band is a stronger one and she gets a pained look on her face much quicker than I do...which makes me giggle.
Eventually I end up on the table where Kiera starts to press the muscles on either side of my spine. She has revealed to me that a certain number of the disks in my back are out of alignment and the muscles have learned to compensate which is why I keep having so much back pain. The disks and the muscle are out of sinc from where they should be. I understand that this misalignment is visible when I'm laying down. She's been trying to move them both back manually which is the most painful part of my therapy. A couple times I had to tell her to stop because it was just too painful.
Then a small miracle happened. Kiera had me sit up on the edge of the table and she put her arm around me from behind (this just sounds like "bad touch"..keep reading) and twisted me to the left and down somewhat. Then she put her hand against my right shoulder and told me to try to twist to the right. Being a weakling, it was not much of a challenge to resist my efforts which is what she was doing. It didn't hurt to do this so we tried it again. And when she released me she asked me how I felt. It was like a miracle. All the pain was gone...every bit of it! I was elated to say the least. She had me lay down on the table again so she could see how my alignment was...it had worked..the alignment was back where it belonged. I was so happy!!
Therapy was over for the day and she sent me home, but not before she warned me that this may not last. My muscles are used to being in the wrong position so they may revert back over the next few days...especially because the muscle is not strong enough to stay where it belongs...at least not yet.
But for now it still feels pretty good. I have muscle fatigue and some pain from using lazy muscles. But I've managed to take a long hike today with no lower back pain at all. That hasn't happened for a very long time. Back pain has become the norm for me.
What a pleasant surprise it is to me to go through an active day with no back pain. I've become so accustomed to some variation of back pain that I don't even notice it. It wasn't until it was completely gone that I really realized how good I felt. I have Kiera to thank for that and I'm committed to working as hard as I can to complete all the exercises she asks of me. Obviously Kiera knows how to make a weeble NOT wobble anymore. And that means the new goal is to be GUMBY !!
