Physiotherapist or Angel

Last week, when I visited my doctor, my quality of life was in question. According to the X-Rays and the reports, he said I would have to manage my pain as this was a degenerative condition. “It will not get better. From now on you have to restrict yourself to activities for the elderly” was his recommendation.

Less than 5 minutes to be told life would not improve. My effort to get in better health was not making a difference. This was a heavier weight to carry than the extra 40 pounds I lost! I was down but there was nothing I could do about it, I had to accept my faith. I was not complaining, I had already lived such a rich life, had so many great experiences that a lot of people might only get to read about and dream of having. I had no regrets!

Yesterday when I met my angel, hidden in a physiotherapist outfit, all I really wanted to know was what were the limits brought by my condition. What exercises could I do to slow down the degeneration.

I spent over an hour with her, a good part of that was answering her questions. She wanted to get the whole picture. She then explained exactly what I'm facing as far as the shoulder tendinitis is concerned. Connected to the shoulder is the muscle which goes down to my back. It doesn't seem like the recent pain in my back is from my mild case of Osteoarthritis after all.

For my back, there are 2 things at play. My shoulder tendinitis and my loss of weight. My weight loss is a front loaded loss and she compared my previous weight to that of a pregnant women. If you look at the posture of pregnant women, they arch backward to support the belly. Probably because of my belly, I was doing exactly that. But I didn't get the delivering relief that the ladies get after nine months ha ha, I carried that extra weight for over 20 years. Now without that weight, my posture changed, my shoulders and back are no longer compensating for a heavy belly and I’m leaning forward. So I have to remember to keep my back straight which I did in my angel’s office and I could already feel a difference.

She proceeded to poke me all over, some poking brought some pain but it was not really that bad. She also took all kind of measurements to see the difference between my right side and my left side. There is a small difference between the two as far as my reach goes and only my right side gave me pain when I reached further.

She gave me one exercise to do until we meet again. Just one! I had asked my wife to come with me so that between the 2 of us we would know all the exercises involved. But just one, I can remember that much :)

I asked about what were my limits as far as exercises and sports are concerned. Other than not move my right arm above 90 degrees, like smashing a ball in pickelball, I have no restrictions. And this is  TEMPORARY, it's only until the inflammation in my shoulder is reduced!

Today, I'll resume walking and when we come back from our daughter’s move, I'll get back to running. I'm so excited...

If I were a drug user, I'm sure the high I got from yesterday’s news was a lot better than anything chemically induced.