Therapeutic Talk

Good Evening! Today's big adventure was a very short ride and a thorough examination at a nearby physical therapy facility. I told the therapist that I wanted a more intensive, practical, "refresher" on what I've already learned, 'cause honestly, NOTHING in the world of PT surprises me any more. Not maneuvers they could show me in the therapy room, and definitely not anything they could show me to do at home. Luckily, although today was her last day and I'll most like never see that doctor again, she was exactly on the same page with me, and seemed to almost adjust what she put in her evaluation exercises to get a better understanding of my needs, in order to leave behind a more informative report for the NEXT physical therapist I see. This helped me a lot, since I really had no interest in enduring the 12 weeks of PT prescribed by my general care physician, and am much happier with the idea of cutting that time into a more intensive, bigger bang for my buck 2 or 3 sessions! Of course this means more homework for me, but I'm open to that! Much better to tire myself out at home than at a facility far from it:( As it was, I felt like lying down after our session today! Of course that might have been just 'cause I happened to be sitting on a sunny bench outside, trying to soak up the very last weak rays of summer sunlight in GR! My next session won't be for about two and half weeks; my paperwork has to go through and get processed by my insurance before they can schedule my next go...but that's fine! In the meantime I'll just continue with the exercises I've been doing (which are clearly not enough any more). They may need some tweaking and adding to, but it's better to do something than nothing, however inadequate the something is. And I could not be happier that tomorrow is Saturday! As some would say, "y'all don't even know..." This week has just been long and mostly frustrating. I've felt restless and yet unwilling to go out and walk off some of that energy because it's been so warm. I've felt "fat" because of my staying in and not doing much, but not knowing what I should do to fix the situation:( Fortunately I've managed to get myself groceries without too much trouble this week; I was very sick and tired of ordering in. Which is pretty much the only other option when the heat is stifling; have somebody else prepare your food and bring it to you, so you can eat while watching Netflix and "lazy shame" yourself right into bed:( That's the most blunt, honest way I can describe my ho hum week nights to you! Amazingly though, my PT seemed more encouraged than dismayed at my flexibility (and lack thereof), despite how badly I thought I was doing. Too much time inside my own head leads to judging myself way too harshly! And she talked about a number of things that can still be done (of course I know of them, but we'll see how the exercises improve things before adding pills or procedures!) to help me, AND she validated the necessity of the walker. It's not the prettiest, most youthful accessory, I'll admit. But I've gotten used to it over the past 11 years. It keeps up with me, AND keeps me up. What I mean is, without it I'd be falling flat on my face a lot more often, or much worse. And it keeps me balanced when the ataxia that causes me to literally back away from things or back into something takes over, preventing me from looking more foolish than I might already. So the bottom line is I don't WANT to be rid of it, even if by some miracle of modern science I could be. And my PT agreed today that I've got a good bead on things:) Of course as the therapy sessions start and progress, I'll keep you informed!