Rant #3,557: Let's Get Physical

Life after physical therapy is kind of weird.

I participated in physical therapy for nine months or so, and like a developing fetus, this thing took on a life of its own during that period.

I went twice a week for all of those months--usually on Mondays and Thursdays, but sometimes on Tuesdays--and my time there saw me coming in barely able to walk and leaving there walking as good as possible under the circumstances.

My physical therapist--and talk about serendipity, she grew up in Rochdale Village, Queens, roughly during the same period that I did--worked me hard, and I responded to all the pushing she put me through, and I am where I am now--

I will never be as good as I was prior to my accidents, but I am so much better than I was, and can do just about anything with a scant minimum of discomfort, or no discomfort at all.

But I don't have thst regular schedule of going to physical therapy anymore, so I have had to adjust to the best of my ability.

I continue to work out at home--a total.of 40 some odd minutes or so in three separate periods--and I have added some walking--to and from the building with the mailboxes that we have in the development here--so I feel that I have compensated, to an extent, for not having the two sessions of physical therapy on my schedule anymore.

Yesterday, after dropping my son off at work, I got gas, did a little food shopping, came home, ate lunch, and then I did my second set of exercises.

I later did some things for work, but after doing all of this, leading up to the time when I have to go and pick up my son from work, I did find myself with about an hour of nothing--

The very time I would have been at physical therapy.

I know, I will get used to all of this, but right now, it is kind of new to me, and I simply have to adjust.

And no, I don't want to join a gym. I am not a gym person st all.

Well before I had my accidents, the mother of one of my son's bowling teammates had some type of major leg surgery.

I think it might have been knee replacement, but whatever the case, she had this surgery, and whenever I asked how she was doing, the conversation always veered to the same comment from her.

"The worst part of the whole thing is physical therapy ... the surgery is nothing compared to what you have to do in physical therapy."

Yes, physical therapy was difficult, but I never looked at it the way this woman did.

I never really minded going to physical therapy, I understood why I was there, and through all the pain--and there was plenty--I prospered.

I put in the work, the therapists pushed me to do what I needed to do, and here I am.

I guess I also miss the camaraderie of the therapists and my fellow injured participants, but I also miss actually being there, and actually seeing how much better I have gotten during all of these months.

And compared to my earlier encounters with physical therapy, my most recent experience was outstanding, from top to bottom.

Looking at the rest of this week, I won't be bored, and I will have plenty to do.

I have to cover my employer's annual convention in Virginia this week, two all-day affairs that I will handle virtually starting today and continuing tomorrow.

So for the next two days, I am completely attached to my computer all day, and thus, I am going to be engulfed in work stuff and not Rant stuff during the next two days.

So I definitely will not be filing a Thursday Rant, and I might not even be able to do one on Friday, either.

So this might or might not be my last Rant for this week.

If it is, have a great rest of the week and a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday 

If I can somehow squeeze out a Friday Rant, then you will hear from me later this week--

But somehow, I would say don't count on it.

Speak to you again the next time I am able.