Physical Therapy

OK, I was fairly clueless about how this physical therapy thing goes. I met my new PT today and he was nice-- reminded me vaguely of the guy from Prison Break--Wentworth Miller--but not so attractive. There was just something about him that reminded me of WM. He did a lengthy examination of my ankles, comparing the good and bad one, measuring stuff, making me walk barefoot on the cold tile floor, pushing it here and there, etc. Then he made me do some fairly gentle ankle strengthening exercises. After that I had these electrode thingeys stuck to my foot and ankle and a cold wrap put around that. They did muscle stimulation with a machine for about 15 minutes. I have a little list of exercises to do daily and I am supposed to come for physical therapy twice a week for at least 4 weeks. Yikes. I have had to schedule my next few weeks of Monday & Wednesday mornings while Ewan's in nursery school. I describe all this in case any of my readers ever ends up going for physical therapy for an ankle injury some time. I didn't really know what it was like until I got there.

The bad news is he told me I shouldn't be doing step aerobics, jogging, or kickboxing right now (though I admitted I'd been doing some already). He said I was at high risk for injury until I strengthen the ankle more. This is not surprising since it felt a bit wobbly and I twisted it slightly once while jogging Saturday (not bad but it was scary for a moment there).

I decided I'd go back to mainly upper body weights, and alternate it with yoga. I am hoping to visit a yoga class on Friday morning while Ewan is in school. On Mondays and Wednesdays after my PT I can do a yoga video as well.

This PT appointment was another one of those times when I felt funny saying how active I am. I described the activities I normally like to do and wondered if they'd believe me with my figure. But I also figured a physical therapist would know better than to assume an active person would always look like a fitness model. Of course, this week I haven't been as active as I like! I'm going to work tonight on a new rotation to finish out the week focusing on upper body. At least I have some new workouts, such as Cathe's 4-Day Split and Amy's Slo-Mo Strength Challenge, which should help with the boredom of a continued upper body focus.