Stronger

Can you tell that I am chatty?
I imagine that comes through, here?
Well, anyway, I am, and even though my cold has turned into LARYNGITIS, I talked soooo much to the physical therapist, I am now practically voiceless.

He was the sort of PT I admire the most.
I suppose they all know the mechanics of the body, which is adequately admirable, but some are more forthcoming with the info, which is more so. This guy was the type who responded generously to my questions, giving me lots and lots of information. I love that!  

He spent an entire hour with me and gave me oodles of help.

He was terrific at explaining things for non-science majors.
I said I pictured tiny little knitters repairing my knee.
"That's good," he said. "I tell people it's like ants--no matter what you're doing, they're working."

He told me how he knew it was my MCL (medial collateral ligament) that was hurt and not the meniscus:
"I know this twist hurts your knee"––(it did)-- "but if it were the meniscus, you couldn't do it at all."

And, while I don't want to objectify the man, he was in possession of a most superior posterior. Walt Whitman would have approved.
"What sport do you play?" I asked.
"I never played sports," he said. "I lift weights."

I did NOT say, "Well, that's working well for you", but really, he was buff. That inspired me, it really did, that visual reminder that if you put the work in, your body will respond.
I need to put in the work to strengthen exactly that:
the glutes, which stabilize the knee.

I know some things need medication to heal, but musculoskeletal stuff?
Work it, if you can.

I was relieved to hear that my MCL injury is a relatively minor pull, and extremely common --that it will heal--is already repairing itself––and that the exercises and massage he showed me will help the strands repair themselves in proper order, and not go all sideways.(He showed me with his fingers how some of the strands are pulled out of place.)

"Without help," he said, "the fibers won't always realign in the best way. It's good you came to PT"--making me extra glad I'd been brave and called the State health insurance people yesterday.
(And then the confirmation of my new coverage came in the mail today. I'd be kicking myself if I had cancelled PT because I'd been too afraid to make that call.)

Another thing that made me happy was he said biking is exactly the thing for my injury. Yay!
"But don't start biking to work yet, where there's time and distance pressure. Bike slowly around your neighborhood for 10 minutes to start."

So I did! It's sunny and 50, and I felt giddy to be FREE after being cooped up for 6 weeks. (Even if my knee had been well, it'd been too cold to bike.)

He knew I biked because he'd asked during the intake what activities I'd given up because of my injury.

I'd told him that I don't exercise.
But as I was answering this question, I realized that statement must seem weird:
"I can't bike to work, and I can't walk around the lake, and I can't carry groceries a mile home from the store. Um, I guess that sounds like I exercise?"

"I think you mean you don't go to a gym."

Yes. It's funny how our perception can be off kilter.

I found out lots about him (because: chatty).
He went to the high school where I worked last year, and he worked at Taco Bell!
His oldest daughter is a Pisces!
He's in the National Guard and was posted as a PT to Kosovo! (Years after the war--he's young.)
He wears squishy insoles in his Converse tennies. (He'd been telling me we need cushion, and I questioned his flat-soled shoes.)

His ONLY downside, and it's neutral, not negative:
he was not someone I would tell about the dolls and bears and their knees, unlike the doctor I saw two weeks ago.
I'd trusted that she would enter into the Theater of Toys.

But truly, that's okay. A lot of (most?) people don't do toys.

Anyway, they don't care one jot:
"We only need one doctor," they said. "She was the one for us."
They want me to send her an update photo of them doing their PT exercises.

I probably will, because I want to let her know that her guess that it was the MCL was correct. It wasn't a "guess", of course!
But she'd said she couldn't be sure without an MRI. She'd been about to order one for me, when I told her not to because I wasn't sure I had insurance coverage at that point, and while I could conceivably pay for an office visit out of pocket, no way could I pay for sci-fi machinery.

Turns out, the PT didn't need that, being fluent in the language of muscle and bone, in all its intricacy.

So--now I have a regimen to follow, three more appointments (two weeks apart), and some tips on proper mechanics for getting down on the floor:
use a gardener's mat for kneeling, don't torque your knee, go straight down; squatting down is best, but my knee it still "too irritatable" to do squats.

Because everything is political these days, I apply all this metaphorically to staying strong in these Days of Destruction:
do your daily exercises-- watch your mechanics.

Small motions lead to strong posteriors, allowing us to do the HEAVY LIFTING, to stabilize us and keep us balanced.

And--my favorite:
Cushion yourself!

Humor is a great cushion--like goose-down!
I would not normally care about an image like this--not the sports nor the aggression––but I 100-percent relish how other countries are pushing back against our horrible bullying.
And it made me smile.
We have Canada geese at the lakes here, and while they look like pillows, they are fierce. I would not mess with them.
Muscle and pluck forever! says Walt Whitman.

I lifted this ^ illustration off a Canadian woman's blog, "My Life So Far". Thanks, MLSF!
She notes that these geese are called cobra chickens.
LOL--yes! They hiss and snake their necks and they bite. (They are also very poopy.)