I had my second physio therapy appointment on Thursday. The week before I had gone for an initial assessment and to figure out what type of exercises would benefit me the most (somewhat -more like majorly- limited because I am not allowed to bear weight on my right leg, but it was last Thursday that I actually got said exercises. In the meantime I have been doing the ones that the home physiotherapist I saw in December had suggested. I had been doing about five of the seven since December on a daily basis. I felt like the other two were not helping and caused more pain than actual benefit, so I hadn't bothered to continue with those. Interestingly enough, those were two of the new exercises that my new physiotherapist recommended. Accept this time there was a big difference - the physiotherapist actually explained how those exercises would help me and why. Then she demonstrated how to do them herself, after which she talked me through doing them myself and gave me pointers on how to do them properly, like pushing my upper leg downwards while bringing my knee upwards and extending my leg as much as possible when it is supported by a pillow or sucking my belly button towards my spine while trying to lift both my hips in the air and keep them even, which is quite tricky when you can't use one leg to complete that exercise. As a result, I am better able to complete the exercises in a beneficial way and I understand exactly why I have to do them. What a difference a new set of instructions can make!
Physio is a lot of work. My muscles are already stiff sore from all the disuse over the last five plus months but now they also hurt because they are being forced to work and do things they haven't been able to do in almost half a year. It is therefore no surprise that I am exhausted once I have done them all. Heck, even trying to bend my toes ten times in a row is tiring.
That being said, it is both an exhausting and exciting kind of tiring; I know it will help me achieve my ultimate goal of being able to walk sans crutches. And physio isn't only hard work! As previously mentioned, on Thursday the physiotherapist demonstrated a a series of exercise. One of them had already been shown to me in December but I didn't know why I was doing it and, quite frankly, it turns out the physiotherapist hadn't explained how to do it that well. It involved me lying on a flat surface (back straight, not arched) with my left knee bent. I suck my belly button down as much as possible while lifting my butt of the ground. This is usually done with both knees bent, but I am unable to do so because I can't weight bear. As a result, both my hips do rise up into the air, but unevenly. The left hip rises much higher than the left. By sucking my stomach in, I am better able to keep both hips even. But anyways, here is the conversation that followed:
Physiotherapist: This exercise would help you work on your core.
Me: I don't have a core; I have a place for cake!
Physiotherapist: *bursts out laughing* Well, we are going to get you a core.
Me: That sounds good, as long as there will still be room for cake.
Both of us burst into laughter again.
Physiotherapist: There will always be room for cake!
We laughed a lot. Obviously I have been unable to do much since surgery in August, and even before I was limited because of how awful the bone infection made me feel. I look forward to being able to take long walks and bike once I am better, but for now I am completely out of shape. I am happy with my body weight and am not overweight, but I have no muscle/strength/endurance what so ever. But I am adamant that be it now when I am unable to do much of anything physically or in the future when I am back to biking and walking (perhaps swimming too), there will always be a place for cake.
Speaking of cake, there are a lot of health nuts out there. Don't get me wrong, eating healthy and watching what you eat is important. I mostly eat multi grain bread (with seeds for added fiber), don't drink soda, have cut out most of the salt in my diet, and try to get a balance of all the food groups (although I could always eat more vegetables). My diet might not be the healthiest in the world, but it's pretty good. Anyways, back to the health nut. We have all met the people who refuse to east sugar, sweets, etc. I am not one of them. There are people who view there body as a temple and therefore they refuse to put anything unhealthy or unnatural in it. My response to that? I am not one of those people. My body had clearly demonstrated that it is not a temple. If it was, I wouldn't be sitting here dealing with the aftermath of a decade of bone infection. No, my body is definitely not a temple. I will put whatever I want in it!
That usually elicits a good laugh from people and, regardless of all else, it makes me laugh and poke some fun at my situation. And sometimes, the only thing you can do when you can't control your own health/body is to fall back on a twisted sense of humor. XD
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