Ow!

My morning accomplishments for the day: a physical therapy appointment, then a trip downtown to the Friends of the Library Book Sale and then Target.

The physical therapy doesn't seem like it's going to be as bad as I feared. The therapist said she thought the Vicodin prescription was probably overkill, so I may not have to worry about the transportation and drugs issue. I'd worried that I'd end up with some Helga the Healer type person, a former East German swimmer who would grab my arm and say, "Und now ve vill move your arm like so, ja?" before giving it a good yank. Instead, my therapist may be smaller than I am, and while some of it does hurt, it's more wince and gasp for a moment pain than serious prescription drugs pain. The sessions start with fifteen minutes of a heat wrap to loosen things up (good reading time -- I've learned to bring a book), then a bit of massage in the affected area, then the therapist moves and stretches the joint in all angles. Then I have to do some exercises using a cane as a prop to use my good arm to move my bad arm into position. Today there were more exercises with a strap and a pulley thing, and then an exercise bicycle you pedal with your arms. By the time I'm done with this, I should have a nicely developed upper body to go with the ballet-toned legs. At the end of the session, there's fifteen minutes with an ice pack (more reading time).

I'm supposed to do the cane exercises at home on days I don't have therapy, but I can use a golf club, broom or something like that. Finally, I may get some use out of my golf clubs. Maybe I should call my golf nut brother and ask him which club he recommends for stretching. (I tried to learn golf, but it just didn't take, in spite of my brother's best efforts. He thought it would be a good way for me to meet men, but the problem with that is that the men I'd meet would be golfers, and I'm not really their type.)

I'm pretty sore right now, not so much in the joint but in the muscles around the joint. Since I'm also in the middle of a nasty allergy attack, I may take a Tylenol PM (since the "PM" is Benadryl) and spend the day on the sofa, watching old movies and occasionally putting on a heating pad.

The good news is that I can already see an improvement in my range of motion. The bad news is that this is going to get expensive because my insurance has a pretty high deductible, so all of this treatment will be out of pocket. So, everyone go buy or get other people to buy Enchanted, Inc. books (especially the first one) because I need the royalties.