PT on my Own

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It’s been three weeks since my last physical therapy session. I’ve had some ups and downs. The therapy did succeed in dramatically reducing my back pain but now there are other aches that I wasn’t noticing previously. They could be simply a byproduct of me becoming more active and using some muscles that did not get worked very much previously. There were a couple of days I felt like I was coming down with a cold or flu…but then I bounced back feeling back to normal without getting sicker.

No matter how I feel…I do at least some PT every day and try to add repetitions or harder exercise as often as I can. The overall trend is good but not always a straight path. I am challenged to remember the warm-up required for some parts of the routine. One routine that is done on stairs is particularly hard on the knees if I don’t warm-up first!

There is more vigorous activity in some of my other activities now. I fast walk between by car and the geology class I am taking; the last bit is up three flights of stairs. After class I take the stairs down and go to another building to meet my daughter for lunch…with another 3 flights of stairs up to the dining room. We take the elevator down! On those days, I don’t do the PT routine that involves stairs.

I am still challenged to remember to stand correctly when I am out and about – particularly on uneven terrain after being in the car for an hour or more; the result is that my back starts hurting. My husband and I are going to be taking some field trips soon that will give me more opportunity to practice – learn how to get my muscles warmed-up enough after being in the car to enjoy the hiking.

Ten Little Celebrations - January 2025

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January was a relatively quiet month after December…but still plenty to celebrate.

52 years of married life. Every year I marvel that it has been such a long time…and celebrate that it has been an easy accomplishment for us.

A snow day. Now that I am ‘post career’ there are not as many commitments that force me to leave home in inclement weather. It is easy to enjoy snow on the ground from at home! I particularly celebrate watching birds at our feeders on a snowy day…drinking hot chocolate.

Cranberries in oatmeal. I still have frozen cranberries in my freezer from November and December. They are a flavor and color to celebrate in an oatmeal breakfast!

Finding a speaker for the February Missouri Master Naturalist meeting. The person my predecessor as the program chairperson had arranged for February was going to be out of town on the day…so I had an immediate emergency. I celebrated when I found a person to do a talk on Missouri geology and the person originally scheduled for February will talk in March!

Home before the snow started. I can drive in snow but realize that it can be hazardous particularly in hilly areas – so I celebrated that I made it home before it started.

Aquarium at the Boardwalk in Branson. I celebrated a field trip that could be enjoyed on a very cold day.

Leftover baked chicken. An easy stir fry: a few vegetables cut up and chunks of leftover baked chicken – a celebration of flavors in a quick meal.

Shoveling snow…without my back hurting. I am celebrating the success of my physical therapy sessions. One of the success indicators came when I shoveled snow without pain!

Female downy woodpecker. For weeks we saw only a male downy woodpecker….so it was worth celebrating when a female showed up. Maybe they’ll stay in the area and have young this spring.

My daughter in 1st class. My daughter had an awful experience traveling in bad weather – cancelled flights, delays, luggage lost for a few days, getting to the hotel only to have the planned meeting moved to Zoom. We all celebrated when the airline got her luggage to her about 24 hours before she headed home and moved her to 1st class for the longest leg of her return flight. She enjoyed a big breakfast.

Shoveling our Driveway and Sidewalk

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After a snow day….

I decided our driveway and sidewalk was not to going clear via melting…shoveling would be required and the sunny afternoon the day after the snow came down was the prime time to do it. Perhaps my physical therapy would help me do more at one time than I would have been able to 6 weeks ago. The temperature was in the low 40s when I bundled up and headed outside.

I could hear the melt water trickling in the downspouts and see it on the driveway closest to the house; having the driveway on the south side of the house means that it gets sun almost all day long which usually means the snow melts fast enough that we don’t need to shovel. The snow on the front yard this time still measured 4 inches even with the melting. The walkway to the front door was snow covered but looking slushy.

I spent about 30 minutes shoveling the path to the front door and most of my side of the driveway…deciding not to push past my comfort level (i.e. put the gains from physical therapy at risk). The pile at the street created by the snowplow was left for the next day!

Physical Therapy

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I’ve had 8 physical therapy sessions – motivated by lower back pain. At first, I thought it was a long shot that they would help very much but now it looks like they might be as successful as the session I had more than 15 years ago for shoulder pain (which totally fixed that problem).

This time around, I know there are some age-related issues but strengthening muscles is already helping! The exercises I started with were very simple and have built up over the past few weeks. There was a breakthrough around the end of 2024 when I discovered a maneuver that resolved backpain almost immediately just as I did years ago with the shoulder pain. To keep the pain from happening during all activities, the muscles must be stronger…but I feel good when I exercise now rather than afraid that I am going to hurt myself. When I take my road trips, I know exercises I can do that make the prolonged sitting not a prelude to back pain! An open car door (the lower ledge of the opening is a good height to put my foot for the exercises) is all I need to do them.

Now that I have achieved more pain-free time, I am probably going to make more rapid progress building up muscles that had weakened as I had curtailed some types of activity due to pain in 2024.

I am also forming the habit of doing focused exercises twice a day…and that is probably important to achieving and then maintaining the muscle strength required to keep the lower back pain from taking over again.

I am a fan of physical therapy….awed at the skills of the therapists to select the ramp up of exercise to help.

Different in 2025

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What am I anticipating being different in 2025?

It is a better thought process for me than making a list of resolutions…even though to make some of the ‘anticipations’ become reality it will take some intentional action on my part which might be very much like the focus a resolution can have. But I am noticing that what I have on my list this year are things that have been available in some form to me before; I am simply making the decision to follow through…and enjoy the ride.

Last year I enjoyed the Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) training and in 2025 I am going to explore the opportunities associated with being an MMN. I’ll be organizing the monthly programs for the chapter and ramping up my volunteering. At the end of 2024 it appeared that 20 hours of volunteering per month would be feasible…and I might discover that I can do more during some months of the year.

My husband has pointed out that the local Audubon Society chapter has great field trips and we are already planning to go to 2 in early 2025….and more of those will probably become our norm.

I initiated some Missouri geology themed day trips in December (1st one was to the Joplin History and Mineral Museum and Grand Falls) and want to do more in 2025. We’re planning to go to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in February for birding….but there will be geology there too (it in the part of the state that was glaciated)! Maybe I will make a day trip to the Ed Clark Museum of Missouri Geology in Rolla in January. I’ve always wanted to take a basic geology class but never could fit it into my schedule back when I was in college…so I am registering for one during the 2025 spring semester at Missouri State University; maybe they will have a field trip or two.

I hope I can finally renew my friendship with a childhood friend (we’ve been exchanging Christmas cards for years but haven’t seen each other since we were in our teens). We have been communicating via text over the past year but then events in our families made it challenging to reconnect in person. Maybe it will happen in 2025.

The physical therapy I am getting now is beginning to yield positive results and I am anticipating that a lot of the activities I want to do are going to be easier for me physically…so I am very motivated to do what they tell me and continue a routine of exercises that will sustain the improvement.

I am looking forward to the differences from 2024 that I am anticipating!

Physical therapy (1)

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My first session of physical therapy for lower back pain was just before Thanksgiving. I have 2 appointments per week through December – with a week off while I am out of town. It will be fabulous if this round can be as successful as the one about 20 years ago when I had a shoulder problem.

It has started out with very simple exercises for me to do twice a day. I’m sure it will ramp up to more challenging ones soon since the first ones are very easy for me. I am optimistic that it is going to help because of my previous experience and because the therapist has already made some suggestions that are helping me move without hurting!

It feels great to be ending the year with this type of activity…doing something that has the potential to enable me to start 2025 in better physical condition than I’ve been in 2024!