I swam!

Physical therapy has been progressing nicely. I’ve “passed” all my flexibility/range of motion requirements, and am focusing pretty heavily on strength while making sure not to lose the flexibility. I saw the surgeon Tuesday for a check-in, and they were a little disappointed at my strength at this point in my recovery.

September 13 was the 3-month mark for the surgery, though, which is when I’m supposed to be clear to resume some more interesting exercise. With surgeon and PT approval, I’m doing so. I’m taking things quite slowly, because if I do anything off-hours that leaves me too sore to move (or worse, injured!), then my PT work will be compromised. The plan is to do an activity, wait a day to see how sore I get, and then judge from that whether I should cut back or can ramp up.

My first activity was swimming. I’m not a skilled swimmer anymore — I can happily fake a breaststroke for a while (my favorite), but my smoothest method of traversing water is the good ol’ doggie paddle. I can do it forever.

It’s also, pleasantly enough, the easiest on a weak shoulder.

So Wednesday night, after that decision was made in PT, I swam. It was 21:00 and the pool was deserted and beautiful. The water was a little chilly, but I warmed quickly enough. I swam laps for just 20 minutes, which was about when my shoulder started to show signs of weakening. (The best test for that is for me to stand and raise my arm straight out overhead at about 45 degrees. If there’s any “clicking” or jerking in that range of motion, the shoulder is очень устал [very tired].)

Later that night and this morning, my shoulder was tight, but that could very well be due to the increased weights during Wednesday morning’s PT appointment. I tend to start getting sore from an activity right around 24 hours afterwards, so we’ll see how I feel tonight.