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A Beautiful Birthday Weekend
What could be better than a trip to Crowders Mountain on a perfect Saturday afternoon? Both the weather and our camera this time was good enough–and we’d just finished our second photography class that morning–to get some vague shots of Charlotte. Out zoom lens (55-200 mm) isn’t quite zoomy enough to really compress the distance, but it was fun trying, especially when we needed to manually focus or do a focus lock. Instead of just doing the 0.75 mile trek to the top and back (which includes 300+ damn stairs), we decided to hike some of the back trails. All in all, I think we covered 5-ish miles, but my…
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Last PT Session… For Now
So I got an MRI last Friday, and set up an appointment for next Monday (the 22nd) for the sports doc to review it. But the PTs have access to my electronic charts, so they thought they could review it for me on Tuesday. They forgot, so they said they’d take a look at it by this morning. The boss PT (who is the one with access) ultimately decided that it’d be better if the sports doc did the analysis. …How worrying is that? I’m pretty sure she peeked.
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Too Many Shoulder Muscles!
Iiiit’s Exercise Time! I’ve had three working physical therapy sessions at this point, and my exercises have evolved a bit from the original posture-related set. We’re aiming for endurance and some strength improvements in the muscles surrounding the shoulder, so I’m doing what is (to me) a mind-numbing number of reps: one set of 20 (last week) or three sets of 10 (this week). I’m accustomed to using heavy enough weights that I do, like, 10. One set. Look at all these shoulder motions (“articulations”) and muscles. I’m not using all of the motions in my work yet–adduction work is still out, as are transverse flexion, abduction, and adduction–but I’m…
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Swimming: A New and Fun Sport
A lot of my mental energy recently has been focused around my injured shoulder (cool exercise discussion forthcoming!), but I’ve also been considering how to incorporate swimming into my workouts. I love swimming as a opposite to running–it’s much more upper-body intense, and doesn’t have all the impact. Seems like a deadly duo. I haven’t really been a swimmer since I was a pre-asthmatic child, when I could do pretty much any stroke other than the breathing coordination-requiring freestyle, as well as all sorts of diving-esque things that make my lungs seize up in horror to even think of now. The new apartment has a nice little pool just long…
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Physical Therapy: Consultation and Fun Treatments
My first physical therapy session yesterday was pretty cool, albeit painful. The PT put my shoulder–which was already hurting from busing/backpacking through town–through the usual contortions (*tear*). By the end, she would raise my arm in such a way, push lightly on it, look at my face, and go, “Hmm, I’m not going to put you through that.” Her conclusion was the same as the sports doc: decently likely it’s a small cuff tear. What followed was far more interesting than my usual pain, though. First, I got a therapeutic ultrasound. And the gel was warm! (Quite the novelty in my experience.) I didn’t feel any warmth or hum from…