Physio-Therapy??

Fixing mind and body

After that back injury I was pleased to get some 'repair work' done by way of physiotherapy. These guys know their business. The first job was to get the inflamation down then work the muscle through various stretching techniques and electronic stimulation. Awesome!

I would tell him how things felt and he could snap the right cord and relieve the pressure. I remember one day telling him I was tense on the opposite side of my sprain.. he bent me in half while on my side, said take a deep breath and *snap* that knot was gone and I mean gone ! I haven't had trouble since. Sweet!

I had a sore lower side while sitting at times, so I mentioned it to him.. I felt like I had to really relax to calm it down. Although this one was a little painful to cure, he pressed his elbow into my hip and massaged that muscle until everything loosened up and voila - gone! After a brief explanation of what it was and a few exercise suggestions I can now handle that pain that I was putting up with every drive I took. Nice!

After 10 sessions I can get in and out of bed without gritting my teeth; bend to tie my shoes without favoring my entire body; and now am able to lift what I am required to lift on a daily basis.

The physio scan (functional) put me through several weight handling situations. Lifting weight from a chair to a shelf.. adding more weight and doing it again until I couldn't lift comfortably. Filling a bucket with weight.. walking to a specified location in the room, having more weight added and walking back until I couldn't handle anymore weight. A push meter and a pull gauge were used for those measurements. The first week I was not good.. 30 pounds lifting, maybe 50 walking. I am not sure of the pull and push weights I could handle. After the third week, I had almost doubled and even tripled some of that weight.

That was the body.. but more importantly my mind was under therapy as well. Think about it! I was sore, so I didn't feel good about lifting, even moving, comfortably. Then my body was repaired and I felt more "confident" to lift more weight, then after 3 weeks I felt really good about being able to handle the weight and was asked to stop - I had reached goals for the tests. That was my mind being fixed.. I had lost confidence through the pain to handle weight.. that was fixed. It was like a eurika!

So if you have pain or muscle issues or broken bones and are going through the 'physio' process, let them take it all the way. Fix your body, retrain your mind and keep going. It proved to me I am only as strong or capable as my mind lets me be and building up confidence comes easy with professional help. (And that doesn't mean a phychiatrist!)

I put my swing chair up yesterday.. I carry my wood pellets in again.. I carry on with my boys again. And I will soon be transporting passengers around in a new tourist season.

Fantastic!! Even better 'workers compensation' paid for it all.. even my mileage to and from.. gotta love that too. It is done April 29th, just in time for May 1st tours.

Enjoy spring.. summer is soon to follow. Exercise your mind and your body.

Paul

PS: I worked @home during this process and workers compensation along with a tax return got me through another month. I made it through the winter - yeeehawww.