Learning to take care of my new hip
The surgeon sent in a referral and the physical therapy practice called near the end of the first week of in-home therapy to set up appointments. Two or three 1 hour appointments each week until further notice. I met my new therapist and he got to work. Most of their work is done in a large open area so if you are on a table being manipulated by a physical therapist you can see the technicians torturing other patients on the wide selection of equipment they have like stationary bikes, weight lifting equipment, treadmills, stairwells and much more. My therapist guided me to a private room where he could take vitals, ask about my medical history and check my incision. We discussed the Foley catheter I was married to for the next few weeks and he said it would be no problem. For all subsequent appointments we met in the open area.
My therapist was about half my age, had a great sense of humor, was a great conversationalist and was professional, kind and compassionate. And yes, his job was to help me rehabilitate my new hip and he took that seriously. He was great at reading me, pushing me and realizing when he was pushing just enough. He also cautioned me about what not to do temporarily to avoid causing problems with the hip as it healed. The appointments usually consisted of about 40 minutes of manipulation with the physical therapist followed by 20 or 30 minutes with a technician on those aforementioned instruments of torture. No, they really weren’t bad since the techs knew how to tailor the workouts to the patients capability. They pushed me a bit but most of the instructions came from the physical therapist. I really liked the entire staff and looked forward to appointments.
In a later collection of appointments, one of my physical therapy Technicians was a professional Women’s Ice Hockey player who was waiting to be called up to either a US team or a team in Finland. Yeah, being on the receiving end of physical therapy from a women’s ice hockey player sounds frightening, but she was kind, caring, professional and cute. During one of my appointments she was having me do a new exercise that was both physically and mentally challenging (partly due to my Covid induced balance challenges) and she leaned over and quietly said “you’re doing it correctly, but you really should breathe”. I hadn’t realized I had been holding my breath in concentration for quite some time. That turned out to be some of the best advice I received in a long time. Overall, I had about 20 appointments and came to really look forward to the time in therapy; the therapists and technicians became my primary social life.
Surprise Prostate issues in the next medical post
Aggressive Retirement 