As you may know, my number one life goal right now is to get my left leg straight. Yesterday I had physical therapy, and Jason was trying to help me achieve this goal. Part of physical therapy is massaging and pushing the muscles around to get them to loosen up and move as they should.
Sometimes this is not pleasant.
As Jason was pushing down on my hamstring to loosen my quad and increase my extension, I was wincing.
"Does this hurt, or do you not trust me?" he asked. His question was sincere. He was worried that I thought he was going to hurt me. PT are a little bit like dentists in this regard: they know at times they are causing their patients discomfort. Jason seems to not like this part of the job. When I mentioned that my friend's mom said patients should dislike their PTs, he seemed not to like that idea, either.
"I don't think I am like that," he said, slightly worried that I might perceive him that way, which I don't. Before working in a sports medicine clinic, he used to work with children. I can see him not wanting to cause children pain. Children, however, are for more resilient and flexible than many adults. Plus, you can plug kids into a video game while they are getting worked on, and they will feel no pain.
Seriously. Some medical center has done a study that show that video games have the same effect on kids as narcotics. This could be good if a child is coming out of surgery: video games are far less impactful on a child's health than narcotics. The downside is kids can't play video games while they sleep. The other thing to consider is if kids need an equivalent to a narcotic after school on a Wednesday when they haven't had surgery.
I digress. While I am likely not a candidate for a video game playing jag during physical therapy, I did think about the breathing techniques I used in my childbirth classes. (Maybe women in labor nowadays play Mario Cart or Grand Theft Auto.) I never thought I'd have to use that breathing/relaxation method again, but here I was breathing deeply and trying to let go of my muscle so it would relax.
This blog is about the little and big thoughts that pop into my head. I once read that when Flannery O'Connor walked into a bookstore, she would want to edit her published works with a red pen. In the digital world, we have the luxury of tweaking things up after we've hit the publish button. I can be a perfectionist/procrastinator, where waiting for the ideal means little gets done. Here I will share what is not--and likely will never be--perfect.
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