I've been rehabbing a shoulder with a rotator cuff injury. PT is not exactly a walk in the park. And, today, it is worse, as I - somehow - forgot to take my meds this morning.
I just remembered, and found them (tucked into the pocket of my jacket - so I wouldn't forget to take them!). It will be several hours before they have full effect. So, after I finish this post, I'm going to lie down for a rest (not tired, just sore).
I'm also a little dehydrated, so I'm guzzling water now, and took the time to put some bottles into the fridge for later.
I didn't do that much this morning - physical therapy, stopped at Home Depot for some bags of soil, stopped at dollar for some styro cups (they make good containers for starting seeds/cuttings). I didn't even unload the car yet.
And, yet, I'm exhausted. I feel as though I'd been on a 5 mile hike, with backpack (which I haven't done in decades). It's not how hard the exertion is, it's that I'm so de-conditioned, I have to build in breaks for any physical work. LOTS of breaks.
I'm going to continue my efforts. Even if a task takes me longer, and wears me out, it's still better than lounging around on a swooning couch, and accepting frailty. Others - cancer survivors, heart attack patients, stroke victims - have been far more stricken, and managed to fight their way back.
I can too.
If I may venture a word of presumptious, totally unnecessary, and probably inapplicable advice: if your rotator cuff is torn, and "they" want to repair it surgically, don't delay. Way back in 2001, when I was a much younger physicist, I tore my RC, and the orthopedic surgeon who looked at the images told me to call the office and get scheduled for surgery. I then listened to some bad advice from a nurse I knew, and never called to get scheduled. I "managed" the thing for the next ten years; mostly, it was OK, and when it got angry, I'd rest it, ice it, etc. In 2011, it got angry and didn't respond much to my management, and I went to (a different) ortho guy, who said, well, MAYBE we can fix it. He tried twice. Both times, it re-tore in physical therapy, quite painlessly. I saw the ortho guy after the second re-tear, and as he was showing me the images, he said he couldn't do anything more for me. As he put it, "I can sew two pieces of wet toilet paper together, but there's not much point in it." Those muscles, once torn and not promptly repaired, atrophy. They lose length and lose strength and become, well, wet toilet paper.
ReplyDeleteNow, this probably doesn't even apply to your situation. But, just in case ...