Monday, May 19, 2008

Meanwhile, Back in the Torture Chamber ...


So, the first follow-up PT session was today.

I've been faithfully doing the sissy-weight exercises, and I figured, well, they'll watch me do those and then I'm done, I can go home, right?

Wrong.

First, there was the hand-powered stationary bike, to warm up the joints. A mere eight minutes, pedaling up the side of K2. Okay, not that bad, maybe only Pike's Peak.

Then there were the rubber band thingees, the high-low; then crunch-the-shoulder-blades-together, for what seemed like, oh, I dunno, a thousand reps.

From there, we moved to the Chuck Norris infomercial machine, in which you lie down on a slant board with your heels by your butt and then do a kind of stretched-out butterfly stroke, pulling your bodyweight up and then lowering it. Another ten thousand reps.

Then came the ball toss, which involved using a weighted, rubbery, soft ball the size of a grapefruit, and various contorted ways of throwing it at an angled mini-trampoline and catching it when it bounced back. I'd guess the first ball weighed three or four pounds, and went we shifted to the throwing-a-shuriken from the hip position, we dropped down to one slightly lighter.

After which the PT guy manipulated my shoulder like somebody trying to separate a cooked chicken leg from the thigh ...

Good news is, I am getting better -- no pain during the process. I can started adding in more exercise at home, and I'm encouraged to do my djurus.

Bad news, is I have to go back again. More than once ...

9 comments:

steve-vh said...

I told mine Friday he would have been well employed during the Inqusition.
Ask him if he'll use the "tool" on your shoulder.

Steve Perry said...

No, thank you. I'm not of the Please, Sir, may I have another? persuasion when it comes to torture ...

Daniel Keys Moran said...

Well, supposedly the suffering doesn't last long ... once they've pulled your arms completely out of the socket, you lose consciousness fast from the blood loss.

Dan Gambiera said...

When they tell you you're going in for R.O.M. it's not "Range of Motion". It's short for "Romulan Interrogation Session".

Steve Perry said...

Thank you, Dan & Dan, more stuff I don't want to know about.

I can barely move today, even after a session in the hot tub and ibuprofen.

I am *so* looking forward to my next session.

Kai Jones said...

I had my shoulder x-rayed last night. Are you sure this isn't contagious?

Steve Perry said...

Yeah, it seems to be going around. Couple other people in my silat class had it.

Probably you are going to the the woman-your-age speech, if you haven't already. Don't listen to them. You aren't that old.

Kai Jones said...

Grumble. I haven't gotten any speech yet--they still haven't called to tell me about the x-ray, or give me a referral for PT. I'll have to call them Tuesday.

Steve Perry said...

X-ray, unless they injected dye, won't show much on the soft-tissue front. Takes ultrasound, dye, or MRI to nail it down for sure. Maybe you got a bone spur, that would show up.

If it's rotator-cuff syndrome, and not too bad, you can probably beat it with rest and then excercise. Bone-stuff usually needs the knife.