Back in the pool! (Nearly)
So, the reason I put myself through the horror and torture of buying bathers recently is that my medical focus for the foreseeable future is hydrotherapy.
It's something I've given much thought to but have not managed to find the spoons for it. Last year, medically speaking, was a disaster. I made myself much more sick during than before and had nothing to spare for anything else at all. Before that I could still do enough on land to get by. At this point in time I pretty much can't do anything beneficial on land and can only go backwards health-wise (things tear when I stretch). But that's behind me now, and I'm putting all my medical spoons into doing things in bodies of warm water larger than my bath.
Today I passed a vital milestone, in which I had an appointment with the physio. (They don't just let anyone into their pool, and fair enough too - drowned patients lead to a lot of really quite annoying paperwork.) I had to do the usual things such as running through the relevant medical history, why I was there today, what I wanted to achieve, blah blah blah. The form had the little human figures where you were supposed to shade where it hurt. I'd given this some thought before hand, and had seriously identified the only part of me that doesn't hurt - a couple of inches of shin bone below the knee. I resisted the temptation to fill in the entire figure (less a couple of inches of shin) and only put in the worst bits. It was still a pretty thorough colouring-in effort.
My physio Georgia was really very lovely and seemed to have no trouble believing all that I told her. She also said very reassuring things like "you know your body best" and didn't try to enforce a program on me. She'll draw one up (and I said I'd be happy to look at it) but was content to let me start off trying to reproduce the range of movements I'd lost most recently. She even said I had a good attitude to exercise! So nice not to be bullied. I hadn't consciously worried about it before I went in, but it must have been in the back of my mind.
She then did a mild strength and flexibility assessment. To my pleasant surprise I'm actually reasonably strong in a few places, despite the pain, and still flexible in a couple of directions. Of course I'm weak in some important ways such as core strength, and my quads thought the very idea hilarious, but again I was surprised how much planking I was able to achieve i.e. an amount greater than zero. Steps were a bit wonky, but she was satisfied with only a couple of reps. She seemed unduly fascinated by my technique for hauling my carcass out of a chair (it's all about the footwork). Bits of me now hurt a very great deal, but it feels like honest pain.
I got the tour of the pool room, and all my important questions were answered to my satisfaction (namely - where do I leave my Stuff, and is it safe?). Normally new patients have to attend a supervised session in the pool first (again that pesky drowning business), but Georgia was confident that with my swimming background and DIY attitude I'd be fine to dive right in. (Note: no diving permitted.)
The logistics (mostly for my reference):
- I can turn up any time the pool is open to general use, and pay $12 per session, no claim applicable.
- Supervised sessions are 3pm-4pm weekdays, must be booked, and cost $25, claimable.
- Georgia hosts the supervised sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays.
- For the next three weeks the schedule is pretty wide open because there are no baby classes. After that, choices become more limited.
The spoon cost for a session of hydrotherapy is significant, so I'll have to minimise the cost as much as possible:
- Bathe and dress to go out (bathers underneath)
- Prepare swim bag (towel etc)
- Drive to physio, park (fortunately nearby in a very familiar medical centre where there's always a spot of some sort within reasonable distance).
- Remove outer layers, store gear, compulsory shower rinse.
- Do therapy!
- Rinse, dry (mostly), apply outer layers (this is where the saving comes in - drive home in wet bathers underneath to save major spoons from extra clothing changes.)
- Drive home
- Strip, shower, dry, dress (and try to not die at this point)
- Rinse bathers, hang up towel.
- Do extra hair washes as required. I hope to keep the hair out of the water, but I'll be in a chlorine-rich environment and getting sweaty so will have to wash it more often anyway. Hopefully as the pain in my arms reduces (and it WILL damnit, washing hair will become less of a major production.)
Holy cow I am going to die. At least I can turn up more or less at random - I find making myself ready at scheduled times particularly expensive.
For me this is A Big Day, and I don't get many of those right now. I'll start with a modest goal of once per week, but really I'll just have to see how it pans out. Ideally I'll see enough improvement that I'll be able to walk more easily on land. The next tier (and it's a biggie) is to re-join the gym and start walking laps in the pool there (plus bonus spa for soaking). In terms of spoons it's probably not that much different from going to the physio to play with pool noodles, but it requires a bit of a commitment in terms of membership fees and confidence in myself (and oh gods the gym changeroom and being surrounded by young fit persons aieee). I'm not looking beyond walking laps at this stage - doing classes or actually swimming any sort of distance is not on the radar, and yet...
Wish me luck, folks!