| Exercise is a four letter word, isn't it? I | | | | mainstream thinking, but at that time they |
| know some forms of exercise are. Let's see, | | | | were not. He even had his own physical |
| there's leap, jump, lift, flex, hike and the | | | | therapist in the office. After my second or |
| most friendly of all, walk. Okay, so it isn't | | | | third trip down to see him, he called her in |
| my favorite thing to do. I'm not nor have I | | | | to evaluate me. I was totally discouraged. I |
| ever been the athletic type. I'm not lazy. | | | | hate to admit my ignorance, but I didn't see |
| I'm just more cerebral. | | | | what that had to do with me. I was sick. I |
| | | | needed more medication. I needed a firm |
| As a nurse, my experiences with physical | | | | diagnosis. I needed someone to relieve me of |
| therapy were with those therapists who came | | | | this burden. I did not need to be told to |
| onto the unit to walk about with the patients | | | | move. I must confess to you that I can be |
| who had a fractured hip, or they applied the | | | | very stubborn and just didn't get this whole |
| motion machines to those who had total knee | | | | PT bit, at all. I couldn't imagine how it |
| replacements or generally helped those who | | | | pertained to me. I thought he was just |
| were recovering get back on their feet. | | | | passing me off to get rid of me. I know. How |
| | | | stupid can you get? |
| After struggling with pain in my sitter, my | | | | |
| neck (accompanied by excruciating headaches) | | | | The first thing the PT did was to explain to |
| and a few other places, I still was unable to | | | | me that if I didn't move, my body was going |
| get an adequate diagnosis. I looked for and | | | | to become even more misshapen and useless. |
| found one of the best rheumatologists in the | | | | I'm sure that wasn't her word "useless," but |
| country, Dr. Rodney Bluestone. He had treated | | | | that was the general idea. I was having a |
| my oldest sister who had psoriatic arthritis | | | | great deal of neck pain from the long drive |
| and she got better. So I figured he must know | | | | down and felt as if my whole body was twisted |
| what he was doing. His practice was in | | | | from my head down to my always painful |
| Beverly Hills, which was three hours from | | | | behind. She directed me over to a |
| where we lived at the time. The trip was | | | | full-length mirror and had me look at myself. |
| gruesome, with the sit, the ride and the | | | | I was wearing a slip, and it was all too |
| damnable L.A. traffic. But he was well worth | | | | evident that my shoulders were not the same |
| it. His approach was a practical one of | | | | height. Funny, I had never noticed that |
| function. I had to keep moving even if we | | | | before. One shoulder was at least two inches |
| didn't have a name for this thing that had | | | | higher than the other. Right there before my |
| come to destroy my life. The local internist | | | | eyes, I was becoming that tangled mass of |
| I had been seeing belonged to the old school | | | | protoplasm. It was indeed happening. That was |
| of joint protection. That was the philosophy | | | | my day of conversion. That was the day I |
| which said, "If it hurts, let it rest." | | | | began to embrace physical therapy, faithfully |
| | | | following all of my PT's recommendations for |
| I began to suspect if I let it rest any | | | | daily stretches and moderate exercise. I went |
| longer, my husband would come home one day | | | | on and connected with a local physical |
| and find me a tangled mass of protoplasm! At | | | | therapist, and he followed Dr. Bluestone's |
| the time, my arms and legs were intertwined, | | | | protocol. |
| unable to even make it into the bathroom. I | | | | |
| was tired of lying down, loathed the constant | | | | Over the last 20 years, I have relapsed many |
| pain and felt completely ostracized from | | | | times, become lazy and let the whole movement |
| society. By the time I saw Dr. Bluestone, I | | | | thing slide, only to be brought back abruptly |
| was on my last nerve, dissolved into tears | | | | by the pain and suffering that ignoring my |
| just talking about myself. It's important to | | | | body brings. True, it's overused but the old |
| note that this doctor is British, and he has | | | | adage is painfully true, "If you don't use |
| a totally different idea about moving the | | | | it, you lose it. |
| joints. Thankfully, those same ideas are now | | | | |