Physical therapy update...

I am entering week 5 of my physical therapy experience and finding it actually working. I have, for a variety of reasons had to deal with physical therapy many times through out my life and didn't really get much out of it. But I was desperate this go around as every step I took was painful and when my feet weren't touching anything they hurt even more. During the night, when I would get up to use the bathroom, I would be hunched over and walking so horribly that I literally thought I looked like an ape bumbling from one tree to another on the ground instead of swinging effortlessly on a vine from point A to point B. Other nights I would hurt so bad that I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get where I needed to go and after awhile with the pain spreading to my calves and knees, I could no longer crawl anywhere. Even lying in bed was painful...I began to realize that no place were my feet safe. After getting shots, orthodics and taking medications to decrease the inflammation...I relented and finally started going to physical therapy.

I go twice a week to Olympic Physical Therapy where I have found the most amazing physical therapist...Erin. She really knows her shit. Er, she is extremely knowledgeable and fluent in various ways to treat my problems as well as ways to alter exercises and treatments to my individual needs. She is able to manipulate my body in ways I thought impossible, granted it does hurt but I have noticed a change in my pain. I used to hurt all the time, hovering between a 6 and 9 on a Likert Scale...now it's mostly 4 and 7. I don't walk with such a huge limp, I spend less time hurting, and am able to walk with limited pain for the most part. She is AMAZING. In fact the entire crew there does a great job, and one of them, Lacy, is a roller derby girl called Carmen Getsome...she skates for the Rat City Rollergirls. I can't wait to go to a game or two and watch her take some people down.

Anyway, Erin is patient and gentle with my body and yet each time adds a little twist to my exercises and treatment to make my feet and legs get better. She is by far the best therapist I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I actually have input into my goals, she listens to my concerns and treats me like a person and not just an object. Which makes me think about my job...do I treat my clients like they are human beings or do I treat them as problems that must be solved? I am stunned by the amount of small things that create major pondering on my part and how applicable those thoughts and quandaries are to so many aspects of my life both personally and professionally. Do I treat people with respect? Do I listen...I mean really listen to my clients? Other staff? Do I let the clients direct their treatment or do I tell them how it is going to go because I'm the therapist?

It appears that while my hips, legs and feet are getting therapy of their own...my life is also getting their own kind of therapy. While difficult things come up and often pose deeper quandaries, I find it an experience that is worthwhile, necessary and good for me. I wonder if Erin has any idea of what having physical therapy with her has created? And would she even understand the psychological perspective with which I view my world?