Water Therapy

I saw John, the PA who assisted with my surgery, instead of Novotny because he was operating today.  He gave me the cutting jigs that were custom-made for my bones as a weird little souvenir.  They actually have my name engraved on them.  He showed me on a model how they were put on, and how the cuts were made.  All was well, and I go back in two months for more xrays.  I asked the all-important question - can I swim?  OK, I was pretty sure the answer would be yes, so I had my suit on under my clothes.  It was OK'd, and he said the hot tub wouldn't hurt, either.  YAY!!!!

I could hardly wait to get out to the gym.  I had to unpause my membership, which seemed to take forever, and then I was free!  I didn't take my goggles or any other equipment, since I didn't intend to swim swim.  I had designed a walking/stretching routine for myself that I could do in the shallow side of the pool, which took maybe an hour all together (including a 10 min warmup in the hot tub first, and another 15 min afterward).  It felt so good to be in the water, though, that it was hard to not do more.  It wouldn't have been very smart, though, since I have therapy in the morning.

After I was good and warmed up, I tried a few laps of breaststroke with a (gentle) frog kick.  It was a little tight, sure, but none of that grinding pain that I had before.  Hardly any actual pain, in fact.  I had to keep reminding myself that this was my first day back.  I'm curious to see how I feel tomorrow and how it will affect therapy. Better? Worse? I'm taking my iPod with me tomorrow because the pain of the stretching is getting to a point where I can't "breathe" it away.  I'm hoping the iPod will distract me enough to make it more bearable.

Turns out that the pool will be closed from Oct 27-Dec 3 for a major remodel.  I can refreeze my membership again then if I can't do anything else at the gym (like the machines) by then.

Insight:
Overall, this whole process has been so "nothing", compared with breaking my ankle, that if a day ever comes that I need the other one done, I will not hesitate to do it.  Looking back, it kind of bothers me how much time I spent trying to deny this problem, or minimizing it, while it obviously was so bad that I constantly mentioned it in journals, emails, etc.  I should have accepted that, like a cavity, it can't get better unless it is fixed.  It will not heal on its own.