remember to exercise every day until my back & leg work right again

but good enough that i’m able to be fairly active again, without continually making accommodations for my back/leg/hip.

Done enough.

It hurts. Growing older is for the birds!

but a long way from 100%. I’m still judging my limits according to my pain level, & i think i may be for a while, unfortunately. However, there’s a fitness center with a pool in the building in which i’m now working. After having gotten a physical therapist to teach me some aquatherapy basics, i joined the fitness center today. Between using the weight machines for strengthening & using the pool for aerobic activity, maybe . . . just maybe . . . i’ll be able to get myself back into some kind of decent shape over the next few months!

my back is actually the primary problem. I don’t know that i’d be having knee problems at all if it weren’t for my back. So i reckon i need to change this goal, huh?

My physical therapist is a minion of Satan, but i’ll keep trying to follow her recommendations until i know for sure. She started today’s session by scalding my leg, then she did what she called “deep tissue massage,” which actually seemed to consist of her putting multiple icepicks through my leg. She showed me a few exercises, then brought out this medieval torture device that she called a “foam roller,” which felt like it was covered with thousands of dull needles when she had me drape myself across it and roll back and forth. She recommended that i get one of these evil contraptions (I actually tried to on my way home from work, but Dick’s didn’t have them.). Finally, she covered my poor, worked-over leg with ice, and recommended that i do the same at home.

I’ll see her again Thursday. She told me we would see whether it hurt as much then, and she laughed her evil physical-therapist cackle.

some way to remind myself to do this. I figure if it’s here, it’ll give me a little nudge every time i see it. Alternatively, i guess i could just write it on my hand & not wash it for the next four weeks.

I think i’ll stick with this option, at least until i get in the habit.