Teleidoscope

Thu, Jan 24, 2008

Second PT Appointment

Posted at 11:39 pm MST to Exercise

Anne was amazed by how much my hip has improved in just a week. She said last time she had to do 5 major adjustments and this time only 2 minor ones. It seems really strange for my overweight, couch-potato body to be described as "very healthy" by a health professional who means it.

I think I actually have a trick hip the way some people have trick shoulders. Once it gets put back into place everything else pretty much falls into line like a row of dominoes.

From the comments of Marti, my massage therapist, and Anne, the physical therapist, I get the impression that most people don't pay atttention to what is going on inside their bodies, and a lot of people's bodies reject change.

Anne gave me a couple of exercises to do to help the hip finish healing and keep it from going out again. Morning and evening for a week, then as needed. Time to go do them...

Tomorrow morning I'll do the PT exercises, then start working my way back into the 'AM Yoga' routine

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Pedegg

Posted at 9:38 am MST to Exercise

I don't often buy gadgets from TV commercials. I think the last one was a pair of strap wrenches for the kitchen use (opening jars, etc.) back in 2002, which were actually purchased at an "As seen on TV" store in a mall.

But a few weeks ago an advertisement for a gadget called the Pedegg showed up on one of the channels I watch, and it looked like something that was exactly what I had been wanting.

My heels had gotten very calloused, and the callouses were cracked and gnarly and peeling. Ordinary heel files didn't make much of a dent in the problem in reasonable amounts of time, and spread skin shavings around.

I kept wishing there was a microplane style thing that would take off the callous more effectively, and a way to keep the shavings from going all over the place.

The Pedegg (mine arrived yesterday) does exactly what I wanted. It uses microplane-like cutters to take down the callous quickly, and catches the shavings inside itself to be discarded later.

In just a few minutes, callouses I had been struggling to control for months -- unsuccessfully -- were almost completely gone. If I wanted to wear pantyhose, I could do it without destroying them on the callouses.

And some sore spots on my left heel are gone. That heel had been in very bad shape. I think it calloused worse because the circulation was messed up on that side. And because the leg has been swollen and less flexible, it was hard to work on the callouses long enough with the ordinary heel file.

Now I have the Pedegg, and the flexibility and circulation of the left leg are improving since the PT session last week. It's still visibly different from the right one, but not as bad as it was. I can see some definition in the foot and ankle, and fold the leg underneath me in a way I haven't done in a while.

I had a massage session yesterday evening and Marti was amazed by the improvement. My legs are about the same length now, and the thigh and hips have lost most of their knots. The calf is improving, too, but still has lots of sore spots.

I have another PT session later this morning. I don't expect a lot more improvement, but I want to get some exercises that will help prevent the hip from getting out of whack again, and permission to get back into my routine of yoga and weightlifting. I've been being very careful for the past week.

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