Reality Set In

Yesterday while most folks were picnicking and stuff, I went to physical therapy. In the last week or so, I've been picking up marbles with my toes. The capturing and picking up part isn't difficult. But the lifting my leg to place the marble in a cup...well, that hip joint has been screaming.

So, yesterday the therapist started me on a new exercise. And started is the operative word. It sounds very simple. Stand against the wall with your feet about shoulder width apart. Now alternate lifting your legs until the thighs are level with the floor. Repeat thirty times.

Right. I thought this will be a piece of cake.

Not so fast.

First of all, every time I lifted a leg, I leaned in the opposite direction to compensate. Not good for the ankle. I was supposed to stand straight. Instead, I was swaying like a drunk sailor in a hurricane.

Then I discovered a serious fear of falling. I panicked and grabbed the back of a nearby chair, shocked that this simple exercise was so difficult. Surely, I couldn't be that badly out of shape!

Things went downhill from there. Sweat poured down my face. Twice my hip joints seemed to lock up and I couldn't even lift my legs. I couldn't seem to keep my feet apart as I kept compensating, trying to maintain my balance.

After struggling through about fifteen sets, trembling with effort, my therapist halted the exercise. Then she firmly pointed out the issues. At some point in my past, I started making my ankles do the work instead of my hips. No doubt a series of falls added to my issues.

But the main part...I'm woefully out of shape. If I want to be mobile in my immediate future, then I'm gonna have to do the exercises--including a few more tortuous ones--every day, twice a day.

Otherwise, it won't be just the ankles that suffer.

So. Marbles? Piece of cake.

Leg lifts? Murder.

And I have to confess I'm not real happy about that. It's easy to drift along, slowly sinking into every bad habit out there. Easy to say, "I'll worry about that tomorrow." But it's not so easy when you have it staring in your face.

If I'm not around so often, just bear with me. I'm off doing leg lifts, picking up marbles, trying to reclaim my life.

anny