Officially on PT overload. I worked with a different therapist he other day. I have seen them off-and on when my primary PT isn't available - they are great. Some exercises I only do at appointments, vs. assigned ones I do both at visits and at home. Sometimes one works up to doing the exercises daily, usually 2x daily, 30 reps. Anyway, I've been asking for a band to practice some of the exercises, even if I'm not "required" to do them at home. This alternate therapist finally gave me a band to take home. Yay.
Usually I can remember all the different exercises, but I think I'm going to have to start writing them down to make sure I don't leave any out. Example: simple idea of doing shrugs and shoulder rolls. I'd forgotten about that. Maybe one doesn’t need to do 30, 2x a day, but once in a while would be a good idea.
I sat down and starting counting how many optional home exercises I have, and good grief! I have 7 assigned ones – non negotiable, that I need to do 30 repetitions, 2x a day. Some of these are slow and require a 3-5 second hold or stretch. It’s not as if one can do 30 reps in a minute. Add this to the 10 additional optional exercises. Half of them, I truly should do at least 20+ reps 2x a day. Holy cow! I don’t need any additional fitness exercise regimen. This isn't even counting the exercises I am supposed to do for my knees. Some of those fell by the way-size because #1 they involved laying on my side (not gonna happen until my arm is healed) or #2 made my hip so tense, and I can’t use my arms to assist the stretch they showed me to alleviate that. The knee exercises I need to do the rest of my life. Shoulder ones, hopefully not, but could reasonably expect another 4-6 months, or who knows. I saw something the otherday claiming rotator cuff surgery recovery could be 6-14 months. Glack.
I have to return back to work in-person in a couple of weeks, so I won’t be able to sneak in a set of 10 reps of this or that once in a while. I will also have great difficulty icing if I do get inflamed and painful. The surgeon's office recommended frequent breaks to ice, when I started working again. I was told if I did that, I would not be working full-time, and that would be a head-ache of paperwork proving inability to work FT. I finally negotiated taking a couple of smaller breaks. It works out ok since I've been working from home and the ice packs are right there. I still have to hunch in order to balance the ice on my shoulder if working at the same time. Velcro-straps excist, but it's harder to tack those down than you expect, if you only have one usable arm. I could bring ice packs to work, but they clear out the fridge/freezer daily. If I bring “real” re-useable icepacks, I’d have to truck those to and from work all the time. I was already thinking I might need a little wagon to simply carry my drinks and lunch. The doors are still too heavy for me to pull with my operative hand. I would need to set my bag and drink down, open the door, gather my things with one hand . . . I'm not looking forward to it. If we were to add a couple of 2-pound re-usable ice packs on top of that to my items to carry in . . . I may need a little red wagon to truck everything in.
Also when returning to the office: I’ll have to get up – what, about an hour earlier, to get as much PT done as I can? It's 2x a day, and I feel pretty awful in the morning if I don't do it. Without tacking on the last 10 exercises, I’ve noted that 30 minutes early is not enough to get everything done. (thus occasionally sneaking in a few reps at the same time as getting a glass of water or such).
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