TGIF

Had another session of physical therapy yesterday. I highly recommend this to everyone. This time I had 'heat', then massage, then someone stretching my limbs and back, and then more electrodes and ice. All quite lovely. Unfortunately the day went severely downhill from there. We had two long meetings to address the Dean's charge for us to come up with a strategic plan. The first one went ok, but the second had various participants (moi included) behaving quite badly. Some post meeting emails were circulated - fortunately I had the restraint not to join in that continuation of the awfulness. It is the usual conundrum of trying to figure out what to support, who to hire and so on when people really don't agree.
So, I am glad it is Friday evening. I am reading a mystery novel and listening to the din downstairs that is Catherine's 14th birthday party. They started out with a photo scavenger hunt which involved roaming the neighborhood in groups with digital cameras and a list of "must get shots". We have had pizza and ice cream cake and many of the girls will stay the night. The conversation seems focused on who will win American Idol next week and other super important questions.

The ageing body

I've come to the realization that I am an inveterate consumer of health care. Don't know whether this is a by-product of living in the good old USA and thinking, by golly, I better get some care, 40 million people don't, or just a natural result of ageing. The body falling apart and hence requiring more intervention... Those following my health (fascinating topic) will know I had the MRI a couple of weeks ago. It showed (always good that it shows something consistent with the pain) that I have disc degeneration... yikes... disc protrusion... OMG... and Schmorl's nodes... WTF?
All of this is in the thoracic region (at T-11 and T-12 for you in the know). Today I had my first physical therapy appointment with a lovely man called Tyler who clucked and agreed that I couldn't go on in my condition and we needed to get me sorted out. This involved today just learning some exercises and having electrodes and an ice pad applied to my back for 15 minutes. Next time I get to do more exercises and try out "traction". The whole PT practice is a jolly place full of people hooked up to various bits of equipment or doing odd things in the gym. There was one guy repetitively throwing a ball at a small trampoline. I thought repetitive motion was bad for you, but apparently in some cases it is the cure.