Lilacs and lily of the valley, and knee PT

[redbird]

Yesterday, cattitude and I went to the Harvard Arboretum to look at and sniff lilacs. We were a bit late: a lot of the bushes had few flowers left, and some of the rest had almost no scent. Unfortunately, the lilacs that bloom latest are a variety whose scent I don't like. Also, Cattitude had some problems with the pollen even though he had taken an antihistamine, and I will probably have to make this trip without him next year. (adrian_turtle has expressed interest.)

On our way out, we passed a fine patch of lily of the valley, and enjoyed that scent (which neither of us are allergic to. This past weekend, Cattitude found an allegedly lily of the valley flavored macaron at the patisserie in Davis Square. I thought it just tasted sweet, he said there was a floral note that reminded him of soap, and we didn't eat the last bit. It's an artificial flavor, of course—all parts of the plant are considered poisonous—and I was partly just curious as to what the creator thought lily of the valley should taste like.

I have an appointment at Mount Auburn Hospital on Friday. There is a very fine patch of lily of the valley in a small parklike area between Mount Auburn Street and Memorial Drive, which I plan to visit before, after, or possibly both, depending how the timing goes.

The physical therapist added two new exercises, one of which I will be doing at home (it involves a foam roller, which I have) and one I won't (it uses the kind of adjustable-height steps that some gyms have). So in addition to alking at least 2 km yesterday and 1.3 today, I did the equivalent of about three flights of stairs at PT, albeit relatively slowly and carefully.

Then I went to Tosci's for a hot fudge sundae, which accounts for at least two thirds of today's walking. I think it was worth it.

(I had been planning to write mostly about the PT, but I started talking about the Arboretum, and that was more interesting.)

I now have twenty-one distinct PT-related exercises that I am supposed to do regularly, for my right shoulder, hips, and left knee. Fortunately, the hip and knee stuff overlap, so I have things I am doing six days a week with the left leg, and every other day with the right. I was doing fine at seventeen, and I think with nineteen (I've only had a few days to test that), but I don't know whether this is now too many.

Comments

[anne]

Ping me next year? I live very close.

[redbird]

I have dropped a note to ping you if lilacs onto my calendar for May 2, 2019 (which is before I'd actually be going, so useful).

[sine_nomine]

Sounds like too many to me! Maybe you can talk to the PT folks about "hi... surely some of the reasons for some of these overlap; what can we cut out?" and "Hi... what of my daily moving about cuts out/down the need for some of this"??

That said I just re-started PT and he gave me like 8 things to do at home - many twice a day (and one that he literally said and emphasized and re-emphasized I should do 100 reps of - which is to say scatter it throughout the day). Going to be adding in spine and then both knees and yeah, I'll likely be up to some insane number too. Will have to start scheduling serious time to do said work.

Good luck!!!

[redbird]

(Unfortunately?) in this case the main reason for most of the PT is to help with the moving around. Walking is also supposed to strengthen the hips, but first I had to strengthen them so walking a few blocks isn't usually painful.

All the shoulder stuff is long-term maintenance; I last had PT for that when we were living in Bellevue a few years ago. I can reduce the frequency on that a bit, but having had PT for rotator cuff problems twice, I'm really hoping not to need it again.

This is not the main reason why I am mostly retired and not actively seeking freelance work right now, but it does mean I'm glad to be able to afford that.

[minoanmiss]

Yay for lily of the valley!

I'm a bit meh on the macaron as a concept, though. There are many fine edible flowers, like jasmine and elderflower.

[redbird]

My favorite edible flower is violet (and Caramel, the patisserie in question, sometimes has violet macarons). I have some elderflower and lemon herb tea; I like some blends with mint and chamomile, even though I'm meh on plain chamomile tea and dislike plain mint.

[minoanmiss]

Violets do taste magical!

[bibliofile]

I am kind of in awe at your being able to keep track of all the PT stuff. (I'd have to use spreadsheets & checklists; you don't say whether you do or not.) Still, I like that there are specific things you can do to keep your body more functional. Another advantage to living in the future.

Lily of the valley! One of my favorite harbingers of spring/summer.

[redbird]

I used to just keep a list, grouped into two- or three-day chunks (see below for an example), but since I started on the hip PT I have a spreadsheet: rows for exercises, with a column for each day. So, the list will say something like "row, black elastic, 3x12" and the spreadsheet entry becomes "3 sets." The spreadsheet is so I can take a quick look and see if there's something I haven't done recently.

Before that, I was writing my exercise numbers down on corners of newspaper, then transcribing them to text files when I got home from the gym.

A random exercise note from a couple of years ago:

row yellow 3x12
external rotation blue {12, 10, 10} each
calf raises 3x15
internal rotation red 3x12 each
Serratus 3x10
Crunches 3x20
lateral raises 600g 3x11 each

7/30: shrugs yellow 3x12