redbird: me with purple hair (purple)
( Apr. 30th, 2012 05:38 pm)
I had a reasonably good PT session, I think, though when I asked the therapist if she could give me advice on good ways of moving to protect the elbow, she didn't have anything offhand. Apparently that's more an occupational therapy thing, and what I got last fall for the possible carpal tunnel should do the job, assuming I actually do it: it's too easy for me to rest my wrists without thinking about it, and my "keep the wrists in the air" seems to easily lead to either elbow on armrest, or touching the edge of the desk with my forearms a couple of inches behind the wrists. (The latter seems to be my default position when using my own computer, at this point.) On the other hand, the PT suggested a flat keyboard, not any of the unusual ones that are supposed to be ergonomic; the advantage of this is it's what I'm doing anyway, after unsuccessful attempts to find an ergonomic keyboard that was at least as good as the plain one I got at Staples).

Also, it's not clear how many more PT sessions I'll get; it turns out I had remembered correctly, and the approval ran out Friday. Melanie says that if they file the request for more today, it will almost certainly be approved, as of today, so it will dover this morning's session. In any case, my next appointment isn't until next week (because of my other plans and because other patients of theirs had already booked the slots I could have used Wednesday).

After PT, I got a cup of tea and then went down to the gym. A good workout; looking around I saw the gym has an arm bike like the one I've been using as part of my PT. Something else to ask Emilie about: would this count as cardio for me? (The designers clearly think it is, and the gym has put it with the cardio bikes, but I may not be using it at that intensity, and that isn't my goal here.)

the rest is just numbers )
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I've been carrying around a prescription for physical therapy for my left elbow for a while. I had my first appointment today. One of the smaller things that delayed this was wrestling with health insurance company web stuff, since the PT I used years ago for my shoulder isn't in my network. (Annoying, since I liked them and they're four blocks from my house, rather than 2 or 3 subway stops plus the longer walk to the subway.) But I found a few possibles, and made an appointment last week.

This time was evaluation/consultation, a combination of getting me to describe the history and effects, and some more hands-on evaluation. My tennis elbow is apparently atypical, and when I mentioned the also-atypical "maybe it is/was carpal tunnel" thing from last fall, the therapist said she'd been going to ask if I was having such symptoms. In any case, the therapist (who is named Melanie) she thinks she can do useful things with massage, heat, and teaching me some exercises. Unfortunately, her only available appointment this week was 9 a.m. Friday. I took it, but asked the receptionist to call me later in the day either Wednesday or Friday (the therapist works three days/week).

In the meantime, the elbow is bothering me some. I suspect this is connected to some of the diagnostic stuff Melanie did, which included asking me to push as hard as possible in certain directions, and resist her pushing on my arms, and rotating the elbow to see whether/where it hurt. I think NSAIDs may be in order here (this entry is revised/expanded from email I wrote a couple of hours ago, which means the pain isn't going away on its own.)

The therapist hasn't given me any limitations on activity, except the fairly straightforward one that, if I exercise before PT, I not do arm/upper body exercises, because the therapist doesn't want that part of my body to already be tired. But on other days, or after PT if I have the energy, fine. (And cardio, lower body, and core stuff is fine before PT.)
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