Like a Fish

Or, well, maybe more like a slow, round, happy (and cute!) manatee . . . .

Yep, I went swimming today!

About 24 hours after the neurologist said that not only were there no lesions on my spinal cord (and btw, that ALS patients don't get lesions and that MS patients get spinal lesions after brain ones, and therefore after symptoms. If we'd only known. And if the ortho hadn't made stuff up.), the discs the ortho said were herniating are so far from anything that they aren't the source of my pain. It's all muscular. Additionally, he said that because I went for close to 40 years with little difficulty with my recently-diagnosed scoliosis that I am not likely to have too much severe trouble down the line. Lastly, he said it was important to strengthen and stretch my back muscles (i.e. continue PT) and to continue to lose weight.

So I went swimming today after consulting with my PT about best practices.

I'm not swimming laps right now. Not total laps anyway. I swim half, walk half, and then do some stretches in the water. Ending the whole thing, just for fun, with floating. And then I'm supposed to take several days off, until next Tuesday, before I try it again.

But I went (at 4 pm today, with the bikini-clad high school girls and, arriving separately, these extremely buff men--I could tell without my glasses, across the pool--maybe off-duty police/firefighters? Is the pool the afternoon hot spot?). And enjoyed it. And was glad to be back.

I'll be even more glad if I can lift my arms in the morning.