Chapter 3: After Physical Therapy, Then What?

My time with physical therapy ended around the same time things began to heat back up for school in the fall. I had gotten to the point that I was walking without a brace on my knee even though I was still struggling to walk any more than a short distance. I also struggled mightily with balance. This is something they began to work with me on during physical therapy yet I still had a long way to go.

Before the fall, I had gotten to the point that escalators made me uncomfortable especially going down. The feeling of something moving under my feet was more than I could manage. After the fall, this progressed to being escalator phobic. I would actually walk further to avoid the escalators at the mall. I would wait in line with all of the moms with babies in strollers for the elevator. Of course, I could have used the stairs but for some reason that didn't occur to me. I came to realize that balance was a major issue that I had to overcome in order to keep progressing.

I started to look for ways to remain active. The physical therapist had started me with using a Total Gym. I decided that one piece of equipment had potential for helping me to remain active so I began to look for a Total Gym I could afford. I finally found the exact same model that I had been used to using at the store so I purchased it. Once it was set up, I watched the instructional video and read through the directions. I got on to try some upper body exercises and could not believe how weak I was. When did that happen? The fall I experienced impacted my knee, not my upper body. The strength I had once known was now gone. How depressing! My daughter and son are both athletic and have used equipment similar to this before. I decided they would need to help me get acclimated to using it. Both worked with me for quite some time until I decided it was going to take more than what they could do.

I kept looking for things that could help me with my goal of staying active. The school I teach at is a very unique place. We have facilities there you might not typically see in a private Christian school. One such facility is an aquatics center. One day an email found its way to my inbox. The email stated that a group of female faculty members were getting together to do water aerobics twice a week after school. Yes! This, I felt, just might be an answer to prayer. I quickly responded and that day went to purchase the few items I would need in order to participate.

Water aerobics was really good for my knee. After each session, I felt great about myself even though half of the things we did I really couldn't do very well. My range of motion was not what it needed to be and my stamina for physical activity was close to nill. Still, I was there and I was trying. I had sought out a solution to help me remain active. This in and of itself represented significant progress.

When November came around, the stress of operating a school took over most of us and our group fizzled out. I had two good months of participating regularly in the water aerobics classes. Now, however, I was back where I had been in August. I continued to look for activities that might help me stay active. One day while attending a function in my neighborhood, I met Erica, a neighbor and personal trainer. I talked to her about my recent past and took her information. After that event, I went home and told my husband that I wanted sessions with her for Christmas. Little did I know, she would become key to my future. At that point, I didn't think about Erica again until I opened my Christmas present from my husband.