Leslee - Dec 16 2025
Outpatient Physical Therapy Begins: What I Learned, What I Struggled With, and What’s Next
My new Physical therapist is Dan, who is great!
Today he had me do all sorts of activities in order to assess where I am in my progress. We did walking tests, stairs tests, stopping and starting, strength assessments, and lots of balance evaluation. Oh, and speed tests, which weren’t my strong point. In fact, my strength was my only really strong point. I scored a total of 14 out of 30 as a whole, and my biggest problems were with balance, speed, and stopping/starting. That’s where my brain signals glitch and take a hot minute to get through. Well let me tell you I was disappointed for a microsecond, because I always think I’ve progressed more than I actually have. But then the determined part of me kicked in, so now IT IS ON!
After PT we stopped at a store to look at Christmas stuff, and I decided to use my cane. The real world is treacherous, my friends. Without a controlled environment, my balance was not pretty, my brain glitches were frequent, and I wasn’t up to the pivots and maneuvers required in a crowd of bodies. People were very kind and tried to be accommodating, but there’s only so much you can do when the masses are in a hurried buying frenzy. I lasted a half hour before I grasped onto Dave and whisper-yelled “get me outta here!” It was exhausting, and probably I’ll never go shopping in public again.
What I learned in PT and after
- There is no pass or fail. Any progress is a win.
- Always engage your transverse abdominus muscles before doing core exercises and maintain the engagement throughout. We call it zipping your hooha! (Pull your belly button in and engage pelvic floor)
- Do not forget to breathe.
- If you are not wobbling during balance training, you need to make it harder. Challenge yourself by closing your eyes or adding movement.
- The most important measurements for health while aging are VO2 Max and HRV. More on those after I do some research!
- Be patient with yourself, but don’t give up and become a couch creature covered in Cheetos dust either.
- Be patient and kind to people in public with some sort of disability. You don’t know how hard/scary it might be for them to be out and about with some sort of physical, mental, sensory, etc problem. And you never know when it might be you
