Just trying to kill some time here, before leaving to go to my first aquatic PT appointment. Hope it does me some good. I'm really just more excited about the chance to go get wet and go swimming, even if I'm just doing whatever exercises they give me.

The pool looked kind of neat in the brochure they gave me. The pool has a floor that lifts up, so you can walk out onto the pool floor (I guess some people roll out there), and then they lower it down so you're in the water. I cant tell from the picture if it's the entire pool floor that does that, or if it's just one spot off to the side in the pool that lifts and lowers..black & white photography (or just crappy Xeroxed brochure)

The pool is 93 degrees. So I hope the heat doesnt suck all my swimming energy out of me. I'm just excited to go get into a pool. If I could, I'd run out into the pool and cannonball into it. (but then they wouldnt think I need PT, and well, I cant cannonball into the pool anyways)

If I dont drown myself, I'll post back how fun it was, or if I hated it because they made me exercise instead of letting me just swim back and forth. I'm all excited tho!! I get to go swimming!!!

Erin,

I'm glad you get to go to the pool and have some PT. Make sure to come back and let us know how it goes.

ANN

Do they have pool seats that lower you into the water? I want a full report when you get home.

Have fun!!!!

I didnt see any pool seat lifts, but I was kind of overwhelmed at how busy it was when I got there. They did have a ramp that they were walking people up and down, and I saw one waterproof wheelchair get rolled down that. I did see some sort of underwater construct on one side of the pool that I think might have been the floor lifty thing, but I didnt see it used, but we kept having to walk around it. Not sure if it was the lifty part, but it was right next to the traditional pool ladder.

I'll have to look at the ceiling and see if they had something with lifts on them, or at the other end of the pool. (they had an exercise class going on at one end, so I didnt really see a lot at that end)

Walked down the ramp, and the water is nearly body temp...it felt so good!! Didnt have that super chlorinated smell that the 24hr Fitness that I'd been going to has. It really felt great to be in that water, it was warm, not quite bathwater warm...teeny bit cooler than I'd do if I was in a bathtub.

The exercises the PT had me do were similar to the ones I'd done at traditional non-H2o physical therapy. Walking side to side, walking backwards, marches. I actually had fun. Told the PT that it was fun working with her. She said not many people think physical therapy is fun, but she occasionally gets people like me who love the water so much that they dont care that they're exercising. I told her that if I could run, I'd be doing cannonballs into the pool. She said she hopes I get back to the point where I can do that. (I'll create a tsunami if I do that tho...)

I asked her if they ever have a "free swim" time. She said no, but they do have memberships to their pool. You can get a membership (free the first month, $18 the 2nd month, and then about $35 after that) and they have exercise classes you can join that are (I think) included in the membership. I may just drop my membership to 24hr Fitness (about $30) and join the water fitness classes later on.

I was doing pretty good until she was helping me walk up the ramp out of the pool. That's when gravity got really really strong and I felt like I was made of not-quite-set-up-still-mostly-liquid-Jello. I think that was the first time I ever felt like the Energy Vampires sent from the MS Trolls in my head had visited me after being in warm/hot water.

They supply towels, and you can take as many as you need/want, so I was a towel hog and used a bunch. They kept them in heated shelves right next to the entrance to the locker rooms. Yay! Warm towels!

I think I only get 8 more visits to the pool on the Rx my doctor gave me, but he said I can ask for more if I want, or I can go do traditional PT after I'm done with this. I'm really really tired now, and feel like a overcooked wet noodle, but it WAS really really really fun. Felt amazing to be in that water. Probably the best I've felt since all this crap started was being in that water. Now I'm just waiting for all the pulled muscles and stiffness to hit me later after moving around so much for the first time in two months. (cant believe this crap has been going on for nearly two months! Feels longer)

I go tuesdays and thursdays. So, I cant wait till thursday now. I was dreaming about swimming last night, and doing the real thing today was much better than the dream. Cant wait till thursday! Finally, something to look forward to. Yay!

Thanks for the report Erin. Glad you had fun.
My PT in the hospital was fun too. even though it hurt like @#$%!

This sounds great, Erin. I'm glad it went well and that you now look forward to it! Goody. Plan to use the pool sound good too.

ANN

Right after I posted that last post, I fell asleep for something like a half hour, 45 minutes. So tired!! We stopped for dinner on the way home, so the tummy full of tasty greek souvlaki (shishkabobs) might have had something to do with having to sleep.

I now have a pulled muscle in my right hip (that's the weak side) That actually feels kind of good. Better than numbness (which I'm also feeling) Just really really tired now. Felt good to be moving around some.

I asked today about the pool floor, and looked around a bit more. The pool floor really does move. I didnt find out how deep they can make it (forgot to ask) but when they have patients that have to stay in a wheelchair, they can make the pool less shallow. (water came up to my chest, and I'm 5 foot 4, so they would have to be able to make it more shallow for people in chairs)

Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself saying this, but I feel better today. (sometimes if I say I feel better, the next day or so, I'll feel like total crap or worse again. Knock on wood that doesnt happen) I've actually been able to stagger around in my basement without the rollator OR the cane some, as long as I go from piece of furniture to the wall, to piece of furniture.

The hospital I'm doing the PT at is a Catholic hospital...maybe they had a priest bless the water in the pool or something? (kidding!! a little...)

I noticed stuff that makes the numbness worse. When I eat, the numbness will go from my stomach on down into my thighs. Gotta wonder if that's the heat of the food making me numb. (maybe I need to eat cold foods for awhile?) Plus, I seemed to get weaker in the legs when that happens. Really weird.

The pool at our rehab center is heated, and I got MS sick each time I went in it, even tho at the start the warm water felt so good. They wont let me back in it. I am glad its helping you.

I feel tired at the end of PT, but as soon as I get out of the warm water and the cool air (compared to the pool) hits me, I cool off fairly quickly. I usually go sit in one of the changing rooms with my wet suit and t-shirt on me for a few minutes cooling off in the soggy t-shirt before I try changing back into street clothes.

I'm feeling an ache in my arms and shoulders and chest today from yesterday's PT. It was "work on upper body strength day". Upper body isnt thrilled with me right now. (pulled muscles!)

I just canceled tomorrow's appointment for PT because I was sick this morning. Since I'm not sure if it was food poisoning, viral or if it was a result of doing so much activity yesterday, the PT and then doing a ton of walking after getting that AFO. I'm feeling fine right now. Tired, but not feeling sick like I did this morning. But, just in case it was viral I dont want to take it back up to the PT pool with me. So I'm taking a break tomorrow.

Kind of think I did too much. I've been sitting on my butt for two months, and yesterday I did a lot of walking compared to what I've been doing. I may have just over done it and my body didnt like me much for it. (my dad has a little theory that my blood pressure was a little high or something this morning. (my BP has been a little high lately. Thinking it's had something to do with the edema I've had since the oral prednisone)

They gave me "homework" exercises to do, so I think I'll do those tomorrow around the time I'd be at PT. I bought wrist/ankle weights (only 1 pound each) think I'll wear those on my wrists later today and see what kind of fun I can have with the resistance rubber bands tomorrow.


I did ask more questions about the pool yesterday. They told me the pool floor can go down to a depth of 5 or 6 feet, and all the way flush with the floor that's around the pool. It's the only pool in town that can do this, and they said it's the only one between Chicago and the West Coast like this. I told them that if I ever win a Powerball jackpot, I'm going to build one of these pools and then build a house around it. I really love that pool!

They have waterproof remote controls for using some timers hanging on the walls, and they have water resistant laptop computers for some other stuff. (still not sure what the little laptops do)