Let's Get Physical

So, I am back in Physical Therapy...again. Actually I have been for several weeks now.

This has been an ongoing 'chore' since I was seventeen. In and out of who-knows-how-many therapists' offices at this point.

I guess I shouldn't call it a 'chore'. I asked for it, and have for the past three years. While I am not convinced that it does me much good, it gets me moving, allows for some much-needed muscle masssage and helps a little with the stiffness that almost cripples me some days.

The sad part is that, once I actually do start feeling some progress....I get cut off. They tell me I am 'better' and that there isn't much more they can do.

"Do your exercises at home", is a line that I have heard over and over. Let's be honest. Even the most die-hard, determined individual is going to slack-off when it comes to participating in boring, painful and hard-to-accomplish exercises on their own.

I never keep up with them.

My therapist commented on my muscles just last week, surprised at how stiff they actually are.

"I can't hardly tell if this is muscle or bone", he remarked.

Which gets me to the main point for writing this entry.

Our nation is currently at a dire moment in its history---in my opinion. There are millions of people living daily without medical insurance, with lots of pain, and going broke because of it. It's an embarrassment, as far as I am concerned. Considering that we claim to be such a powerful and [somewhat] progressive nation, why are we allowing people to DIE because they don't have money to LIVE?

No one should have to live in pain, be sick or DIE because they don't have medical insurance. I think the number was somewhere around 122 people per day whose lives cease to exist because of someone else's greed.

Is this what we have come to? We are nothing more than a nation of kings and serfs. We are going backwards rather than forward.

So everytime I rant about the lack of help and/or relief that physical therapy really provides for me, I must stop myself. At least I am getting it. At least I am being given the chance to feel better, to get those massages, to lay on that amazingly warm heating pad. When I am released this time around, I WILL stick to my stretches and continue to work on my horrific posture.

I owe it to those who are not so fortunate.