Physical Therapy (Part 1 in a miniseries)

On today’s episode of Angie’s physical therapy session, we learn what is wrong with Angie’s back.

Angie walked to the physical therapy facility after doing her cardio workout at the nearby gym. She bought her work bag, containing her laptop with her, although she thought it would have been better to leave it locked up at the gym.

She walked in with her menagerie of bags and greeted the receptionist in a very chipper mood for a gloomy Tuesday morning. She proceeded to fill out paperwork and ask whether the facility had a shower (which it did not!) and then sat to read The New Yorker cartoons while waiting for the evaluation with the physical therapist.

After a few moments the physical therapist called her over to an office. The office contained a massage table and a few chairs with a couple of physical representations of spinal columns. The physical therapist asked Angie about the pain.

Angie told the physical therapist (Lily) that a couple of weeks ago, Angie had rolled out of bed and felt the worst pain imaginable in her back – like a monster grabbed at her back and squished her muscles together. After the sudden traumatic event, Angie was able to get out of bed and walk around. Heck, she even went to the gym. Angie continued to tell the Lily that her pain was mostly at night while she slept. After her pain medication wore off, Angie would wake up in pain and not be able to sleep.

Lily then asked Angie to do a couple of things:
1) To touched her toes
2) To twist her back from left to right and back
3) To slide her arms down each side of her body
4) To squat
5) To curve and concave her spine

Angie was able to do everything but not within the acceptable range of motion. Lily made Angie walk while she watched her. She then followed this exercise by making her walk really fast and to then run.

Angie got on a table where Lily did a number of tests to see how strong Angie was to resist actions. Basically, it wasn’t so good.

The diagnosis: Angie’s core muscles, especially her abdominals, were taxed too much and her back overcompensated for this fatigue by pulling at her back muscle – creating a muscle spasm/pulled muscle. This was so bad that it was slowly moving to her hips. Lily was very happy to inform Angie that it was only muscular and her injury didn’t involve her nerves. She told her to come back twice a week for 6 weeks and that she would help Angie to get her muscles back in line and correct the issues that had caused this in the first place.

Lily adjusted Angie’s spine, which scared and then relieved her. While massaging her back, Angie whimpered because she was in pain.

And that my friends is what happened in therapy today. Tune in later this week for more progress and insights into pulled back muscles.