I’m very pleased with the outcome of seeing the Physical Therapist yesterday. He asked questions, tested various positions of hand, arm, and leg strength, and had me give him a detailed explanation of the exercises I have been doing. He asked about my daily routine, and from all that conversation showed me how to modify some of the moves I was doing wrong, showed me how to do some additional exercises, and made a plan for me to follow for the next month.

Instead of doing all my exercises in the morning, he wants me to do 12 sets of everything in the morning, plus 10 minutes of the bicycle and a couple of turns around the outside of the house. Then I am to do it all again in the afternoon, but only do 8 sets. He did say I was doing too much at one time, the way I had been doing 3 sets of ten.

He completely changed the way I had been doing squats and lunges, and made some suggestions to slightly modify a few of the upper body sets. He seemed very confident that he could help me, and appeared to be ready and willing to see me monthly to monitor my improvement and suggest changes as appropriate.

Medicare has a limit of about $1800 and 15 visits a year, and my Blue Cross only allows 15 visits, but I don’t think they put a price limit on it. So seeing him once a month for the rest of this year should work just fine.

He did veto the idea of getting a treadmill, saying it was too dangerous. He showed me how to sit behind the exercise bicycle and use it almost like a recumbent bike, so my coccyx wouldn’t flare up again. My tail bone is still tender from my efforts on our bicycle at home.

Our exercise bike at the house has a big fan like rear flywheel. It’s too big for me to be able to use our bike the way he suggested, so I pulled out the little portable foot and arms exerciser I had bought to use with my mother after she broke her hip, and I may be able to make do with it.

We will have to buy some ankle weights for one of the exercises, which is specifically for Myoclonus! That was quite a shock!! I can do it just fine barefoot, but we’ll see what happens with a little weight resistance.

I’ve done my set of 12 this morning, with two sets of Tai Chi, about 5 minutes on the foot cycle, and walked around the house 3 times. The foot cycle is very awkward, and it doesn’t take long for my legs to start hurting, so I’ll have to work at that.

I’m quite excited about being able to take charge of this aspect of my treatment, and I’m looking forward to the positive results of increasing my activity level.