South of the Border…

Well, not quite but close enough. I just got back from a nice change of scenery in Arizona. I left Boston and its 50 degree weather for the sunny 107 degree days in Arizona. Dry heat or not, 107 degrees is HOT!! I lasted about 10 minutes outside before I began to drip. Fortunately everything is air conditioned so I really didn’t suffer all that much. And plus it was sunny every day, and it’s hard not to enjoy that! Got to spend lots of time in the water too. Every day, twice a day I went into the pool to do my exercises – and because I felt so good, I doubled my usual rep, but didn’t overdo it, though I definitely felt it somewhat in the muscles. My left leg also felt better as I wasn’t depending on it as much, so all in all it was a good trip for me. Oh yea, I also got to spend time with Mom and Dad which is always a treat and they were happy to see me looking so much better than I did in April when they were here.

For those of you who remember my last trip to Arizona included a lovely stop at a border patrol station where I excited a drug sniffing dog with my narcotic stash in my pocket. This time I made sure I had my opium in a bottle with a prescription label, but forgot about the narcotics in the pill box in my purse. Fortunately border patrol was too busy following George W’s orders on the Mexican border to have anyone at the station so we got by without any problems. Whew…Not sure how I would have talked my way out of it this time, though my brace and crutches probably would have helped a little. I think my parents were ready to strangle me when I mentioned the pills sans prescription in my purse. I was ready to just take them all (there were only 4….) and sleep through the whole escapade. And now because I’m posting this on a public site, I’m guessing I’m probably on some government watch list.

I do have some good news to report. My days of water exercises seemed to have had an effect on my quad muscle. I had physical therapy on Monday and the PT asked me to lift my leg off the mat, knowing full well that I couldn’t do this when he had last seen me. Neither of us had any reason to suspect this time would be any different, but I humored him and tried it. Whoa!! We were both shocked when I managed to get my leg a few inches off the mat. I figured it was a fluke, but I tried a few more times and each time it was shaky, but I was definitely lifting it. I also could do a few other movements that I couldn’t do before. The quad muscle is still barely working, but this was a huge step. I had been at the same level for at least 4 weeks and was beginning to get discouraged, but this got me going again. We were all surprised and aren’t sure if it was the water exercises or what, but I definitely have made some progress. Now I just need to find a local pool to continue my progress – perhaps I’ll talk Pat into putting one into our new backyard.

Gotta run, we close on the house on Friday and haven’t even begun to pack yet, though we probably won’t move for a few weeks. Some painting and other stuff to do first.