I was at the newish Tri-City Hospital Wellness Center today. This is in Carlsbad, CA and serves as a physical therapy and rehab center for patients along with being an 'open-to-the-public' club membership. It is a beautiful and upscale facility, not at all what I encounter in my life.
I was there to be evaluated by a physical therapist because I want nerve pain injection blocks in my neck to the right side of my cervical fusion.
But, the providers are not ready to okay this yet.
The physical therapist was excellent and took a long time with me. The exam room looked out over a 25 meter four-lane pool below us, so we talked swimming a bit. She is a more-than-recreational swimmer; she's mainly a pool swimmer but also does some ocean swimming too. As she examined my neck, discussed strengthening exercises, and showed me how to improve my neck strength to decrease future pain, she pointed out a woman below swimming with a mask and snorkel. She pointed a few different swimmers out and talked about how their necks, heads, and shoulders were moving or not. Her take-home lesson for me was to try the snorkel to cut down on the pressure and twisting of my neck.
She told me that the swimming was doing damage to my surgical neck fusion; this hadn't been pointed out to me before, but I believe her.
So, I will be looking in the garage for a snorkel to follow her instructions. Maybe I will get a new life in the water.
"The first time you quit is the last time you try."
