Swimming!

   

   Completely bored out of my mind after months of back pain one day in December I went birding at Snake Den Farm. Snake Den is a short drive from my house and the birding is along a dirt road. I took my time and watched every step so not to inflame my already injured back. 

   While I was there I ran into a birder I had never seen before. At this point, I'm surprised when I meet a new birder in Rhode Island. After all these years of birding, and birders being a small group, I seem to have met most everyone. He was much older than me with a long beard. We (he) started talking and the conversation dragged on far longer than I would have liked. My back hurts far worse standing in one spot than it does walking slowly and looking around. Finally I told him about my bad back after making obvious positions to stretch it or make it more comfortable. My hope here was for him to let me go on my way and he on his.

    Instead, he started talking about his own medical issues. He told me he was 88 years old. I never would have guess, he didn't look much over 65. He didn't walk with a hunched back or any limp. His gait at full walk was much bigger than mine. To put it plainly, for 88 years old, he was in great shape. He told me that he had back issues the year before. He said it affected his legs and the pain was so bad he was confined to a wheelchair. He thought there wasn't any hope to recover. He then told me that he started swimming at the Y. He said, believe it or not, that he went from wheelchair bound to pain free in a month. He said it multiple times how great swimming was for him.

   I put this in the back of my mind. I was happy for him and I believed him. I also thought that everyone is different and whatever was wrong with his back probably wasn't what was wrong with mine. I still hadn't been diagnosed at that point so still didn't know what the hell was wrong with me.

   Obviously I know swimming is one of the best exercises you can do because it is good cardio and doesn't put any pressure on your joints. However, I was pretty sure I had a bulging disk ( actually I have since been diagnosed with three). I was not sure if  swimming would put pressure on the disk(s) and pinch the nerves even more. I suspected that the motion could and would inflame the already inflamed muscles and joints even worse. So I thought about swimming but wasn't going to until I had a real diagnosis and I got permission from an orthopedic AND my physical therapist Ryan. Ryan has been great and I believe he knows more about backs, spines, and nerves than most doctors. But I also wanted a specialized ortho who saw the multiple MRI's and X-Rays to give me the okay too.

   I got the okay from both in late December. Ryan told me multiple times not to overdue it. He also said if I go a lot I should have at least a second stroke, again so I didn't overdue it. Laurie and I both got memberships to the Foxboro YMCA which is the closest indoor pool to her house at the end of 2022. 

   We went swimming the first day we got our membership. The pool is a standard twenty five yard (or meter) pool with six wide lanes. Sometimes the pool is used for swimming lessons, water aerobics or family time. The times are posted a week in advance on what the pool is used for. When all six lanes are open for lap swim that is when I go. Each lane is wide enough for two people. 

   The first day I went I did five laps. It took a lot out of me and I wasn't sure how my body would react. I took a couple of muscle relaxers when I went to bed because I could feel some throbbing back there. The next morning when I woke up my back felt better than it had in months. No joke, it certainly wasn't healed but most of the pain was gone.

   I was pretty happy with five laps and my goal was to inch my way up to ten. I did not want any setbacks so I wasn't going to go immediately from five to ten. Also, I planned on stopping at ten laps once I finally reached it because that seemed like enough for a workout. 

   So I kept going back to the pool as often as I could. Life gets in the way so I've been averaging two to three times a week. It works out really well that I have physical  therapy in the morning. I go from there to the pool because there are usually lap hours between 12-2:30 pm. 

   My back is feeling so much better. The pattern seems to be I'm a little sore on pool day but the next two to three days my back feels great. Sometimes it doesn't even get sore on pool day. I really enjoy the swimming and look forward to going. I also started using my snorkel in the pool. My form sucks and keeping my head head above water and breathing is something I will eventually need to work on. But for now, using the snorkel I can keep going without stopping to catch my breathe. My logic is for now it is better to work on my cardio than my swimming technique. 

   Getting up to ten laps was much easier than I expected. I went from five laps to 7 to 10 in a couple of sessions. I did fifteen laps today and when I was done I was tired. Which is a good thing. I missed exercise

   So I have to say, I'm with the old guy that told me that swimming got out of that wheelchair within a month. After a little over a month of swimming my back is feeling so much better. I've had full days sometimes consecutively where it doesn't hurt at all. I feel a lot stronger. I can feel the muscles in my abs and core which had already been getting stronger due to PT. I strongly suggest if you have a bad back to ask your doctor if swimming might help. It has done wonders for me.

    I'd been dealing with back pain for so long that when I had my first days that were pain free felt different and wrong. I could not believe the feeling of not being in pain. Really and truly, it was an odd sensation one I am grateful to have. I have been miserable for eight months now, and finally over the last month I've gotten my spark back. I am out of my funk and no longer depressed. I don't feel like I'm bringing Laurie down when I'm around her. I even made some dumb jokes this week that made her laugh. I think swimming for a month has gotten me to the point that I probably won't have any real setbacks and am on the road to healing.

   Note- For the last few months my health related problems have been dominating my life. As I said above, I've been miserable. Because my back, diabetes, and neuropathy have been all I've thought about it gets mentioned in my blog posts quite often. From my point of view anything I've done since June has had to be planned out either because of my diet or my back. My one camping trip this summer required planning on when to take my muscle relaxers. lying in the back seat of Laurie's car to ease the length of the ride, among other precautions. And I'm sure you are sick of me starting every post with a mention of my back. Trust me, it is as tiresome for me to write as it is for you to read. I know I have a long way to go until I'm fully healed even though I am mostly pain free. Ryan told me today that one of the muscles in my back is going to take a long time to "heal" and "relax" because it was literally spasming  for months without rest.   All that being said, as long as I'm going in the right direction, I want to put that part of my life behind me. I'm stuck with the diabetes, but honestly it wasn't hard to change my diet. So.. from this point forward, I'm hoping to start making memories again, and there will by very little mention of my back or my health. I seem to be in very little pain when I drive so I'm going to start doing the things that I thought of over the winter... Let the games begin!!!!!!!!!!!