...And I Jogged

I was anticipating yesterday's physical therapy, because Jeff told me that he will try me on out on running. So, I was super excited and nervous and just ready to try it. I even put on my tennis shoes just like he requested. It felt weird to put them on again.

When I got there, Jeff started me on a new balance block called the Zone. It was similar to the wood block that I used to go from left to right, but this one had a ball underneath the platform you stand upon. Therefore, it goes all around and it's harder to just go from left to right. Afterwards, Jeff put me on another wood block balance thing, but this one is designed to just go forwards and backwards. At that point, Jeff says to me, "So, I take it your ankle doesn't hurt." I said that it has been sore after Monday's session and his reply was, "Oh were we to mean for you?" I had to laugh and say of course. Next up, he gave me the 2 lb ball and told me to throw it against the net. It was hard to stand on my bad ankle, especially towards the end when you are tired. You have to work extra hard not to fall over. Next up, he put me back on the big machine to connect some dots. Only this time, he upped the skill level and made it a maze of dots. Whoa, was that hard. The first time I did it, I got a freaking -4% and then 16% the second time. He decided to lower the skill level, which was a blow to the pride. I'm not sure why, but I could connect the dots one way, but coming back, I just couldn't get it right. It was like Alice in Wonderland on LSD. Going there, I got 60%, but coming back, I only got 30%. I did this a couple of more times before I headed to walk the line. Only this time, he had me walk up and down once and then I had to walk on my toes. He noticed that I'm still shaky on my bad ankle. He then told me to walk on my heals, which was easier and I only did this twice.

I see Jeff walk to the treadmill and I get giddy with anticipation. His plan was to only have me jog for 5 minutes (he made sure that I was up to it at first). I hopped on (not really though) and he set up the machine to have me walk on 3.0. It was hard to stay in the middle. I easily moved to the end of the treadmill. Then, he pumped up the time to go to 4.5 and I was forced to jog. I thought walking was hard, this was harder. I was at the end and just wobbling through. I did about 1.5 minutes of jogging before Jeff said that he had seen enough and didn't want to push me. I was happy that I got a little bit in, but I was happier that it was done. Maybe if we had tried jogging at the beginning of the session, then I could do more, but my ankle was already throbbing.

And now it was time for my favorite part...the compression therapy. I earlier asked if the thing was working today and he replied with, "yes, but I'm sure I will hear about it if it doesn't." He strapped me and walked away. That thing was so tight and so cold, I could barely see straight. I tried to focus on the soccer game and was wishing I had my book or my phone, anything to distract me. He came over and asked if I was okay; that's when he informed me that he had a pressure of 35, which is high. I knew he upped the pressure.

When that was done, I put my shoes and socks (oh nice warm socks), set up our next session (yay, more jogging), and then headed out. I'm actually thinking I might do the 3 mile loop at Memorial Park...only walking. You thought I would say jogging. Yeah right, I'm not that confident.