Just got home from the YMCA. My hair is a hot curly mess. I am sweating, and my clothes are stuck to me.
I drank a ton of water, refilled, drank more on the way home. I peeled off the sweaty stuff jumped in the shower, refreshed. Just sat down to read email and thought, “Hmmmm…. Wonder what else I can do today?”
This has been my whole summer. Who is this and where is Chris?? Because this is not Chris. Chris is tired, exhausted, and constantly in pain. Well not anymore! I am finallyyyyyyyy doing the one thing Dr. Jack promised me would happen…..the thing I never believed would happen…..I am LIVING my life!! MY life!! The physical part of my life that I have missed out on for so long! And now that I have a taste of that life, someone try to hold me back!!
Last summer, I was in so much pain, a kind of domino effect pain, I literally could handle only one thing. I would get up, pick the job, and realize that was all I could do for that day. Couldn’t cut the lawn and work Walmart on the same day. I would hurt somewhere and suddenly I was eating Advil like candy. This summer?? It’s like I am a completely new person! I am doing everything! Trying all kinds of new things! And I am like a kid who just opened an endless box of Christmas fun, thanks once again to my hero, Dr. Jack! I am up, out the door, running home only to freshen up before my shift and gone.
First, it was the Pilates. As much as I fought him on that, it’s what opened the door. I thought I would never improve. Wrong!! I found that I could advance. I could learn skills and do things I didn’t think possible. Suddenly I was asking Nancy to check my homework and make it more, try new moves, new exercises. Then it was the YMCA, joining solely because I wanted to swim.
When I first started at the YMCA, I walked the track and swam in the pool. Never on the same days. I would take a class but nothing else. My head had not yet figured out the reality of this year was sooooooo much different. And Dr. Jack, he patiently waited for me to get it but I didn’t at first. So I would do my Pilates work and then maybe go take a walk. I hadn’t figured out that more was possible until one day, Dr. Jack woke up that sleeping side of my head. I had done some exercising and I said I wanted to try getting something else in and he said, “Well, go ahead. If you have ten or fifteen minutes, you can.” I remember looking at my phone thinking, “What??? He doesn’t understand I never could……oh yeah…. That was before…. Does he mean I could??! He believes that’s possible???” This whole concept was foreign. I could never do two things in a day! But if he believed I could? I was going for it.
Early in the summer, I actually had mentioned to Dr. Jack that I got two free sessions with a trainer at the Y, but that I wasn’t going to take them. He got quiet and I thought, “Oh, no, he is going to talk me into this.” He explained that he wouldn’t want me going there and hurting myself and I just listened. I couldn’t deny his reasoning so I thought I would just take the two sessions. But….. Then I signed up for a trainer for the summer. I told him I can’t do the trainer and Pilates on the next day, and he asked why…… Why?? Because I would be in pain and I can’t handle two things….. Hmmmmm…. And then there was the conversation that got the wheels turning, and before I knew it, it was Pilates, the track, the pool and the trainer, sometimes three on the same day plus work! What?? That’s possible??
I started to like some of the things the trainer showed, and I took a few classes. I have tried Zumba but I can’t dance, and Barre which I like. I love water aerobics. I like strength and stretch in the pool. But my favorites?? The weights!! Those machines of increasing weight? Loveeeeeeeeeeee
So then I would go, do a class, do some weights, and stay to walk or swim. And I realized that I could do several things, not just two! I would feel it, but not the disabling pain I used to feel and absolutely not dirtying up my clean insides with an ounce of Advil!!
I started watching other people on the track. Why could they run on there and I couldn’t? Somewhere along the line, I had lost my ability to run. Could I ever get it back? I told Dr. Jack, who assured me that it, too, was in my head. “Can you run in place?” he patiently asked. I said I could. “Well then push your head forward and just go!” Well guess what? That crazy thing happened!! That system works! Am I running? Not yet, more like a jog for regular people, but I can! Not huge distances, but it’s progress. And can today leads to more tomorrow!
Then it was pickleball. I used to walk the track and watched some older folks playing. There were a few people my age and some teens. I stopped in, and they taught me some things. Three weeks ago I bought my own paddle, and have been meeting up with people from Lancaster to Orchard park! I have been going for instructions. I met up with a man who used to be a tennis coach, told him my story and he has been helping me fix what I do wrong. People I never met who have helped me to work on my skills. I now know all kinds of people by face and many have stayed after to help me with skills. Am I great at it? Not…. YET!
I started wondering, can I try golf next summer? How do go about learning to golf? What about tennis? Can I play tennis?? Is it too late to learn to play other things? What about TRX? What about more weights?? Hey look! A person on a bike!! Do you think I could still ride a bike??
So now… It’s Pilates, swimming, pickleball, weight training, machines at the YMCA, walking, jogging on my block and the Y. It’s hopes of running, golf and maybe some other sports I have never tried. It’s hopes of doing things I always wanted to but couldn’t. It’s classes and new people. I traded in my Y card for a masterkey so I can go to any Y and try new classes and lessons wherever it is convenient!
I am no longer happy to just try one thing! I want to try it ALL! Dr. Jack opened a door that I thought was closed to me forever!!
Now, tell me again, all you naysayers…. How was I ever going to get all of this out of some book?? I sooooooooooo needed Dr. Jack! Still do! As soon as I tell him how great this all is, he says it, and I love hearing it, “Guess what? It’s going to keep on getting better.” My life really is just starting!! Music to my ears….