A sliding scale...

That seems to be a recurrent theme these days.  In the hospital, I was frequently asked to "rate the pain."  None of them are old enough to remember American Bandstand, so they didn't get the joke of "It has a good beat, but I didn't like the lyrics - I'd give it a 67."

"Rate it?  Like on Yelp?  Oh, that is some good pain, I would definitely get some of that pain again."

"No, wait!  I want to change my answer.  I had no idea the pain was going to hurt so much - I would not recommend this pain."

Nope, no sense of humor.

In the grand scheme of things, I have only had a half-dozen in-home Physical Therapy sessions.  These guys are good: they observe how I am doing and change up the exercises (for lack of a better word) to continue to expand my movements and flexibility.  If you "get good" at something, they change the routine... it's like they don't care about how good you do something, they always want more.  Yes, I am kinda joking - I know their goal is to get me back to full mobility.  I have some muscles that haven't seen "normal use" in quite a while, due to the hip issue.  Apparently, there are some bones in there that have been hacked away and replaced with other, non-bone stuff.

All this means there is pain to deal with.  How do you rate that?  Especially as the amount of pain comes and goes, generally dependent on the movement or pressure.  Apparently, some other people don't use that whole "1 to 10 scale"... I have figured out that if you rate the pain at 5 or less, they are compelled to push harder.  If you say the pain is "looking at 10 in the rear view mirror," they ease up.

Yeah, I'm kidding.  This pain shit hurts, and today's PT workout was the toughest yet.  I just know when I can make it through this without crying like a little girl, they're going to change the scale.  ;-)


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I got to visit with my buddy Mark this afternoon - talking music and just being friends.  Nice.  We'll have some more music tracks going back and forth when I can.


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And, my highlight for the afternoon: when Joan went to the store, my Rufus boy came to sit by me...

He is still being very gentle around me... and considering his size, I am appreciative.