What physical therapy taught me about life

I probably ought to be writing about whatever political issue has people fired up today - and there are bound to be plenty. People are fighting all over the world, and there were local elections with wide-reaching implications. (Thank goodness we got voted out the 30 percent food rule to sell beer in Reno, McPherson and Franklin Counties. I was really going to have to rethink my relationship with my community had we kept that very dumb law on the books).

Today, though, I don’t want to write about any of that. I want to talk about my bum shoulder, and some important lessons I learned trying to get it to be a little less bummed out.

About a month ago, both my shoulders started hurting - in particular my right shoulder. I couldn’t really use it to lift weights, it would hurt when I was riding my bike or doing ordinary tasks around the house.

Normally, I just wait it out, hope it goes away, or heals up on its own. But I’ve been trying to be more active in managing my health. That means I’ve been forced to consume considerably more healthcare than I’d like.

(Good thing I’m in the legislature and get that good state health insurance and I’m not one of those “able-bodied adults” who needs healthcare but can’t get it because people who get their healthcare from being in the legislature or Medicare have decided they won’t expand Medicaid or do anything to address the fact that real Kansans who are really working have real health issues and don’t have any real way to access or pay for healthcare. But I digress. I wasn’t going to veer off into the political. And that’s too good a column for it’s own.)

So in between all my other health-related appointments, my doctor decided I should get some physical therapy for my shoulder. If, perhaps, we could work the shoulder back to health, we’d avoid the need for an expensive MRI and potential surgery.

My first appointment, the therapist explains that sometimes if we exercise and work the large muscle groups without paying much care to the smaller, stabilizing muscles, ball and socket joints - like the shoulder or the hip - can experience a sort of separation. With the weakened smaller muscles, the ball part of the joint can start to move away from the socket part and that can cause irritation and swelling.

(Also worth noting here - I’m not a doctor. Don’t claim to be, so there’s a a very good chance I’ve not explained this with surgical precision.)

With each appointment - about once a week - the therapist would add additional exercises. Some were designed to increase strength in those small shoulder muscles, while some were designed to strengthen the smaller sub-scapular muscles. They weren’t hard exercises, and they didn’t use weight - relying on gravity, motion, or small resistance bands. But I definitely felt it was a workout, and the fatigue let me know that I had without a doubt neglected these small, but very important muscles.

Over time, my shoulder felt stronger and less painful. After a month of therapy, I was set on my way with a glowing review and instructions to keep up the exercise routine, lest these muscles get weak again.

But it all got me thinking about things…

For years, I’ve never given these muscles a thought at all - even though I’ve often dealt with the pain in my shoulder, neck, or in between my shoulder blades. I’ve just accepted this mostly as part of the price of living, and of working. Things hurt, and there’s not much to be done about it.

I’ve also been reasonably active - I lift weights regularly, jog, bike - but I’ve always focused on the big muscle groups. Most of the workouts or activities I’ve enjoyed haven’t been focused on the smaller parts - they’ve centered the large powerful muscles needed to carry out heavy tasks.

And then, I realized that my shoulder isn’t the only place that’s often been the case.

In our lives, we have some very big things that can capture much of our effort and attention: work, money, career, status, and the stuff we are taught to believe we need to be normal. In the past several years, I’ve allowed some of my work to consume the lion’s share of my effort - and in the process, I’ve been neglectful of some of the smaller things that actually allow the bigger parts to work effectively.

For me, that is time to relax and unwind. Meaningful and fulfilling time with family and friends. Time for the sort of conversations that make you feel less alone in the world. Enjoying a hobby. Learning about my community, my neighbors, my state, and the world. Indulging my creativity - and to create without worry about whether what I create is going to have any monetary value in an economic system that values the production of mass-produced sameness more than it values originality.

I’ll keep working these lesser-than shoulder muscles so the major muscles can do their work and I can live the sort of life I want.

And I’ll keep working on the not-so-lesser-than parts of life that are the actual point and purpose of being alive.

I hope you will too.