the best medicine

Very very early this morning at physical therapy, I tried to convince four separate therapists and assistants that what would be best for my back, and my overall health and well-being in general, was what I called restorative napping. I would be happy to stay in the treatment room and restoratively nap until 8, and we could skip the part where I have to do stuff in the gym, and all would be awesome and great.

Some attendant whose name I don’t know agreed that restorative napping might be nice, but then left.

“Ha, nice try,” Andy said as he came in to check on me. “C’mon! It’s rehabilitative!” I protested. He said he wished he could nap. I suggested he tell them his back hurt and that the only cure was restorative napping.

When Lauren was doing my ultrasound treatment I ran it by her. She said it sounded like a good idea to her, so when Andy came back, I told him Lauren had approved my restorative napping plan. He laughed and made me do a twisty thing for my back. Then he said in all seriousness that if I were truly tired and in pain, we could skip the gym today, but then I felt all guilty because I have to pay money every time I go to PT and as my mother is fond of saying, I can nap at home for free. So I said I’d suck it up and go out to the gym.

So then I told Fred in the gym that Lauren and Andy recommended restorative napping instead of strength training. He said that was a great plan and then chatted with me to distract me while I was doing the arm bike and the recumbent bike and a bunch of things with weights, so I lost count and actually did more work than usual. He said it was all part of his grand plan. Then when I was all done with the hard stuff, he told me I had three more exercises to do at home this week, and all three of them were restorative napping. I want Fred to be my personal trainer because he is awesome and crafty.

And then I spent all day in the first of four days of hard-core conversion meetings, and I feel like a wet dishrag right about now. So I’m going to go pick up my sushi I just ordered, and then I’m going to go home and eat it, and then I’m going to take a restorative nap that will probably last until about 7 tomorrow morning.