Cardio rehab involves a lot of walking. It started with two six-minute walks on the first day I was released from hospital, and now I’m up to nearly an hour a day.
It’s necessary, but oh so boring for someone who loves to do other activities that aren’t yet permitted. Especially with the cold, damp spring we have been having. I’m getting flashbacks to the COVID lockdown days when we all walked because that was what was available.
Image: a grumpy looking bald eagle stomps through the water for its stupid physical and mental health
I have mapped out various routes around the neighborhood and am slowly checking them off as my distances get longer: grocery store, pharmacy, church, community garden, the Pond, the cemetery (it’s huge and full of trilliums this time of year). Tonight I am seriously considering walking downtown to see a ballet, if it isn’t too rainy.
The best was going to the tulip festival with my friend Florence. It was delightful to get out of my immediate neighborhood and see something new.
Left: Florence and I get our picture taken through one of the scenic frames set up to show off the tulip beds. Right: a particularly colourful bed of red, yellow, purple and white tulips with trees and a brilliant blue sky in the background.
Race Against Time takes on a whole new meaning as you age. I’m no longer trying to get faster. I’m just trying to stave off what feels like the inevitable crumbling.
The orange silhouette of a woman is superimposed on a white clock face and black background, with the words Race against Time in blue, white and orange letters on the right side of the image. The image was found at: https://ability360.org/uncategorized/august-18-race-against-time/
That ankle injury I wrote about back in December is still bothering me. The muscle tightness is easing, but it looks increasingly like I have a partially torn hamstring.
While I wait for an ultrasound (next week, yay!) I am continuing with my other health care providers, who are giving me more exercises to do. It’s all good advice, but it’s a lot!
My massage therapist has had me doing at least 10 minutes of yin yoga each day. I have chosen to do YouTube videos to relax before bed. Sometimes they are done IN bed, which is rather nice, as well as being easy on my knees.
My physiotherapist has assigned balance exercises. My Pilates class focuses on bone health, fall prevention, and building up our cores so we can get up off the floor easily. This has proven surprisingly difficult, so every day I am trying to add in extra strength exercises and as many of the class exercises as I can remember.
Of course I am continuing with my regular activities. I made the mistake of doing absolutely nothing except a bit of yoga one weekend, and I felt like I could barely walk by Sunday night. Never again will I doubt the importance of active rest. Motion is clearly lotion for my body.
These cartoon bottles of lotion wearing blue caps and doing various exercises on a green background made me happy. The image is from the Queensland Health Facebook page, posted June 23, 2025.
Two physiotherapists from Kitchener-Waterloo from a 2019 blog post on the Ontario Physiotherapy Association web page. They are showing off their blue T-shirts, which say #PhysioHelpsLives
May is National Physiotherapy Month, and FIFI bloggers are big fans. Almost all of us have written about injuries and how physiotherapy has helped.
Sam is probably the most prolific: she worked with physiotherapists both before and after having two separate knee replacements. They helped her remain mobile, then prepare for each surgery, and then recover to the point that she is back to regular cycling and long walks with Cheddar.
Cheddar the dog, from one of Sam’s blog posts in 2024. he is a blue-eyed golden lab, I think.
If you are struggling with balance issues, arthritis, stiffness, or injury, and are able to see a physiotherapist, you might want to get things checked out and get support to keep you moving. May is when we celebrate physiotherapists, but any time is a good time to check in on your bone and muscle health and strength.
It still hurts. And if I’m not warmed up I have trouble lifting my arm by hinging at the elbow.
I was talking to my friend Jess and she gently teased me.
“Have you told Emily?”
Me: “noooooo”
Jess: “You know she will give you a silly little exercise and it will get better.”
I did know. The brilliance of a skilled physiotherapist is dialing in to exactly what is wrong. More than that, they then find the precise movement that will address the root cause of the injury.
I’m in the maintenance phase of addressing my wobbliness on the bike so already had an appointment coming up.
At my appointment yesterday, I mentioned that I had tendinitis on my right elbow before. It took about 9 months to heal. I knew that this bout on the left side was definitely a result of knitting more than 30 hours in one weekend.
I’m super stressed these days. Knitting serves as a focus for nervous energy. The rhythmic movements are soothing. Understanding how to execute the pattern is cognitively absorbing. There’s no opportunities for my worries to find me.
A knitting book lays open across my thighs showing ankle socks with a fold down cable cuff. On top of the book is an in progress sock with the cable cuff done in a goldenrod yellow yarn.
Did I just describe a kind of dissociation? Absolutely.
Am I happy I that I hurt myself?
Nope. Kind of embarrassed, actually.
So I recounted all of this to Emily, who reassured me that they had helped many a knitter with this exact problem. Even better, it will be resolved in a couple weeks!
So after exploring the extent of my injury, Emily broke out the ultrasound.
I then got treated to a series of whole arm manipulations and some intense forearm, uh, let’s call it “massage”. Lots of adhesions and bumps in there. Owie!
My homework is 3 sets of 12 of palm down wrist curls… with a twist.
On my injured side I’m using my other hand to help raise the weight. I then let my injured arm do the downward movement under control on its’ own.
It’s a silly little exercise but I was surprised how weak both arms were.
Emily laughed. “You get to do the gym bro pose!”
As a desk jockey, cyclist, gardener, knitter, crocheter, bead worker and bread maker I had assumed my forearms were getting enough variety of movement to be strong and resilient. Nope!
So 5lb assisted wrist curls it is. All hail the gym bro move!
Oh and I need to stay off the knitting until I build up my strength.
I’m so thankful for Jess nudging me.
I’m thankful for access to Emily’s expertise.
It’s easy for me to fall into thinking each injury is the one that signals an inevitable spiral of decrepitude. The slow moves of death stealing ability away from me. Ya. My mind goes to dark places. It’s why I knit so much!
I have a terrific physiotherapist who has been helping me with hip and shoulder issues of the past few months. I almost didn’t go to her because her profile at the clinic says she likes to work with athletes.
Red flag of imposter syndrome!
I went to the other physiotherapist at the same clinic instead, up until she went on maternity leave. Then I debated going to another clinic, but finally decided to be brave and see Emma.
I’m glad I did. It turns out that Emma is really good at listening to what I say about the activities I enjoy, and helping me find exercises that not only make me better at those things, but are exercises that may already be somewhat familiar.
A couple of examples for you, related to strengthening my glutes: lying on the ground and doing lifts while wearing a band is great, but standing at the ballet barre and doing a similar move while lifting up my core until I feel the glutes engage (just like I need to do in ballet class but often don’t) is also really good. Similarly, doing clamshells while wearing a band activates the same glute muscles I should be using when I do whip kick in the pool. If I adjust my swim to make sure I’m doing that, it totally counts toward physio.
I have written before about how important it is for me to use mental images to help me position my body correctly. The more I have worked with Emma, the better I have gotten at feeling what parts of me need work and how to get them engaged.
It’s still a work in progress, but I’m feeling much better about my balance, posture, and the state of my knees than I did when I first started going to physiotherapy as a somewhat broken older woman who was afraid of falling. So good, in fact, that this week Emma sent me off with no follow-up appointments. I will check in for a tune-up when needed, but I no longer need her regular supervision. Yay!
There will definitely be tune-ups; I’m still really bad at moderation and will undoubtedly overdo some sport or other.
Diane in a colourful hat and coat at a small skating rink. It was the first time skating in at least three years, and came on the heels of two dance classes and two hard swim workouts. Ow, but so much fun!
I got referred to physiotherapy this fall to deal with some knee pain. I had tweaked my knee playing soccer in June. It seemed to get better than the pain started moving around.
I asked around and my cycling friend Marc recommended Emily at Ginger’s Physiotherapy. It’s near my home & my work. Emily is also a cyclist and very cool human so I booked time.
Under Emily’s guidance I was able to quickly recover functionality of my knee. The exercises seemed almost too simple but I couldn’t argue with the results. It was about cajoling my knee to do all the things. First not under load and then eventually working up to one legged negative squats.
Through it all, I confessed I had serious balance issues and all exercises were designed with that challenge in mind.
Once my knee was sorted, Emily assessed my vestibular system. Folks. It is seriously effed and Emily was able to dial in on exactly what I struggle with.
I get vertigo in stairwells. I also feel like I’m bobbing on the ocean in loud crowds. When loud noises, like trains, move past my left side I tilt to the right. I had thought these were anxiety attacks.
So now I am awaiting a referral to an ENT. Hopefully that leads to some imaging. Quite possibly there is a procedure to fix what is damaged in my left ear. WHAT?????
It’s been nearly 30 years since I blew my eardrum flying. Since then I’ve complained of fullness on my left side and vertigo but my concerns were dismissed.
I’m so grateful for Emily’s curiosity and expertise. I have hope that I can actually do stairs with stuff in my hands one day. Already I’m more steady on my feet on icy sidewalks and on my bicycle. Yay!!
I’m mourning a bit about some wasted time. I’ve shed tears and frustration because I didn’t have insight into what situations are more challenging to me than most people.
One example is riding in a peloton. Moving while having a relative fixed point in front of me, like the next cyclist’s butt, is really hard for me to maintain my balance. I always complained I felt very wobbly and that translated to nervous/anxious. Now I understand why that felt challenging.
I’m hopeful that I’ll keep seeing gains under expert guidance.
This experience has reminded me to not have a fixed mindset and just accept challenges as part of some kind of inevitable decrepitude. My good friend Jessica says to complain about your problems to as many people as possible because someone may have a solution. She’s right. If something doesn’t feel right, keep telling people!
It could take 3 decades, but maybe, just maybe there’s something that can be done.
Natalie smiles at the camera wearing a grey toque, yellow scarf and green parka. The background is her cute brick house.
Back in October I wrote about my frozen shoulder. At the time, I was mostly thinking about the importance of doing my exercises. Since then, I have connected with numerous women friends who are also suffering from frozen shoulder, or who have had it in the recent past.
There have been countless posts on this blog about gender biases in health – obesity, heart health, concussion, even feet. That’s just the first few that showed up in a quick search. A fabulous Radiolab podcast called “The Unsilencing”, about autoimmune diseases in women and the research (or lack of it) into causes, got me adding a new one to the of under-researched ailments felt predominantly by women: frozen shoulder.
There are all kinds of articles stating categorically that there is no direct link between menopause and frozen shoulder, even though the majority of sufferers are women between the ages of 45 and 60. There are a few studies that show hormone replacement therapy can help. Relaxin, which is produced during pregnancy, can reverse symptoms (just like estriol did for women suffering MS in that podcast). Estrogen can help prevent frozen shoulder from developing.
My shoulder is getting somewhat better, but my physiotherapist is recommending an ultrasound to see what else is going on, as it is still far too weak and inflexible after eight months of therapy. She immediately offered to write me a letter too, since her experience is that too many doctors don’t take it seriously.
I tried to find an entertaining image to finish this post on a relatively poorly understood aspect of women’s health, but all were of men. So you get a penguin with a frozen shoulder.
Physiotherapy isn’t actually all that fun, but I couldn’t resist the alliteration.
Sam has been doing lots of physiotherapy for her knees, and I have noticed increasing numbers of other friends who are doing physio for various ailments and injuries. My only experience until now has been after I broke my arm a few years ago.
Lately, however, my various aches and pains have been getting worse so I decided to see if a physiotherapist might be able to help me correct my posture or whatever it is I am doing wrong. It turns out I am dealing with arthritis in my knees, sciatica, some scoliosis, and trapezius muscles that are rock hard (not in a good way). This was not a complete surprise, but I had been in denial about naming the pains.
During that first session, I mostly got poked, prodded and stretched, which was surprisingly tiring. I then got sent home with a set of ten exercises to do every day until my next appointment. None of them are very big but they are surprisingly challenging. And I guess that’s the point.they are supposed to target my weak spots.
It feels weird to be doing something I associate with injury as preventive medicine, but it also feels wise. The more mobility I gain/retain at this stage, the higher the likelihood I will be able to stay active in future.
My artist’s model doll showing off all their bendy joints. Like me, they’re a little worse for wear, but still pretty useful.
I’ve been home from the hospital for a few days now. Surgery was last Tuesday and I came home Thursday. That’s not exactly as planned. See here for details. But I’m very happy to be home.
How’s it going? How does this round of recovery compare to the last?
In some ways it’s easier. I’ve got one good knee now, more upper body strength, more core strength, and I feel pretty confident moving my recovering body around. Thanks Meg (personal trainer) and Estee (physiotherapist) for all of your help and recommendations. I ditched the walker for crutches after just a couple of days.
I’m doing lots of at home physio. This is the drill three times a day. It’s quad sets, heel slides, short arc leg extension (with rolled towel), calf stretches.
At home exercises after knee replacement
I’m also taking breaks to walk around the house. The helpful guide to recovery from knee replacement says that walking to the kitchen and the bathroom isn’t enough, but also that it’s easy to overdo yourself. I’m doing little laps of the house and the backyard.
Here’s a good description of the kinds of exercises one does when recovering from knee replacement surgery.
Later I’ll work my way up to fancier in bed knee exercises to start the day.
True confession: I fell off the no shopping wagon. There’s not a lot I can do right now–even reading is tricky– and I enjoy shopping. So I’ve ordered some new clothes and shoes and I’m trying not to judge myself too harshly for it. But I stuck to things I needed and I didn’t go overboard.
Here’s what I’m not buying this week.
Things Sam didn’t buy this week
The real challenge is sleep. OMG it’s tough. I can sleep a few hours at a time and then the pain wakes me up. I go through a little routine of taking more pain meds and getting fresh ice but there’s no guarantee it works. Then I’m sleepy during the day and nap and that makes it worse again at night. Middle of the night binge TV watching becomes part of the routine pretty quickly.
Obviously it’s good to arrive at the hospital the day of surgery well rested. I’ll try to get a good night’s sleep the night before but more importantly I’ll try to get lots of regular sleep the week before. I’m doing pretty well these days. No 4 hour nights, followed by 10 hour nights.
Check it out!
Sleep!
Work
This goal might conflict with sleep. Lol. I’m trying to get lots done at work so things are under control for the people I leave in the Acting Dean role. It’s hard because it’s not just that the Dean is away, it’s also that we’re down one person in the dean’s office. And we’re short on staff to start. In September when I went on medical leave for knee #1, things were pretty calm. Not so now. We’re still in the middle of budget conversations and there’s a lot up in the air.
Exercise
Another goal that competes with work and sleep for my time…
I’m aiming to put as much movement as possible in the bank because post surgery there’ll be a few weeks when it will only be physio plus a lot of lying around. I’ve been working on core and upper body strength too for all of the getting in and out of bed activity, which is especially challenging after surgery when your legs don’t work. All the triceps exercises, right Meg? (Meg is the world’s best personal trainer and she works at the U of G athletics centre, where she’s also the throwing coach.)
Last week I did three hours of personal training plus two physio appointments plus a ton of walking. This weekend I was happy to get out on my bike, outdoors. Yay!
Outdoor bike riding first time since Arizona
I also have some exercise goals to wrap up this week, like the Build Me Up Lite training program in Zwift.
Here’s my progress so far:
Tidying and organizing stuff
Getting around on crutches isn’t easy and it especially isn’t easy if you’re navigating around stuff. I’m going to clear out my room and put things away, leaving out only the things I’ll need. I’m swapping over winter and summer clothing early because once I’m back at work, I won’t need my winter work clothes. It’s a task that’s physically easy now but won’t be so easy after surgery.
There’s also the stuff I’ll need post surgery– the ice machine, pain drugs, crutches, etc. I’m trying to find all the things and get organized.
Iron and good eating
Readers who follow me on social media will know that I struggled a bit to get my iron levels where they should be for surgery. In the end, diet alone wouldn’t do it (I’m a vegetarian) but ferrous glucanate did the trick. I also supplemented vitamin C since that is supposed to help with iron absorption. I’m now at the top end of normal for adult women. But I am still trying to eat lots of leafy green vegetables. Sarah made this soup for us to take to a potluck on Saturday to celebrate an anniversary.
Leek Soup with Herbed Gremolata
Movies and shows
The last time through I made a big stack of books I’d planned on reading but honestly for the first few weeks I just wasn’t up to reading. I moved from philosophy to challenging contemporary fiction to popular fiction and then genre fiction, but none of it stuck. I just kept losing track of the plot and the characters and getting frustrated. For the first few weeks even challenging TV was too much. SheHulk was about right. Also, Never Have I Ever. After that, I needed gripping content. I ended up binging Better Call Saul and then Breaking Bad. This time I might watch The Expanse and Babylon 5. I’ve also never watched The Wire.
Physio
I’ve been doing physio twice a week for a very long time. But these days the focus is on getting ready for the next knee surgery. The left knee–the new one–is in pretty good shape. So we’re rehabbing the left knee, and pre-habbing the right.
Mindset
I’m struggling a bit here. At one level, I really don’t want to go through this again. I know what it feels like and I’m not anxious to experience that again.
I’ve been enjoying walking a bit and riding my bike. But I am still in a lot of knee pain, the right knee. One day this week I wasn’t sure even with my cane if I could make it to the gym. This has to be done and better sooner than later as right now it’s the right knee that’s slowing me down.
I keep telling myself that it will be good to have the summer (no ice, no snow!) to recover.
I’m trying very hard to focus on the positive–SWIMMING!–and not worry so much about missing another summer of physical activity.
Mostly it’s just a lot of reminding myself that yes, this will be very hard, but I can do hard things.
Bird feeder
Since I plan on spending a lot of time in the back room, which a good view of the deck, or out on the deck, I think I’ll get a feeder and see if I can attract some birds to our back deck.
Bird feeders
I’m also getting a haircut!
Haircut with Dante at Image Makeover, On Queen West, Toronto. Before.Haircut, after. But not yet dry.
