this time around with PT

The shoulder specialist in Wellesley sent me to Medford for PT, rather than having me schlep out to Wellesley all the time. It's a big clinic, and I didn't ask to see anybody in particular. Even their "first available therapist" was pretty well booked. So I got there for the initial appointment, and a vaguely-familiar-looking therapist asked, "Haven't I seen you before?" Now that I think about it, yes. I was there in 2001, for what was supposed to be comprehensive pain management, but turned out to be a fairly comprehensive disaster. The evaluation was unpleasant, but not nearly as bad as it might have been. She asked a lot of questions about what kinds of PT had helped and what had been problematic. She also said I didn't need to do strengthening work--my arms are a lot less strong than they used to be, but they're within the normal range of useful arm strength, even after 10 years of having the mildest strength training imaginable set off catastrophic pain flares.

When I came back a week later, she asked me how I was feeling. Some places, that's a greeting, but in a doctor's office, it's a question, so I answered, "okay." She looked at me more intently and said, "You're lying to me, aren't you?" I hadn't been. Not really. Doesn't everyone think of "no worse than usual" as "okay?" Apparently not. It feels oddly encouraging.