Friday 11 October 2013

I can't tell if I'm a 3 or a 4

Physio was a bit more intense today. Mainly because they had me do the 6 minute walk test again (I did one back in July), this time on oxygen so I had to haul a little oxygen cart up and down the hallway with me. I managed to trip over it once, run it over the physiotherapist's foot, and drop it on the ground. I'm awesome.
However, it did mean that my legs were tired at the end of physio as I pushed myself pretty hard on the walk and then still had to do my treadmill and biking. Yay for feeling that I actually had a workout! I soaked my sore leg muscles in the pool this afternoon, I love having a pool in the building.

I also realized that when the physiotherapist said to put the treadmill at '2.8' she meant 2.8 mph and not kph. I didn't notice until the end of the 20 minutes that the treadmill had different mileage settings. That might explain why I felt like I was taking a casual stroll and was wondering why everyone else around me looked like they were working much harder than me. Oops!

The worst part about physio for me is the self-reflective bit. 'How tired are your legs on a scale from 1 - 10?' 'How bad is your breathing on a scale of 1-10?'. I don' t know! If 10 is the worst I can imagine, then probably a 2...or 3...maybe...? They want me to be working at a '3-4' which is 'mild to moderate breathing'. I don't know what that means. I just said I was at a 3 after my biking and 2 after the treadmill (I was on a casual stroll after all) because I really have no idea but I did know that biking was more strenuous than walking. I know for sure that I am not at a 10, which I assume would be at the asthma attack range, but I'm not at the zero range. In Halifax, back in February when I did the walk test, the physiotherapists told me I was an one at rest because I was breathing heavy. So that is what I say now because I don't even notice that I'm breathing heavy so I am going from her judgement.

I think it all comes back to me wanting to be the perfect patient. I feel like there has to be a right answer, I just don't know what it is so I say whatever it is I think they want to hear. I know logically there is no wrong answer although I imagine saying you are a 10 after light walking would be a wrong answer.  I just don't know if yesterday I said it was a '2' and then today I say '3', what day was the right day? Arg!! I don't like this subjective nonsense. Can't we go off the oxygen levels and heart rate measurements? Who cares how sore my legs are? If I fall over, assume they are a 10.

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