On the advice of a doctor I saw about a knee injury, I booked some physical therapy at a facility on 68th Street, which is approximately five miles south of where I live in Washington Heights. To get there, I rode a pedal-assist CitiBike. Having spent most of the fall injured, it was nice to be back on the river, following the curve of the shoreline and passing my favorite trees. But taking the bike was disheartening in other ways. I had to go to three stations before I found a pedal-assist bike that worked; downtown, the dock closest to my appointment was full and it took me five extra minutes to find a spot in another dock. Worse is that the infrastructure for biking remains terrible. Even the best paths are narrow, bumpy, and require dexterity and experience just to get from Point A to Point B without crashing or being hit by someone else. Increasingly these paths are used by mopeds and scooters, and there's not enough room. I look forward to the day when the city closes a major north-south artery to cars; Riverside Drive would be an obvious choice, or a few lanes of the West Side Highway.
Nevertheless, I arrived at my PT appointment trying to be hopeful about my knee. An MRI had revealed a small but but not insignificant (and painful) tear in my right medial meniscus, which I learned is not a body part that tends to heal on its own. (Which seems a little unfair, given that a two millimeter cut on your skin would heal in a few days: is there a manager I can talk to about this design?) The best option, according to the doctor, is to strengthen the surrounding muscles and ligaments so that the damaged meniscus does not bring down the entire house of cards (aka 'the knee'). I was encouraged my few first few sessions of PT; as I incorporated the exercises into a daily routine, I could feel my legs getting (sore but) stronger. I wasn't oblivious to the concept of 'prehab' and other strength programs designed for runners to keep certain muscles from atrophying, but clearly I hadn't been doing the right exercises.
As I considered my unusual good fortune as an American at having access to the advice of professionals trained in the functioning of the human body (aka 'medical care'), I was struck by the idea that physical therapy should be provided as a matter of course to everyone who wants it, whether they are injured or not. Instead of spending $800 billion a year on military defense, the government could build a PT center on every block, which could be used by people overcoming injuries as well as those seeking to break the bad habits that so often cause these injuries. Lol. What is wrong with us. The therapist told me that many PT facilities use outmoded equipment and procedures because insurance companies (root of all evil) are still relying on science that in many cases is twenty or thirty years old, and they will not 'authorize' newer methods and procedures that are universally accepted as better. Even with insurance, these doctor and PT visits will cost me hundreds of dollars, which seems like it would be out of reach for many who undoubtedly could use it. I recently saw a short video (maybe a TikTok) of a guy in Western Island screaming across the ocean at the United States. 'GIVE THEM HEALTH CARE! GIVE IT TO THEM. NOW!!' It was funny (and sad) and I would post the link except I searched for it and can't find it, so maybe I dreamed it. (But also Google search is getting worse, as everyone knows.)
I liked my therapist, who was around thirty and had lived in Washington Heights while attending the PT program at Columbia. He was very chatty, like a barber. He liked to read and we talked about books. Sadly, he was interested in 'cryptocurrency' and had invested in Bitcoin. Trying not to offend, I admitted to having reservations about the idea and recommended a recent episode of one of my favorite socialist podcasts in which the host and his guests had tackled the subject in what I found to be a very satisfying manner. I was very low-key: 'If you like podcasts (which he had already told me that he did), I just listened to one about crypto -- it's definitely more critical, but I found it interesting, etc.' The therapist sounded excited to 'check it out' -- he wrote it down (it's probably part of my permanent medical record now) and said he welcomed all viewpoints -- but the following week, he said the same thing to me about being interested and crypto and investing in Bitcoin and I knew that he had been brainwashed. (Or was maybe a robot.) But I was still grateful for his advice about my knee.
He said one thing that I've been trying to keep in mind as I (fingers crossed) get closer to running, which is that if you can do something for a very short period of time, there's reason to think you'll be able to do it in a more sustained manner. I knew he was talking about running on my knee, but I was thinking about banning cars from Riverside Drive.
I love that you have a favorite socialist podcast, one of many. 🙏
Posted by: Carla | 02/05/2022 at 02:15 PM