On Assembling a Team

It's a little bit of searching and little bit of serendipity

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How is April treating you? We’re finally seeing green here in the Garden State, and it blesses my eyes every time I see a new shade of leaf. What color makes your eyes happy in spring?

Runners have reappeared on our roads and park trails again after a brutal winter. I see them on my drive to and from work, and I always look for the tell-tale signs of someone on a long run—a waist pack, beat up running shoes, and an expression that says, “I hate this now, but I’ll love it later.”

Every time, and I do mean every time, I see someone running, I wish it was me.

I found a new physical therapist recently whose entire goal is to help me get out of chronic pain and into my running shoes again. On my first visit with her, she sat with me for an hour and listened to me explain every single area of pain I’m experiencing in my body daily. She didn’t interrupt me except to ask if there were any small symptoms I was missing. “If your pinky hurts, I want to know about it,” she said. I haven’t felt that seen in a long time.

Then she told me, “You’re kind of a mess, but I can help.”

I wanted to cry with relief. Sometimes we need a witness, but after more than a year of chronic pain and an inability to run, I need a witness with a doctorate in physical therapy who can help me find solutions for this middle aged body.

When I left her office, I felt like I’d finally discovered the missing piece in the puzzle of my pain. My body is currently held together by advil, cortisone shots, pilates, and a massage therapist who doesn’t actually believe in the massage part of the therapy.