Tuesday, November 01, 2011

62, rue Mouffetard

I walked over to the rue Mouffetard after my first cup of coffee. The street was very quiet. The shops were not open yet. There are a few restaurants and night clubs on this street and I imagine that they are open well into the wee hours.

La Vieille Tour means "The Old Tower." I've never eaten there.

I walked past this place with its neon lights on, so I snapped a photo. Then I arrived at the Place de la Contrescarpe. I felt like having another coffee, so I sat down.

On to more recent happenings: I had my third session with the physical therapist. I've decided to call him that since he's not really a chiropractor, and "massage therapist" sounds a bit strange. This session was different from the first two in that he got more forceful with the massage. I guess the first two sessions were to get me and my muscles used to the therapy. Now it's time for the serious stuff.

He told me that my left shoulder muscles are still very tight and he was working on relaxing them. It seems to be working, although I will say that my worst pain has occurred in the twenty-four hours following the treatments. If I haven't changed this entry by the time it publishes, you'll know that it didn't turn out that way again. In fact, I feel pretty good today (Monday). A bit sore, but not wracked with pain as I have been.

I go back again on Friday morning for session number four. I'm supposed to have ten sessions in all, but the kiné said that he didn't think I'd need all ten. We'll see.

By the way, if you're not a French speaker, kiné is short for kinésithérapeute and is pronounced [kee-NAY]. The big word is pronounced [kee-nay-zee-tay-rah-PUT]. I'm not a linguist, so Ken will correct me if I didn't get it quite right.

9 comments:

  1. a kiné is the translation for physical therapist. :) you're not making anything up!


    ps my word verification was "backsmic" appropriate non? :)

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  2. I have recently been having a terrible pain all down one side of my body, especially in my neck and hip areas. I could barely move in bed and it was hard to get out. I decided to try changing my pillow, and what a BIG difference it has made! I had started using, a few months ago, a memory foam pillow under my regular soft pillow. I think that the memory foam pillow was too hard, and it was putting a crick in my neck that was pinching something further down. Just FYI, in case that might help you somewhat.

    Another issue for me on that side, was neck and shoulder pain that was exacerbated by the way I was having to hold my head/neck when I use the computer (allll day long). The center portion of my tri-focal glasses was supposed to be for the screen, but it was too small, and I was having to tilt my head back a little all the time, to try to see out of the bottom portion of my glasses. Now, instead, I use store-bought, non-prescription reading glasses for computer use time. It gives me a larger magnified area and I don't have to adjust my head/neck to see... I also bought an adjustable chair, so that I could adjust the height to what allowed me a comfortable position for my neck.

    All of these things really made a difference :) I thought I'd let you know, in case any of these issues are exacerbating your problem.

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  3. Doesn't sound much fun your sessions with the kiné but I'm glad to hear they are working. Here's hoping you don't need all 10.

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  4. Poor Walt! I can sympathise with you. (Judith, I agree with you with the glasses).

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  5. Glad to see you're making progress. Hooray for the bread lady.

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  6. Since the text appears unchanged, I am hoping that you are having positive reactions to your recent session with the therapist, Walt.

    I have other friends who swear by the use of the magnified glasses bought cheaply for computer use as Judy suggests. Personnaly, I have found my progressive lens to work fine. Maybe I just lucked out with the recent (2 years, now) glasses. The previous progressive lens weren't nearly this successful.

    Either way, no one wants someone to have your pain, Walt.

    Mary in Oregon

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  7. at least it sounds 'nice' viz. being touched and rubbed and stretched. Human touch still has a lot of healing properties to it. Too bad we don't allow it more.

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  8. milkjam, that's pretty funny!

    judy, thanks! I mentioned your comment to Ken and he said that he has a pair of those reading glasses that he got in NC on his last trip. He doesn't like they way they fit, so he doesn't use them. So I tried them out. Wow. I can see the screen clearer than with my Rx glasses. And no head tilting!

    n&a, the session are quick, about 10-15 minutes each. I hope they're helping.

    nadege, merci!

    starman, we were surprised that she was working on a holiday. But since there's no delivery on Sundays, Mondays, or Wednesdays, I suppose they didn't want to leave people without a loaf for too long!

    mary, the pain is mostly in my left arm now (and I'm left-handed), an it wasn't all that good on Tuesday, but I didn't change the entry.

    michael, the massage he does feels very good while he's doing it. I wish that feeling would last!

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  9. Another great photo !! Glad to hear your neck problem is improving.

    Speaking professionally, be wary of ready-made glasses. Whilst they can't do you any harm they are unlikely to be the best solution as very few people on the planet have two identical eyes. Much better to see an optician who understands your requirements and can make a proper pair of glasses to the right prescription, whether it be single vision or some form of modified progressive lens (here we call them degressives).

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