My son Alex and I were on a walk when Alex looked over at me. “Are you limping?”
I stopped for a moment. “You know, I am.” I began walking again trying not to limp. “My hip’s been bothering me.”
“What caused that?”
“I guess my bursitis is acting up.” I started to laugh. “I think I just uttered an ‘I’m so old’ sentence!”
“What are you talking about?” Alex slowed down our pace to help me out. “I’ve had bursitis before, in both my shoulders. Remember?”
“Oh, my gosh! I forgot.” I looked over at him. “That makes me feel so much better!”
Alex started to laugh. “Okay.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
We were going to cross the street and I actually had to stop a moment to think how I was going to step off the curb without causing any pain.
“I meant that I thought bursitis was something only old people get.” I could feel the pinch in the hip as I stepped down but it quickly let up.
“Have you been doing the stretches physical therapy gave you the last time you had it?”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “Once they did a few cupping sessions on the outside of my thigh it went away. So I never gave it another thought.”
“Big mistake.” Alex said shaking his head.
I stopped a moment to rub my hip but also to admire a small bed of purple crocuses in one of our neighbors front yards. “I’m realizing that now.”
We were at the bottom of one of the hills in our neighborhood. I looked up at the steep incline. “Well, this should be interesting.”
Alex looked concerned. “Do you want to turn around and go back?”
“No.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I know you’re suppose to rest when you have a flair up but for some reason I feel better when I keep moving.”
“I’m telling you you need to start doing the stretches again.”
We began walking up the hill but halfway up I stopped. “Give me a second.”
I went over to a telephone pole and leaned against it while I swung my leg from side to side. After a few moments of doing that I reached behind me grabbing the toe of my foot and pulling up as far as I could pull it, holding it like that for a few moments before dropping it back to the ground. I added in a few squats, still holding on to the telephone pole for balance, before standing back up. I did a quick test by moving my hips side to side to see if the stretching had helped. “That feels so much better!” I looked over at Alex. “You’re right it is all about the stretching!”
Alex was looking around the neighborhood to see if anyone had been watching me. As we headed back up the hall Alex looked over at me. “Next time maybe you could do your stretches before we leave the house?”
Slice of Life 