Where have all the old folks gone?

If 59 were really middle age, then people would be living to 120. So it makes sense that I’m often on the older side in any given group. Certainly that’s the case in my cardio-kickboxing class, where lots of the other women have kids in daycare. It’s definitely true at my school, where most of the teachers are 10, 20 or even 30 years younger than me. And forget about the kids.

            But this is physical therapy.  Why should I feel old in this room?

            I expected to rub elbows with hip and knee replacements. I thought I’d feel younger than the 70-somethings and 80-somethings recovering from falls and strokes and the like.  Instead, I feel old, ridiculously old, like I’m stuck in some sort of after school program for teenage athletes.

             As it turns out, these patients just don’t look like they’re in high school. They are in high school.  No doubt, there are older folks at other times of the day, but when I dash here from my school, these kids are coming here from theirs.  Maybe some of them have their own drivers’ licenses, but there are an awful lot of moms here, too, playing with their i-phones to pass the time.

            The kids are busy stretching tight hamstrings and strengthening damaged knees; they’re doings exercises for sore shoulders and achy backs.  They’re stretching and strengthening, working the machines and lifting the weights, using the stretch bands and improving their balance.  They’re talking to each other about English papers and math exams, upcoming games and mean teachers. The girls are wearing impossibly tiny stretch pants, and the guys still have that sweet, unshaven look to their cheeks.  They’re all looking fit and trim, bursting with youth and energy.  And I’m looking, well, like I need some physical therapy.

            I hear the physical therapists talk to the kids about upcoming practices for hockey, soccer, basketball, cross-country teams.  So I assume the kids all earned their injuries the active way, by training too hard or taking a bad fall.

            Not me. According to my doctor, my own injury occurred spontaneously. He diagnosed it as a “frozen shoulder.” Odd, I thought to have an injury that sounds like either a dessert or a weather condition. Apparently, if given enough time, it will go away by itself, but the physical therapy has been helping it heal much faster. In fact, my shoulder isn’t almost completely “thawed” now and my range of motion is pretty much back to what it was.

            Now I’m just waiting for my confidence to return.