Page 3 of Blinded
As good as her word, when GT fired the physical therapist on his second visit, his mother moved out. Although she continued to visit daily, it was like being doubly punished because he had to wait for another PT to become available. After five days, he finally got an appointment with Sandra Duncan. Apparently, there was a shortage of physical therapists with the expertise he needed.
Sandra wasn’t so bad as a PT, he supposed. Although she had been late the first day, she had been on time ever since and she knew her job better than he did. She wasn’t one of those overly perky women he hated to be around. Ms. Duncan, or maybe he should call her doctor, was professional and diplomatic even when he was having a bad day. There were two things she didn’t tolerate, though – laziness and over-doing it. She seemed to have a sixth sense that detected both. Take that afternoon two weeks after they had started working together.
GT was napping in his recliner when a sharp female voice woke him. “You’ve been pushing yourself too hard again.”
He opened one eye and peered up at the pissed off brunette who was standing with her hands on her hips. For a moment, he contemplated faking sleep. She wouldn’t buy it, probably throw a glass of cold water in his face, and he wasn’t a coward. GT opened both eyes and grimaced. “What time is it? How did you get in?”
Sandra suppressed a smirk. “Your mother. She said to tell you to be a ‘good boy’ for me and do your exercises as you’re told.”
“I’m an orthopedic surgeon. I know what I’m doing.”
“I didn’t know surgeons studied rehab in detail.” Sandra sounded skeptical.
GT was sleepy enough that an honest answer slipped out ahead of his bravado. “They don’t, just enough for an overview.”
“I believe we’ve had this conversation before, Dr. Lewis.” Sandra sighed. “You need to balance your level of exertion throughout the day, so you still have energy left when I get here. I planned on introducing a new exercise today, but you don’t look like you have the strength left to try it.” She pressed her lips together tightly and GT wondered what else she wanted to say.
GT pulled himself together. “I’m perfectly fine, and I have lots of strength and energy left after my refreshing nap.” He raised the recliner and grabbed the forearm crutches he had graduated to earlier in the week. He rose and quickly sat back down, not having given his body time to adjust from prone to upright.
Sandra crossed her arms. “What was that about lots of energy?” She smiled as she handed him a glass of water. “Here, take a few sips while the blood makes it back to your brain.”
GT was grateful for the water. As much as he knew about human anatomy, the refreshing qualities of plain water could still surprise him. “Okay, let’s try this again,” he said as he put down the glass. He rose smoothly and led her towards the sunroom.
“Good job, Doc. I can barely tell which side you’re favoring. We’ll take care of that limp before you’re back to work. Let’s start by you walking back and forth the length of the room twice. Concentrate on not favoring your left side.” She surveyed the room. “I don’t see your wheelchair. Where is it?”
“Medical supply company picked it up yesterday. You said I didn’t need it anymore, and I decided I didn’t need the temptation of using it when I’m tired.”
“Good thinking. I’ve had clients backslide when they kept wheelchairs when they shouldn’t have.”
Sandra proceeded to put him through his paces with exercises that worked to strengthen his leg muscles as well as regain his mobility. She started him off with sitting calf raises and knee flexes on the edge of the massage table and then had him lie down for straight leg raises. Things were going well until GT’s left leg seized up from a sharp muscle spasm in his groin. “Ow!” he exclaimed as his leg dropped suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” Sandra asked.
“Muscle spasm,” he said as he tried to breathe through the pain.
“Where?”
He groaned. “Inside left thigh up into my groin.”
“All right. Lie back and let me have a look.” Sandra approached him as one would a dangerous animal, which seemed like overkill to GT.
“I don’t bite.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do, sometimes. The question is, how hard?”
She reached his left side and began to lower his sweatpants. “Can you lift your hips at all? I need to be able to feel the muscles to get you relief.”
Although the pain was so intense he thought for a moment he’d torn a ligament, he managed to get his hips up a fraction of an inch. Sandra eased his sweatpants down. He supposed she was trying to be gentle, but you couldn’t prove it by how he felt. She got them to his knees and then began palpating his left leg at the knee and moved upwards.
Sandra found the right muscles in seconds, and she slowly massaged them, moving up and down the leg, going deeper with each pass. She focused on the leg and did her best to forget its owner. She was succeeding until her hand brushed his balls as she tried to put pressure on the knot she thought was the center of the problem. From the brief contact she was convinced it was an impressive package.
She cleared her throat to hide her embarrassment. “Excuse me, can you please move your scrotum out of the way so I can get my hands on the tendons I need to without pinching or accidentally touching you inappropriately?” She braced for a jerk reply, but it never came.
He reached down and gave her a look she couldn’t read. He maintained eye-contact as he adjusted himself and a wave of heat shot through her. What’s that about, I don’t even like him, remember?
“I need you to breathe in deeply and hold it. This is not going to feel good.” She followed her own advice and took a deep breath before pressing down on the muscle with one hand on top of the other. “All right. Exhale,” she said when she felt a slight pop.
“How’s that?”
