Done with my Shoulder Physical Therapy

Well, it's over! The 6th was my last physical therapy session. Today was my followup consultation with Dr. Mancao. I showed her how my left shoulder improved. She suggested that I do fly's much later though and not much on how to prevent injuries. I suppose though that since their focus is rehab medicine, it's treatment and not prevention where their oriented.

Here's Dr. Mancao and my therapist, Martin.


Everyone there were in a fine mood for pics and so, here's the rest of the therapists there. They were even inviting me to their patients' christmas party on the 22nd.

English Camp and Coup d' etat Curfew

I was undertime today just to make it at home and take Tita Gay, Sandra and Renz to the Fresnedi Sports Center in time for the presentations. And yes, we arrived there before 6pm, the announced time. Here's a blurry Renz and Sandra trying to kill time at the still empty gym.


DH was just coming home at that time and worried she might not see the presentation numbers. Boy, were we wrong! At about 6:30pm, the Math teacher says we'll start at 7pm without any explanation for the delay. There was grumbling from the bleachers. Well, this things happen, I thought. Maybe there were some technical problems of some sort. But you gotta wonder, this is a Speech Choir. I don't think the presentation numbers won't have any special sound or lighting requirements.

7pm came around and... nothing - no further announcements. The English teachers were just milling around the front, chatting with each other and talking over cellphones. Then I saw this.


A couple of the judges seats on the left side of the table were empty. I thought the teachers must still be waiting for the two judges. They already had 3 or 4 judges there. At around 7:20pm, I decided this was enough. Originally, I had wanted to speak over the mic and make my complaint heard by everyone. But I thought better and just planned on speaking with an English teacher instead.

I got down from the bleachers and upon seeing one English teacher, I gave my "what IS this?" gesture. Upon seeing me approach her with a not-so-friendly look on my face, she advanced to meet me. I wasn't sure if people were staring at us, but I sure felt like it. The gym was noisy and her voice was not loud enough and this is what I remembered:

Me: How much longer do you want us to wait???
ET: Yes, we're sorry for the delay.
Me: Delay? We've been here since 6pm!
ET: Yes, you see we're waiting for 2 more judges.
Me: Are you saying their time is far more important than ours?
ET: No, but please try to understand.
Me: Well, you have your other judges here! Do you know what time it is? Is this the discipline we teach our children?
ET: Sir, I'm also an English Teacher.
Me: You tell the students and parents that program starts at 6pm. My goodness it's almost 7:30pm already!
ET: Yes, we'll start. We'll start now. We'll start now.
Me: Please!
(I then motioned to an emcee who was looking at us, to start by pointing at my watch.)

As I got back to my seat, she glanced towards me at the bleachers to see where (or who?) I was. Again I pointed at my watch to show I was serious. And good thing I did all that. The program started at 7:25pm and everyone in the bleachers was relieved. There was the usual parade of colors, the hymns and the speeches. Guess what, one judge arrived at 7:45pm and the other? 8:00pm! By that time, the program was well underway.

Ya know, sometimes I wonder why nowadays I always muster the strength and get the urge to speak out, especially when I feel I'm "called" for it. And I could only thank (or is that blame? ) my training as a Toastmaster. As a Toastmaster, speaking out just comes naturally I suppose. You're trained to compose a "mini-speech" prior to speaking as in Prepared Speeches and Table Topics.

Anyway, after a few number from 1st year and 2nd year, Karen's class Euler came and their speech is "The Congo". Here are a few shots.




Che's class Fermi gave the speech "Man with the Hoe".




Before 10pm, we planned on buying dinner for the two but with Trillanes' stupid adventurism (again!), there was horrnendous traffic everywhere even at the SLEX, shops closed (even at SLT) because of the sudden curfew and there was nothing to buy.

We should've listened to Renz who was practically begging us to go home while we were engrossed with the nice presentations. At the introduction of judges segment which was only done prior to the 4th year level, Renz said "huwag na po natin silang kilalanin!"

5th and 6th Physical Therapy Session

It was my last shoulder therapy out of 6 sessions last night. I must say my shoulder feels better and stronger. I still need to meet Dr. Mancao though for my followup consultation. I just don't know when that'll be coz she'll be away.

6th Therapy Session

Same as the 5th session below but add:

• Reverse torch using bands. Tension or band starts at overhead on the right. Pull diagonally downwards to the left. Thumbs up at start, thumbs down at the end.
  
• Rowing motion using bands. Pull with full range. Keep elbows and fists up.

5th Therapy Session

• Hot compress 20 mins.
  
• Ultrasound 5 mins.
  
• Sitting Position. Press/ Release. Physical Therapist (PT) press hard on teres minor/major and then release.
  
• Sitting Position. Slow stretching.
  
• Lying Position. PT pull gently on the shoulder from socket (joint mobilization)

Following are the exercises. Need to rest in between exercises.

• Stand. Using 2 lbs. dumbbell, front shoulder raises (not full range) 15 reps
  Stand. Side shoulder raises (open forward when approaching shoulder height). To ear. Slowly.
  
• Stand. Using 4 lbs. dumbbell, bicep curls (not full range to shoulder)
  
• Stand. Using 4 lbs. dumbbell, tricep extensions (not full range to back)
  
• Stand. Stretch band. Towel in armpits. Outer, 90 degrees only. Tension starts at 45 degrees. 7 second hold. 15 reps.
  
• Stand. Stretch band. Towel in armpits. Inner, 90 degrees only. Tension starts at 45 degrees. 7 second hold. 15 reps.
  
• Torch or sword motion. Simulated activity. Stretch cord position at waist or sword's sheath. Motion is diagonal like raising a torch. Do not straigthen/ lock elbows.
  
• V-motion. Stretch cords behind back. From shoulder level, raise arms like stretching into a V towards the front.

Toastmasters Timing Lights Device

I received the newly built timing lights from Anthony last Monday, Nov 19. This is the DIY (do-it-yourself) project I challenged him to do. This was brought about as a project I conceived as the Sergeant-at-Arms in my Toastmasters Club.

Here's the schematic diagram I gave him last Oct 22 that shows just the basic circuit. Resistors and other specs are not shown here:



Here's the device as he built it with the green light on. The price was finally negotiated down to Php800 from Php1500. Materials were estimated at Php400.
I wasn't satisfied with the pingpong balls coz the light effect wasn't bright enough. In a dark room, the balls only had a soft pastel color. But we hardly have meetings in a dark room. So, the lights need to be brighter.


After considering so many options, here's the planned new device - disassembled. The green LED below is lighted. The tough part here is cleaning the threaded parts. They're the ones below the LEDs. First they had to be cut from old water bottles. Then the excess plastic is shaved off using a sharp cutter.


The plastic caps above are the dispenser cups that came with the Theraherb VCO (Virgin Coconut Oil) bottles. Another challenge is in attaching the cap to the threaded plastic. For this, I put superglue at the edge of the threaded plastic rim. I placed the threaded plastic on a coin to raise it and then put over the cap.

And this is how the new device looks like with the caps on. Notice the 'frosting' effect that occured because of the superglue that was applied. I don't know why this happens. I could only assume the chemical (acidic?) from the superglue is just too strong that it affects surrounding material.


Finally, the lights in action. The lights look brighter with the new cap cover. Notice also the labels I put on the box. I created these with my Casio Labeler.


Here's how the new "bulb" height compared with the old. Notice that the newer ones are just almost half that of the old. By having a lower profile, the "bulbs" won't be protruding too much hence making them safer.


I noticed that when the LEDs are faced directly to the speaker, they appear much brighter.


Again, here are the lights in action. Notice how really bright they look when faced to you.


Well, that's it! Hopefully, this timing lights device will be serving us for quite a long time in our Toastmasters meetings. Hmmm. Maybe I could even write out a speech regarding this!

Update: A bit of bad news, the electric timing lights device decided to retire and so we went back to the reliable old standby manual system, but with a twist. Here's what we now use as our new Toastmasters timing device. It isn't fancy but it does the job!

Hawaiian Themed Birthday Swimming

We attended Jay's Hawaiian themed birthday for daughter Julianna. Only Renz and Dada went with us as the munsci kids had speech choir practice. I was a bit hesitant initially since I was still worried about my left shoulder. Renz was insistent though. DH bought gifts at Pavilion Mall while I scoured around Mercury for possible cover caps for the timing lights' LEDs (more on that later). So tentatively I bought a couple more Theraherb VCO's (one kiddie choco and one sweet corn).

The Fresco (or is that Frezco?) Resort at Brgy. San Antonio was a bit hard to find. There were no clear signs for St. Francis 10. But after asking folks, we found it was just right after Morales. We saw Mar already there and sat at his table.


Sandra even joined the pabitin. Here she is asking Renz to join.


where she managed to grab a few stuff!


Renz went on to queue up for the freebies. And he got a toy for greeting the celebrant.


Sandra and Renz getting more food from the buffet table. There was even a choco fondue fountain!


More freebies (hawaiian sun visors) from Jay Santos.


Time for swimming at the kiddie pool.


The pool's really too shallow for you, Da.




Finally, taking on the adult pool. The water's cold. There were only a few adults at the pool.


Renz playing around with his usual (un)balancing routine.


Renz also practiced his flutter kicks.


As for me, I gingerly tried the dog paddle which doesn't hit the sore shoulder part. But it was much too boring and so I boldly tried the freestyle and backstroke. I only had to rotate more so I don't overstretch the shoulder.

At around 3pm, we packed up and left. We went straight to Casa Medica SM Southmall after verifying with Rehab for my schedule. Funny the therapy went really smooth. I think it was all the preliminary stretching that happened at the pool.

The Abstract Concept - Toastmasters Speech

Another advanced speech manual slammed! Today I went to the Cummins office at LIIP Mamplasan (my first time) for the Demo Meeting over at lunch. Finally.

This demo meeting has long been anticipated from Ann, but I suppose getting all logistics in order has become a challenge. Ann had wanted to get the top honchos to attend and I think that was the right way to do it. Get the people who will buy-in to the proposal for the Toastmasters Club. Get them involved, and ultimately, committed into putting time and money to get the club off the ground.

The demo team was composed of: District Gov. Gina Mapua, Div H Gov. Gles Fuertes, Area Gov. Lolet and myself. Doc Larry was supposed to join but backed-off at the last minute. Anyway, the session went okay. I fumbled a lot on the Table Topic "Why I joined Toastmasters". I'm getting rusty in this department and didn't notice the time whiz by!

The audience was all from management. After the meeting, the GM said he was shocked (his word) with what he saw. On my prepared speech, I think I did good on the speech project The Abstract Concept, entitled "Food for the Dead", although I really need to prepare more. Evaluator Gina suggested bullet points for notes as she noticed the whole script on paper. Argh! Yeah, gotta remember that one. See the entire text of the speech here.


I suppose I made the speech hastily as it took me a while to select the topic. I was hovering on the following topics: "What if Jose Rizal Escaped to Cuba", "Tomorrow's Jobs", "The 4th Dimension" and "Food of the Dead". The first 3 topics sounded just so boring to me. I knew I could deliver on the 4th topic being just so recent and has a homey flavor to it.

The Cummins group was gracious for having us there, but judging from their faces, it seemed they weren't sure what to expect. In the speech, I was able to interact with one executive when I learned he's Ilocano. I had the chance to briefly converse with him this ritual or practice that was the topic of the speech. Getting curious, Gina even chimed in asking for the book reference's title and author.

After the demo, we had Yellow Cab pizza for lunch. I also received the next advanced manuals from Lolet. Thanx Lolet!

And thanx Ann for having us at your office! Thanx guys!
See all my Toastmasters Speeches online here!

Sandra's Birthday 2007

Happy Birthday Dada! Yeah, it's another of those Rocky Road days. We started really late coz the munsci kids had practice. I learned from Che that the cd "A Whole New World" I burned for her wasn't used. Argh. DH came late too. None of these dampened Renz's excitement a bit. Da's blowout had chicken, chowking's pancit canton (expensive at Php95) and some siomai. Tita Gay cooked carbonara.


Karen's having one of those 'sumpong' days. She resented the 'compress' action I asked for to get a better shot. Sandra and Renz happyily compressed in the picture below leaning to the left. But you can see Karen's mean face giving them "the look". Che's feeling really cool today, not grumpy, not hungry. She and her group at school cooked really good spaghetti. I gave it a "two-thumbs up!" It was gone in a few minutes.

Physical Therapy Update

It was muscle strengthening time once again today for my left shoulder (bicipital tendinitis). We started with the usual: hot gel packs for 20 minutes and ultrasound for 5 minutes. Then it was stretching and exercises.

The basic stretching was composed of shoulder mobilization. Martin the therapist would take the arm and stretch it GENTLY outwards towards him while I'm lying. He moves the shoulder around the socket, up and down and then left to right. He would also put his hand under the shoulder blade to aid in the mobilization. Then I'd do the arm raises. I raise the arm upwards and overhead for 10 counts. It's all gradual progression. First he assists and then by myself. Then I do the lateral arm raise while lying down. I raise the arm at the side while opening the hand to face front and then face right. In these, anytime I feel pain or soreness, he'd do the mobilization stretch again.

Then I'd sit. He'd stretch the back exercises teres minor and major. So my left arm would be wound around the body gently stretching the back muscles. He'd sometimes massage these muscles.

Then I'd stand to do the exercises. Standing, I'd do front shoulder raises with 2 lb dumbbells. The lateral shoulder raises. Bicep curls for 4 pounds and then Tricep Extensions. The initial reps are assisted and there will be 10 reps.

Then I'd do the stretchcord exercises with a folded towel squeezed in my left armpit. The towel would supposedly isolate the parts to be exercised. While standing, I'd do the inner pull and then the outer pull. Both pulls aren't full range of motion - just 90 degrees.

Judging from the above therapy session, I'd conclude the importance of 2 things that I've neglected and has resulted in this overuse injury: Dryland Exercises and Bilateral Breathing.

Dryland Exercise: I need to strengthen the shoulder and the surrounding muscles. Strengthening it would stabilize it and allow it to take all that repetetive motion. Doing the dumbbells and stretchcords stuff isn't difficult for me. It's essentially knowing the proper technique (form, progression, poundage) and doing them RELIGIOUSLY.

Bilateral Breating: I could only assume that the reason it was the left shoulder
and not the right is because I breath on the right side. I suppose I roll sufficiently to my right. I couldn't say the same for the left side. I may be overstretching the left shoulder if I don't roll sufficiently to my left side. In other words, I now need to BALANCE the stroke. Maybe doing the 2-beat crossover kick with bilateral breathing might just be the combo I need.

Because of this conclusion, I'm now putting the flip-turn goal aside. I'd rather much focus in rebuilding what I lost first. As Martin said, me regaining my previous strength and flexibility may not be easy but it will happen.

A Mall at Our Doorstep

SM's here! Yes, finally SM Supercenter opened last Friday, Nov.16. Going home after the 2nd therapy session at Casa Medica the traffic was terrible starting at the Shell gas station. It took me 30 minutes from Susana to our place where before it only took me 5 mins. As I passed by SM at as snail's pace, I kept wondering what prompted these hordes of people to come and block traffic. Did they come for balloons? Later, I learned there were some the celebrities there, some buy-1-get-1 promos and freebees (no, not balloons).

I assumed it would still be the same the following day, Saturday, and so we just watered the plants at the apartment. Now we have to do the watering early so we don't get caught with the mall's opening at 10am. Since Karen was out for practice, we heard mass the following day, Sunday. After mass we just walked (yes, WALKED) towards SM. It was cloudy so the kids didn't mind. Our subdivision is in between the church and the new mall, so we can just walk from our house. Nice, huh?


Inside, there were the usual: National Book Store, Booksale, Ace Hardware, Goldilocks, Odyssey, Games & Gadgets, McDo, Jollibee, Tokyo Tokyo, Chowking, and many more. Corz there was the food court and 4 cinemas. I took lots of pictures but then, what's the point of posting them here, right? You've seen one SM mall, you've seen 'em all!

Except for Booksale and Games and Gadgets (where I was looking for a replacement housing), we didn't linger around though. Renz was hungry but there was nowhere to go. All the food shops were packed! With all the excitement to eat inside the mall, we finally settled to buy takeout food (lechon paksiw) by the roadside.


Yummy Lechon Paksiw at the lechonan! And so that was our first visit to the mall by our doorstep. Everything (except for work and school) seems to be walking distance from us now: church, drugstores, bakeries, police station (hopefully, we won't need anything from there)and the mall!

Anybody Still Use a Typewriter?

Alright, I concede that many of our police stations still use typewriters - and maybe so do other goverment office. DH was looking for some docs and stumbled on our old manual typewriter. She opened and showed it to Renz and Sandra.


To these two, what they discovered is a mechanism of "awesome" proportions! They were SO excited just punching the keys and seeing the letters actually punched on the paper. They've gotten so used to our computer's keyboard and how the letters boringly showup on the monitor screen. So what this antique equipment physically does was fascinating to them.

Che's Birthday 2007

Happy Birthday Che! Too bad, no Marjolaine today coz the kids opted for a Rocky Road cake. It was okay but too soft for my taste. Che's class had a late pratice today for their English Camp's Speech Choir.


Tomorrow, I'll be delivering my speech on A Fact Finding Report entitled "Drowning Prevention".

Rehab of my Left Shoulder

I finally received the office doc's request to see a physiotrist (rehab medicine) for my left shoulder. She calls it Frozen Shoulder. I was expecting the rehab to be requested since it's been almost a month now that the pain has remained. I've not been getting a good night's sleep coz of the soreness. This is especially when without realizing it, the shoulder goes into an awkward position.

The physiotrist, however didn't say that, but simply pressed my neck, back and shoulders to look for tenderness. The doctor, Dr. Betty Mancao, says she still recognizes me from 2004 when I had my back rehab treatment due to my heavy deadlifts from lifting weights back then. The reason I came back to her was coz her treatment on me in 2004 was very effective. I suppose it's one reason why she has so many patients until today. I was so lucky coz inspite of me being there before her time at 3:30pm, I was already the last patient for her to see.

The rehab clinic has moved inside at Casa Medica and is now much bigger with maybe 10 beds or more compared to the previous setup which only had 3. The procedures were still the same: hot packs for 20 minutes to relax, ultrasound (for deep tissues) for 5 minutes and the rest were exercises. This time, the stretching exercises were mostly assisted by the physical therapist, Martin. There was no hard tugs or pulls. It was all carefully positioned gentle stretches. The left shoulder blade was stretched also.

Doc Mancao's diagnosis as written on the endorsement slip to Medicard (my HMO) is Bicipital Tendinitis (or Tendonitis). The illustration below shows where the Bicipital Tendinitis is.


Here's a brief overview of the therapy stretching exercises.

Here's another exercise set.
You'll find details on the dumbbell weight exercises here and here.
The details of the stretch cord exercises are illustrated here and here.

I also supplemented my therapy with shoulder exercises at home.

My tendinitis is due to overuse of the shoulder from a "throwing activity". I suppose those explosive butterfly strokes in swimming count as "throwing". Its common to swimmers, rowers, throwers, weightlifters and golfers. A related article may be seen here.

How was the PT session you ask? Well, it was VERY effective coz for the first time I slept soundly without being bothered by the shoulder!

The Demonstration Talk - Toastmasters Speech

Well, tonight was Toastmasters night and the speeches were all great! Too bad, club prez Ma'm Lolet wasn't there.

I was busy all this week on pending projects and that emceeing job at the Service Awards Banquet at Bellevue Hotel last Tuesday. So I chose a speech topic that I'd find easy to deliver. The speech is entitled "The Eggbeater Kick" where I demonstrated how this treading technique is performed. It was both fun and easy to deliver coz I've been regularly doing this treading technique for a while. I also brought along my laptop to show a clip of an underwater video. Vivs evaluated me for the speech and said she might just start re-learning swimming again. Kewl!

Thanx to Doc Larry for bringing the projector. The audience really appreciated seeing the video and the other presentations on the "big screen". Neil's speech on "Lasers" and Larry's speech on "Wealth" also used the projector and so, in one word, it was "sulit". Vivienne and Neil gave a two-in-one interesting speech, with Neil playing Host and Vivs playing Guest in Talk Show. I admit it was a bit strange for me to be seeing that kind of a presentation speech coz I've never seen one before. But I must say it was both interesting and refreshing. We also had a guest observer Gigi attending last night.

Speaking of that emceeing job at Bellevue Hotel, I wonder if there's a toastmasters speech for an advanced manual somewhere where I could've gotten credit for it. The only trouble with this real-life emceeing jobs though is they're mostly in Taglish coz you'd have to play the part like your co-emcees. Hmmm...
See all my Toastmasters Speeches online here!

Emceeing at the Service Awards '07

Last night I was part of the hosting group which emcee'ed at the Service Awards. The Awards Night was held at the Grand Ballroom of the Bellevue Hotel in Alabang. I wasn't too impressed with my hosting "performance" though. There are a couple of reasons that I could think of.

• We lacked practice. The only real practice we had was the intro - which I thought was excellent. We covered it very well. There was no "dead air" and each of us had sufficient airtime. It seemed to go downhill from then on. I suppose I should've thought of more topics to talk about when there were lulls especially during the photo ops. Topics to talk about are the hire-years of the awardees, essence/ importance of the technical excellence awards, difficulty of writing tech papers, etc. I had so much in my mind, but I forgot to talk coz I just didn't think it was appropriate to talk at the time. Now, I know better. Keep on talking!
  
  
• The flow could've been better. There were some problems with the actual giving of certificates coz some of the certificates did not match with the awardees. This terribly slowed down the cadence. Olsen the director wanted us to really get it going in the interest of time. The managers however kept telling us to slow down.
  

Ah well. It was all a learning experience. One regret is I came too early at 12:30pm. There really was no need for us emcees until 4pm. Program started at 6pm anyway. The dancers took all the practice time. It was hot (aircon not yet on) and the entrance and stairs smelled like rotting fish. The testing of the sound system was too much and too loud. Here are the guys from my department. Tony was also an emcee.


The food was good though. We were served, but I still went to the buffet table. It was 'open bar' and so there was beer everywhere. I only had two bottles. The entertainment was balanced. Jay-R for the ladies and Champagne Morales and Mocha Band for the guys. The Carmona Performing Arts Group gave a couple of dance numbers. It took a long time to really heat up at the end and so I left at 10:45pm.

Will I do it again? Sure, if only to prove that with all these learnings I will do so much better next time!