The patient never smiles during therapy.
I injured myself back in July and was laid up for several weeks. I got quite weak in the legs, so the doctor sent me to physical therapy.
At the clinic, the therapist did an evaluation. Because I hadn’t been up and walking properly for a while, some of my muscles were stiff, suffering from loss of tone, and out of balance. The therapist decided to “release” these muscles by pressing hard on them with his elbow. This is not comfortable. In fact, it was somewhat painful. At first, I tried to use mediation techniques to deal with the discomfort. Trained yogis can use these techniques to withstand what we would consider to be significant pain (the “lying on a bed of nails” image).
I, however, quickly found I was not adept enough in such techniques. So I went to my fallback position – clenching my jaws and growling loudly. This is effective, but it did catch the attention of everyone else in the clinic.
The therapist, to his credit, didn’t miss a beat. “He’s dreaming,” he told the faces now turned toward me. “He’s not even awake. He thinks he’s gnawing on a rawhide bone.”
