A Fighting Chance

Chapter 12

Demi

I watched as Nick exited my office, leaving me there, with a smile plastered on my face. I had no idea what he had planned for my upcoming birthday, but I was pretty eager to find out. I directed my attention towards my computer and logged into our server. Once I was logged in, I went ahead and requested the day off. With my birthday being on a Thursday this year, I went ahead and just requested that Thursday and Friday off, so I could just have an extended weekend. I am sure I was going to need to catch up on some sleep after spending time with Nick. Just thinking about hanging out with him left me feeling excited and anxious. As I sat there, getting lost in my thoughts, my receptionist rang in and told me my next appointment was here. I snapped back to reality, and made my way over to where my client was. I invited her back to the back room, with me, and then got started on our session together.

"How are you today, Sarah?" I asked as I reviewed her chart to see what we worked on the last time she was in here.

"Oh, you know, just the same shit," she said with a laugh. I couldn't help, but laugh as I glanced up at Sarah. She was always cracking me up during our workouts. She had just a great personality, I loved working with her.

"And how is the back doing?" I asked as I closed the file, crossed my arms, and looked up to acknowledge Sarah.

I watched as Sarah just shrugged. "I dont know. I would say about the same. I have been working on my exercises, but I don't feel like it is really making much of a difference," she said with a little bit of disappointment.

"Sarah, these things take time. Remember what I told you the first time we met. It's going to be a slow recovery and we have to remain positive," I said as I set the folder down and moved around to look at her back. Sarah just nodded her head and stayed quiet. I examined her back as I decided what I wanted to have her do next. She was in a really bad car accident a few weeks ago, and messed up her lower back pretty bad. Right now the doctors want her to go through a four week program with me to see if that can relieve any of the stress on the lower back, and if not, they may have to consider surgery.

After looking at Sarah's back, I decided that we were still going to be focusing on the more initial program exercises. Even though she should be progressing to that next level, I feel it is best for her to go few more rounds with the initial activities. "Ok, Sarah, we are going to continue with our exercises that we have been working on these last few weeks that you have been in, but we are going to mix things up. I have three new exercises that I want to add into your program, and I want to see how you handle them," I said as I watched for approval. Sarah just nodded her head and listened for my instructions. "Ok, the first exercise that you are going to do is called 'Heel Slides'. What I want you to do is to lay flat on your back," I explained as I watched her shift into position until she was lying down flat. "Ok, now what you are going to do is take that right leg, and you are going to slowly bend your knee, you should feel something in your lower back as your leg is moving closer towards your body," I said as I watched as she did what I asked. I watched as Sarah clenched her teeth as she brought her leg up. "Great, you're doing a great job, Sarah. Ok, after you bend the knee, you will straighten it back out until your leg is flat on the ground once more. Remember, you want to keep your heel down at all times," I explained as I continued to watch. After she completed the exercise once, I asked her to do ten more, and then told her she could have a break.

Sarah plowed through the exercise pretty easily, so I gave her two more exercises that I really wanted her to focus on. Once we were done with those, I had her go through her normal routine. Sarah got done with her exercises pretty quickly. I noticed towards the end of our session, she started to regress, which was normal. I wasn't wanting to put her through too much, so I let her go early, which she didn't seem to mind either.