Things are looking up. And my arm is straighter

And I don't scream so much. I groan a lot. Especially when Brenda puts her knee under my
armpit and pulls my arm away from my body sideways. I try to keep talking non-stop to her
and chew gum at the same time. It keeps my screaming level down to..... oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh........ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........... STOP... It is embarrassing to
be the only one being such a baby in physical therapy. But when you have an almost frozen
shoulder (a true frozen shoulder would mean you cannot even lift it yourself. It is literally useless and someone else has to move it for you.) and someone pulls it out and stretches it. Well, just imagine the pain of someone ripping your arm out of its socket. Then you get the picture. I have
already been through John, the therapist. He lasted only the first day. I could not help it. I had
no idea how bad the shoulder was until he started manipulating it. Or tried to. Because at that point this blood curdling scream came out of my mouth that I had no idea was going to happen.
Every head in the place turned, it got real quiet. And John, went to call my orthopedist. The next day I had Brenda. Now Brenda is very sneaky. She talks baby talk to you in Puerto Ricanesse. Youse doing soooo gud...... thats good, thats good. A little more, just a little more.
Com on, youse can do it...... She is so sweet that you just bite you tongue and let her kill you.
So, then after Brenda left huge bruises on my arms, they gave me Ricky who is actually in training to be the director of the place. He has his PHD and will be getting his license soon. He taught me more about the tendons, muscles and shoulder parts then I ever knew. How they work together. Why he is working certain joints. He likes to jiggle and shake things out. He works up to the big pull, so you are doing a slow motion groan.... Did you know that everytime
you work out on weights or work your muscles hard, you are actually tearing them and repairing them. Think of raw meat. Thats your shoulder muscles. And you tear them down in order to build them back up. That is why you are so sore from a workout the day before. Those little tears are healing up. Interesting. I will never take my shoulders for granted, again.
So, now I have Brenda. And I tried bribing her with Tostones and Templeque, two puerto rican foods she loves. I have now grown to love them too. Especially those coconut squares. But,
she just ate them up, and then proceeded to hurt me. But I am getting her scared of me. Yesterday she was trying to show me the position for an arm stretch on the table. And she did not quite have her arm as straight as it should be. So, I very nicely reached over and flattened her arm for her. And said, "Let me help you". (its exactly what she says and does to me when my shoulder or arm is not quite, there. She pushes it a bit more) Brenda looked at me "shocked" and said, "youse are scaring me". And I mean nothing derogatory by imitating her accent. She mostly puts on the accent heavy because we all love it. She tells us when she gets mad, she loses her accent. Lucky for me, I have not heard that yet!! So, I am almost there. I can do
everything in the stretch department expect touch my bra strap. I can even put hot rollers
on the back of my head again. Here are my tostones and templeque. They are very good.
Just fried green plantains and coconut dessert squares. Mojo sauce goes good with the Tostones or you can just use ketchup. They taste like crispy french fries. Oh, and I bought
way too many flower seeds for the Fall. Lost my mind.