Rx for Mom

“I want you to go to the pool and exercise your leg several times a week,” the doctor said. Yeah, sure, I thought. I don’t even own a swimsuit. “Nothing strenuous, just walk across the pool and let the water support the muscles in your knee,” he explained, then continued, “Don’t do laps or anything.” Who, me? I told him he wouldn’t get that from me!

Still, it was doctor’s orders. I’m sensitive to most medications, and this was something natural I could do. That and continue wearing my splint for 3 more weeks, as he instructed. Like the reluctant Naaman in the Bible, who was reminded that if Elisha had required something hard of him to be healed, he would have done it, yet he was only told to dip 7 times in the river Jordan. I would consider it.

I mentioned it and my reservations on the phone to my daughter, Julie. “Mom, some of the swimsuits are much more modest now,” she told me. “They have swim shorts, skirts, and even swim leggings!” Really? Well, it might be worth a try, though I hadn’t gone swimming in years.

Then daughter Amy, from Georgia, suggested a store, one that we happen to have here. “They have lots of modest swimsuits,” she assured me. So today I got up my courage and went shopping. The store Amy mentioned said they hadn’t stocked swimsuits in five years. (This isn’t Atlanta, after all!)

I’d seen some in Walmart featured prominently near the front as I shopped for groceries recently, not giving them a second glance. So I headed there. Most weren’t suitable (no pun intended) at all, but I was pleasantly surprised to find what I remembered as designer labels on well-made suits. I even saw the swim shorts and skirts my daughter had told me about, but no leggings. I selected three and bravely headed to the dressing room to face the three-way mirror.

It was actually a close choice. I was surprised again that they all had possibilities, but I ruled out two. I tried on the third one again, a skirted one-piece with a well-covered top, and decided to get it--a designer brand and on sale, too. My husband deemed it proper, so tomorrow I’ll initiate it.

Lest I get too confident, I just have to reflect on something that happened last week when my son had handed me a package. “Mom, have you ever seen something called Blue Tooth, a phone you wear in your ear? They’re real popular,” he went on. Yes, I had seen them. “Well, that’s not what this is, but it looks like it,” he finished. I opened the package to find a Super Sonic Personal Sound Amplifier. A hearing aid! I quickly deferred to his father, who needed it more, in my opinion. Kids sure know how to make you feel old!