Workout/Therapy table build.

[John Pollman]

I started Physical Therapy this week. I've got to go three times a week through August. They'll reevaluate at that point and see where to go from there. I've got to do a lot of exercise/stretching/therapy at home on the days when I don't go to the therapist. I decided that I needed a convenient and comfortable place for my workouts. Here's what I came up with. I'm no upholsterer, but I think it came out pretty well.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Cool. And once the therapy is all done, you've got a padded assembly table for the shop.

[John Pollman]

That's true Vaughn, but unfortunately I'm probably going to have to use this for the rest of my life. The doctors are telling me that there's no cure and basically no treatment for the condition I'm dealing with. They say that about the only thing I can do is therapy/exercise. We're hoping that the therapy my at least slow the progression and maybe stop it. That would be fine by me but the best case scenario would be that the therapy MIGHT help actually reverse some of what has already taking place. They don't know if that will happen but I can always HOPE. That's what I'm hanging my hat on at this point.

At any rate, I have a comfortable place to do my workouts and it was fairly inexpensive to build.

[Bob Gibson]

I go twice a week myself. Maybe I should build one. I can't upholster though. Yours looks pretty professional

[John Pollman]

Thanks Bob!

It's actually not all that hard. The wood working is a piece of cake. I went to the fabric store and was planning on getting some marine grade vinyl like they use in boats and RV's. That stuff is about $16/yd though. I needed about 2-1/2 yds for the job. I'm glad someone came up to me and asked if I needed help because when I told her what I was looking for, she said that they had just gotten a truck in that morning with a bunch of clearance material. They had some very nice vinyl that was priced at $8/yd and was fine for what I needed it for. The best part of it is that it was in the 50% off rack so it was only $4/yd! I got enough to do the job for $11 and change. I decided to use 2" high density open cell foam for the padding. All that they carried was 24" wide and they sell it for about $31/yd.! I'd have to piece it together because my table top is 36x77. I called The Foam Factory which has a warehouse about a half hour away and I bought a 36x82 piece of the same stuff for $49.

I just laid the foam on the table with a little double sided tape on each end to hold it in place while I stretched the vinyl down and around the edges o the table. I used my electric staple gun to attach it and it went pretty smoothly and came out pretty nice.

[Vaughn McMillan]

That's true Vaughn, but unfortunately I'm probably going to have to use this for the rest of my life...

Sorry to see that. It looks comfortable, well built, and it should serve you for a long time. I'm pulling for it to have a positive effect on your condition. Definitely not trying to make light of the situation, but my first thought was that it would also be a great bench for doing guitar repairs.

[John Pollman]

Oh I know Vaughn. No worries, I didn't take it that way and completely understand. Right now light hearted is a GOOD thing. I've been dealing with this since September and there have been some very stressful bad times and some with better news and happier times. It took about three months after the initial diagnosis which was NOT a good one. In early January, they finally ruled out the initial diagnosis and found that I have something else. It's very similar and very rare. I found out a few months ago that I'm one of only about a hundred people in the entire country with this affliction. The bad news is that there's no cure and no real treatment available. They're hoping that regular therapy and exercise might help stop the progression and allow me to function on a fairly normal level. Although a reduced one from what I'm used to. I'm trying to avoid it, but it looks like I may end up having to file for disability. I'm going to give PT a shot for a while and see what the results are. If they're good, I may hold off. If it doesn't start to show signs that it's helping, I'm going to have to file and hope that I qualify. I know that it takes a long time to get approved if I do file, so I don't want to wait too long.

[Jim C Bradley]

I send you all of my best wishes and hopes for the least problem possible.

Enjoy and happiness to you,

JimB