Not quite rocking the Rock Hill aquatics center 2

A black and white dog with a red vest sits near the edge of a pool.

Today I decided to try a different water aerobics class.  The one at the Y closest to me starts at 10AM, which is just a bit early for me.  This one at the Rock Hill center starts at 11:15.  Much more reasonable!

So I took Hestia, and was brave enough to drive there by myself (new place to drive to), and try out the class by ourselves.

When we walked in, we had to ask directions to the pool, and the lady behind the counter was not wanting Hestia to go with me.  It took a bit to convince her, and I couldn’t just walk away because I didn’t know how to get to the pool!  Eventually she relented and Hestia and I went to the pool.

Unfortunately, this pool had no good place to put a dog.  I started out by leashing her to an unused ladder, but this was in the deep end of the pool where I couldn’t touch, so I couldn’t do water aerobics!  So I moved her to a pole briefly, but that had the wheelchair ramp right next to it so I was really too far away to be comfortable.  Eventually I asked the lifeguard if I could attach her leash to their station, and they said yes.  They were very kind about it all, I discussed each move with them prior to doing it to make sure we wouldn’t be in the way etc.

Attached to the lifeguard chair, Hestia was not really in the way, but kinda in the way.  And she was further from the pool than I would like.  But she settled in OK and I went about my class.

Wow is there a big difference between the arthritis class I’ve been going to at the Charlotte Ave YMCA and this water aerobics class!  It was much more intense.  I had to stop and take breaks a few times.  About 40 minutes into the class, Hestia suddenly stopped chewing on her bully stick, sat up, stared at me and barked.  I hushed her at first, but the third time she barked like that I knew it was a real alert and I had better get out of there.

It’s hard because anywhere else when I am having issues I can simply hold her and goo about my business [typo kept for fun], using her as I’m participating.  But I can’t do that in the pool.  So I got my stuff and we left.  I was already getting short of breath, so we hurried out to the car.

I didn’t have a full blown panic attack, just was short of breath and a little crying.  And I was also feeling horrible for not making it through a water aerobics class.  I don’t like it when my disability prevents me from doing something I want to do.  It is very frustrating and makes me feel like a failure.  I know overall it’s better to have Hestia with me and alert me to panic attacks, but it surely is a bummer when I want to do something else that I have panic attacks.

I’m rethinking this whole water aerobics thing.  I am going to try working out at home on the Wii and see how that goes.  I can easily stop and snuggle Hestia that way.  I just hate getting sweaty.  Oh well.