Well, the GP did cut me off at the knees a bit. While he doesn't really think walking on the treadmill is really hurting me, even though it does increase my pain a bit the next day, he told me he wants me give it up completely ("just in case") and to go take a water aerobics class at what I thought was a health club near my office. He told me they had classes M, W & F at 6pm, and I grudgingly (because I hate having to pay money to a gym again and I hate the hassle of changing clothes, etc.) agreed to look into it. Well, it turns out its actually all the way at the hospital in midtown, way south of here, and it starts at 6:30pm, not 6pm, and lasts an hour. So basically there's no way I'd get home till after 8pm. And as I'm already getting home after 9pm on Tuesdays due to my class, my whole week would have me eating dinner way past my self-imposed cut off time, plus losing any sort of a relaxing evening except for Thursday. I was pissed. So I decided to go over my GP's (and my pain doctor's) head and called my surgeon. I spoke to his PA, who was completely shocked that the pain doctor told me I shouldn't walk, and said that there was no way the surgeon would EVER say that. He said that unless it actually hurt WHEN I walk, or caused pain way beyond what I've been having, there was no way for me to be making anything worse and that he would completely encourage me to keep walking as much as I can to get the weight off. So while I thought of emailing my GP about this right away, I decided I'm going to wait till next week (which was our deal - I get to walk for 25 minutes a day for 5 days, then report ANY change in pain, which would make me have to do only the water aerobics) when hopefully my body will be more used to walking again and the pain might just lessen naturally, then tell him about my conversation with the PA. But I am completely convinced that keeping my treadmill routine is the best route - particularly for my mental state at this point. I actually enjoy it, especially since the Biggest Loser is back on, and I have now really committed to the 5 days a week routine. The water class is just going to make me resentful of the hassle, the money, and the loss of my down time, and I REALLY don't think that is going to help me at all right now. And while I understand that my GP really wants the best for me and wants to "throw everything we have" at the physical problem right now, I think he has no clue how big the mental part of it is for me. So hopefully next week I can tell him in a way that will make him get that. We'll see...