Field Trip!

The outing today was the hiking trail we intended to do a couple of days ago, and it went really well. The first part of the trail was downhill and I was dreading the going back up it, but it was not near as tough as I expected and we were back at the truck before I knew it. After that we went for lunch at Pizza N Such in downtown Claremont, Debbie and I had salads and a Hawaiian Pizza that was delicious.

It was back to reality after lunch, with stretching and balancing just to make sure I'm totally worn out for bed. Tomorrow I have another driving session, so if you live near the Casa stay off the roads between 9:00 and 10:00 in the morning!

Not for the squeamish

This morning I had an appointment with the neurosurgeon that fixed my back, he was happy with everything and gave me the all clear. That filled up most of the morning, this afternoon it was more balance exercises and another try at fall recovery. Getting into my chair from the floor is not going to happen until my elbow is fixed. There are a couple of different techniques to accomplish that trick, but both require bending your elbows more than 90 degrees.

If you'd like to see inside my back, we took a picture of the CAT scan. It definitely rivals my elbow for number of screws and related hardware: The CAT scan.

What was I thinking?

Yesterday the staff asked the patients if they'd like to participate in today's Cinco De Mayo celebrations or do regular therapy. The celebrations included Karaoke and dancing, so I figured therapy would be a better bet. Little did I realize...

We started the day with stretching, and the original plan was for some wheelchair mobility exercises in a local park. Unfortunately the van we were supposed to use was in for service, so we ended up wheeling around the block. It was especially tough sledding because we were always on the right side of the road, with the sidewalk sloping down to the left. Even a little bit of a slope works one arm more than the other, and of course I ended up using my left arm - my weaker one - for the entire trip.

After lunch I practiced uneven transfers, some balance work and finally some different mat exercises that polished my elbow off nicely. I managed the transfers pretty good, especially considering how worn out I was, so the day ended on a good note. Next time they give us a choice of what to do for the day though, I'll think twice before choosing therapy!

Right back at it

It was back to business as usual today: the fitness center in the morning, arm exercises and balancing in the afternoon. The sitting balance exercises went really well, I had to throw a basketball around and then use a plastic bat to hit a yoga ball. It was hard work but I went the whole hour with only losing my balance a couple of times and just a couple of short breaks.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day as there's a two-hour wheelchair mobility session, and the therapists are hoping to take us to a trail somewhere. From the beginning I've hoped that I'd still be able to do some sort of hiking, so it will be great to see how it goes.

Lazy Sunday

Not much to report today. There was no therapy, and I even slept in for a half-hour this morning. The highlight of the day was a Farmer Boys hamburger for lunch. I really needed the day off after last week, that's for sure. We noticed that there has been quite a few patients going home over the last couple of weeks, leaving me - aside from a couple of people that essentially live here - one of the "old timers".

I'm looking forward to this week, hopefully I'll get to practice a couple more transfers into the car, and once I've got that down Debbie can take me out for dinner or into town for an afternoon. That will be great. And as hard as it is, I'm sure I'll be doing more work toward fall recovery. Little steps on that one, but I'll get there.

Month Three - Done!

Summer 2008.

At this point I'm at the long end of the 8-week to 12-week stay the therapists anticipated when I first came to the Casa. It's been pretty frustrating at times that it's taken so long (especially when my original goal was to complete the program in six weeks!) but as things progressed I gradually realized just how much plain hard work had to be accomplished. I've come an awful long way from rolling around on the prone cart, sitting in the chair for just 15 minutes at a time and needing almost 24-hour care.

This past week has been especially satisfying as I drove for the first time, started having my shower on the tub bench and had a positive report at the family conference. The light at the end of the tunnel is so bright right now I might have to start wearing sunglasses again!

What a day what a day...

It seems like every day this week has been harder than the day before. Yesterday I though my arms were going to fall off after the parallel bar exercise, but today they had me do something even harder. I had to sit in long sitting just in front of a 2-inch mat, and then lift myself up and back onto the mat. The 2-inch lift was fairly easy, then I tried a 6-inch lift, which was a lot harder. To finish my arms off I did an 8-inch lift. Surprisingly, I managed it a couple of times before my elbow caught fire, and luckily it was at the end of the day. Just to make the whole hour even harder, this morning I upped all my weights at the gym since I need to work on my strength, so I was already worn out at the beginning of the session.

The parallel bar and lifting exercises are all aimed at fall recovery as an end result, so I'm happy to do them. And as sore as I was, I still rolled over to the cafeteria for a cappuccino to finish off the afternoon.