On My Own

Another chapter in my story ended today; I had my last session of PT, it wasn't a graduation, health insurance was not going to pay for anymore and I think the therapy center was ready to move on as I'm no longer making huge leaps and bounds in my recovery. But I will not be derailed, no siree, I will continue doing my exercises and making up my own, and my brother-In- Law and I have been walking on some of the local nature trails a few times a week, somthing which I know will not only help me become stronger and faster, plus walking gives me a sense of peace and going on walks used to be one of my favorit activites. 8 months ago when I walked ( well, not walked, Matt wheeled) into therapy fresh out of rehab,
I was unable to stand or walk unassisted, but was still complrtrly dependent on my cane and wheelchair. my attention was still so bad that I couldn't wheel myself in the chair, I would just run into walls all of the time and wheel away from Matt and get lost.

Today, I walked out of therapy with only my leg brace for assistance, I got into the car no problem and I took a nicr, btrisk walk with my BIL, John, I am moving much better than I was and that is thanks to the army of PT's I worked with in outpatient rehab.

This by no means is the end of my story, I am now responsible for my own rehab, complacency is unacceptable at this point. I can only go up from here!

Attitude Adjustment

I was in a serious funk yesterday, for whatever reason I was super irritated during therapy and therefore fore did not put as much into it as I could have. I hate it when I allow my pissy moods to waylay my therapy time, since I don't have much left. Yesterday my good friend, Sheila came to visit me this was the first time we've seen each other since the stroke, but she had a big hand in finding me the support and motivation I neededdesperately, so I was thrilled to get a chance to sit with her and let her see the fruits of her efforts, all of the cards I received. On a day like I had yesterday, it was absolutelynecessary to have her there, as she has always been a calming and comforting influence, I needed her energy with me. Talking to her also reminded me how lucky I am, that despite all of this I still have a perfect little baby and a loving, caring husband, so, last night before I went to bed I recommitted myself to being grateful and excited about everyday and it paid off. I got up ready to work my butt off in therapy and excited to see what they had in store for me, and, let me tell you it was a damn good session! Today I was working with Courteny, I work with different PTs almost everytime, each has their own style and each pushes me in different ways, Courteny is one of the tougher PTs, she knows what I'm capable of, more so than I do, so she works at getting as lmuchout of me, plus she's creative! So I'm never doing the same things with her, so it's always exciting to see what she has planned. My therapy is done at a local fitness center, so Courteny took me up into the room where all of the exercise machines are, she put me on a glider type thing that I could hold myself up on, and I could use my left leg, it was the first actual exercise I've been able to do since the stroke and it felt so good! She showed that there are ways that I can get exercise. I felt energized after my five minutes on the glider, next, we went into a seperate room and she had me stand one foot in front of the other on top of a styrofoam cylinder that had been cut in half. I started by holding on to some thing to balance myself, now I know this probably doesn't sound too challenging, but, when the blood clot formed on the front right side of my brain it pushed my brain over, shifting my midline over to the side-Most stroke survivors have issues with balance, but this midline shift makes my balance issues doubled, infact, rwhile I was in the ICU I couldn't even look people straight in the eyesa or sit up straight, one of my earliest memories of rehab is, one of my PTs sitting me down on a mat table and asking me to siy up straight and I totally felt like I was straight up and down like an arrow, but then she slid a mirror in front of me and I was leaning way to the right!Wow, freaky.- So this particular exercise really challenged me, then I thought I'd go a bit further with it and let go of wht I was holding onto and there I stood, not holding onto anything, balancing myself! I even did a little squat there, just to show off! When I got home I was flying high, I am now convinced I amcapable of anything!