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This is me trying to flex my left hamstring.  Since my left leg is far weaker than the right, Tiffany is having me experiment with a product called Bioness.  It basically causes my shin and hamstring to flex by electrical stimulation.  The difference from the e-stim devices I’ve used before is that this is wireless and works in a manner that is in sync with my walking.  Here, though, Tiffany is just making it work and I am doing my best to assist it.  

Progress

My blogs have departed from being strictly about my SCI recovery.  It seems I’ll write about pretty much anything that happened to me.  Lately several people have been asking me if I’m still recovering or what’s going on with all that.  I was starting to doubt things but the answer is “yes”.

Yesterday I had therapy in the morning with Tiffany.  It was just a 45 minute session but she graciously let me go to a little over an hour since she had some free time.  We warmed up by walking around a couple hundred feet on crutches - something that used to be a huge feat for me.  Then we proceeded with something called a Berg Balance Test.  I stood in the parallel bars and she asked me to do a number of balance drills.  The first time I tried this I scored a 24.  About six weeks ago I scored 30.  This time I scored a 34.  

First I had to stand without touching anything for 2 minutes.  Check.  Then while standing hands-free, I had to try and kick a box in front of me and then stand for 30 seconds.  No such luck.  Next I tried turning 360 degrees hands-free, with tiny little steps.  I made it an awkward 90 degrees and then fell against the rail.  But I think the progress was the stepping.  I had to take a step forward with my right foot and then stand for 30 seconds, all hands-free.  The step was only inches but I still managed to do it, which was cool.  The surprising one was doing it with my left foot.  It was probably millimeters but it still apparently counted.  

The better progress was my 6-minute test, where I walk as far as possible on land (not treadmill) in 6 minutes.  I used the crutches.  I’ve done this test several times.  In August or so I did it for the first time and made it 380 feet.  Then a month later I made it 520 or so feet.  The next two times I barely increased.  So it seemed that I had plateaued.  My record was 557 feet.  I told her I thought I could beat it today pretty easily so we tried it.  Tiffany immediately pointed out that my strides had gotten longer.  Long story short, I made it 715 feet!  She called today’s results a “substantial improvement,” which is actually a term they use in submitting things to insurance and whatnot.  

So I believe I’m getting better at balance, endurance while on my feet (standing longer and longer, walker farther, etc.) and both legs are still getting stronger.  Ralph is still way ahead of Louie, but both are making progress.  So I guess I can’t complain.  

What else?… at one therapy session last week Rebecca stopped by with Henry, a 2-year-old she babysits a couple times a week.  He’s pretty awesome and it’s always cool when they come stop by.  ”Go see Chip!” is what he says haha… It’s funny because at first he and his sister were a little cautious when they saw me in the wheelchair.  But now they are used to it.  I realized how much so when after therapy Henry came over to hold my hand.  I said, “See if you can pull me!” and he tried but the angle was wrong, so he went around the back and smartly started pushing me… to the elevator on the 12th floor, out of the elevator, and still going out of the parking lot!  It cracked me up.  The best part was seeing confused faces of people seeing me slowly moving without doing anything and then they’d smile when we’d go by, revealing the previously-hidden little Henry.  

Other news:

Wheelchair basketball is getting more and more fun as I suck less and less.  I’m somewhat understand the plays and am getting flexible enough to bend over quicker which means pushing faster and also getting the ball off the ground.  It’s an awesome sport and I’d encourage anyone to go check out a game.  My friends that have seen it end up liking it way more than they expected.  

I got an email recently of something called an FTP testing session for handcycling.  I haven’t tried handcycling other than when they visited us for a day when I was an inpatient, however I’ve always been interested.  I just hadn’t because it seems focusing on leg movement was more important.  But now I have more time so I figured I’d try it out.  That was yesterday and OH MY GOSH it was so hard!  The coach told me it’s as hard as you make it so I guess I did that to myself, but holy cow.  We did 2 x 15 minutes as fast/hard as we could go.  I tried to pace myself the first time around, but noticed that the simulator had us “racing” each other.  As soon as I noticed that I started to do better and better.  Realizing about 10 minutes into the first session that I was exhausted and still needed to do another 15 minute session, I saved some energy but still managed to get 2nd in our group and average 123 watts or so, whatever that means.  The next session was 5 minutes later and I was in the lead the entire time and averaged 133 watts.  I had to close my eyes at the end to not think about how hard it was.  A couple of the more experienced guys said, “Yeah that’s how you do it, Chip!” and the coach, Stacee, said in reply, “His eyes are closed so he doesn’t even know how good he’s doing,” and laughed.  It definitely gave me an ego boost and it was nice to get support like that since I had no clue if I was doing well or not - eyes open or closed.  Stacee explained afterwards that my upper body strength is well-suited for this sport.  I’ve always been strong - it’s just what I was born with so nothing to brag about - but it’s nice to see that it will prove useful in handcycling since it’s not all that important in the other wheelchair sports.  At least not as much.  

The angle’s not the best in this photo but here’s the handcycling simulation which they use in the winter here.  They put about 8 handcycles next to each other and advanced equipment measure the outputs and then inputs THOSE into a simulation which is projected in front of us, to compete.  Really cool and really expensive so I’m thankful that RIC has the resources.  

You can see on the right there where they already took a handcycle off the training equipment.  The indoor training piece which allows the wheel to spin freely and measures data is at least $500-700, from what I know.  The handcycles are more like $5000 each.  Yikes.  Good thing they will let me borrow one for now for stuff like this!

Stacee is also connected with other useful organizations like Dare 2 Tri, which helps disabled folks do triathlons.  Really cool organization and she asked if I was interested.  YES!  Definitely.  How else am I gonna do a marathon with Rebecca unless I really go after this thing?  Or meet my pre-injury goal of doing an Ironman?  Can you imagine swimming 2.4 miles and then using those arms to handcycle 112 miles, and then using those same arms to push a wheelchair 26.2 miles?  I can’t.  But 6 months ago I couldn’t imagine spending 5 hours climbing stairs in the Sears Tower, either, or walking a mile.  So yeah, I’m psyched.

She is also going to hook me up with a disabled yoga class called Yin Yoga where some of the handcyclists go.  It’s supposed to help with tightness, which I have in spades.  Yep, sign me up.

What else????…. are you bored, yet??? I don’t care - I’m going to continue, anyway.  

Stephen and Leah, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law-in-law, are staying with us right now, preparing for their move to central Asia.  Pretty nuts but they’re gonna grow a ton from the experience.  I’m sure of it.  Anyway they pointed out that I left ice-skating out of my last blog.  So here it is.

No, I didn’t ice-skate.  I’m not that good, yet!  Leah’s family in Iowa has a man-made pond behind their house.  It was frozen over well enough that Kent was daringly able to take the 4-wheeler out on it and do donuts.  The day before Thanksgiving I watched a gorgeous sunset from the house while Stephen, Leah, and Rebecca skated around on the ice.  They wanted to pull me around on the ice but I didn’t feel like the risk and was pretty exhausted.  But when I saw the beautiful Iowa sunset and watched them out there, I was definitely wishing I could join.  So Friday, when they went out again after we were finished hunting, I decided to make my way down to the pond.  I walked down the hill - first grass, then dirt.  When I approached a lawn chair they had set up on the edge of the ice, I thought, “This is not a good idea.” haha!  But I sat down in that thing, anyway.  I had just watched as Stephen had pushed Rebecca around the ice in it as a test.  She said she liked it better than skating!  So I had to try it.  Stephen, who is pretty good on ice skates, started pushing me around the pond at a pretty good clip.  In no time he was sliding me sideways and I was flying on the ice… and then I was flying in the air.  The leg of the chair had caught on probably the only divot in the ice in the whole pond, launching me sideways into the air.  It was weird in that it didn’t rattle me at all.  I’m pretty sure I was smiling while I was airborne.  I landed on my right side and it didn’t hurt a bit.  And I should point out that I have enough feeling to know if something is wrong.  I climbed back into the chair and headed back to the house.  Pretty funny!  Leah pointed out, “We skate for hours, Kent is on the 4-wheeler, people get pushed around in that chair for hours, and Chip is out there for 5 minutes and gets hurt!”  Haha… typical.  I wish I had a pic of that sunset.  I’ll find one later and add it, I guess.

The last bit of news is not that great.  I’ve mentioned before that I stop by the 7th floor at RIC sometimes to see the current spinal cord inpatients.  After therapy yesterday, I went down to the LIFE center to officially sign up as a peer mentor for that same purpose.  I just wanted to make it official.  I was told that peer mentors are required to be at least 2 years post-injury.  When I explained that I already went to the 7th floor when I had the chance to visit with inpatients, the reaction was not a good one.  Basically it was one of those times where the person doesn’t know what to say: “Oh… no, no that’s…. no you can’t… um…. no.”  Whatever I’m still going to the 7th floor and this blog is my public announcement of such so they can’t say I was being sneaky about it or something.  Those patients need more people to talk with so DEAL WITH IT, RIC! 

That’s all I got. Time for a prayer.

Dear God, thank you for my life.  Thank You for everything You have given me in both ability and opportunity.  Please give me the wisdom and guidance to accomplish great things in Your name as best I can, realizing that great is a relative term to circumstance and that we can all do great things.  Dear Lord, keep me humble.  Please be with all my friends and family and really, everyone.  Fill us all with the Holy Spirit so that we can all stop being selfish and focus on what really matters in life, which is You, and nothing else.  Please guide Stephen and Leah in their pursuits and plans to move abroad.  Please let everyone not get swept up in all the OTHER stuff surrounding Christmas and remember why we are celebrating the season.  In baby Jesus’s name, amen.

Have a good weekend.

Chip

Turkey, Pheasants, and Goals -

I just got back from Paullina, Iowa, where we spent Thanksgiving with the Lundquists.  Leah’s (my now sister-in-law-in-law, if that’s a thing) parents have a farm and home there.  We had an awesome time.  It was great to get away from the hustle and bustle of Chicago for a few days.  Laura - Leah’s mom - seemed to always be handing me something different to eat.  I was stuffed before Thanksgiving arrived at which time I continued to stuff myself with still more delicious food.  During the day there were hunting, farm tours, ATV rides, and ice-skating.  At night we’d gather around and play chinese checkers, Catch Phrase, or Settlers of Catan.  It was non-stop and it was great.

Starting Wednesday night when Rebecca spontaneously began doing pushups, I decided to attempt a goal.  50 push-ups was surprisingly easy this time for some reason.  I may have to come up with a more difficult goal there.  I think Rebecca did 50, as well, by breaking for a few minutes in between sets.  Stephen cranked out 24.  At least he can run…

Thursday morning we headed to Orange City bright and early for a 5k race.  I had planned on just cheering on the speedsters but Leah knew about my goal of a mile and suggested I do the last mile of the race.  Why not?  It was a very small 5k - about 170 people - and it felt strange when Stephen dropped me off with my crutches at the 2 mile marker.  It was something like 18 degrees, I was in the middle of a deserted subdivision, alone, at 7:20 in the morning.  The race started at 7:30 and I knew I was going to take quite a while so I started going… up the hill??!?  Okay so it was kind of on a whim but I hadn’t really planned on hills in my first mile attempt.  By “not sitting” I had meant that I planned on leaning against walls as needed, too.  So much for that!  I turned on the iPod Shuffle and proceeded up the hill, singing along to any songs I knew.  Good times.  

After quite a few songs, I had left the subdivision and continued up yet another long hill.  Well, it was probably a quarter mile but that’s a long way for me to go uphill.  I kept wondering when I’d see some of the runners and suddenly one flew by me.  Then another.  Then Stephen and Rebecca.  Not long after that I saw Leah.  They were all encouraging and I realized I wasn’t responding to them at all in kind.  Whoops.  Sorry guys!

In what seemed like 2 minutes, Rebecca was walking towards me, clearly having finished already and now with a jacket and other warm clothes on. She hates the cold so I told her to go inside.  She wouldn’t.  She said her knee hurt a little and she didn’t feel that great.  Stephen showed up shortly afterwards and said he felt like puking and that he was out of shape.  Then Leah showed up.  I turned off my music to enjoy my awesome support group and kept huffing it up the hill.  Step… step…(don’t fall)… step… step… (don’t fall)… I made it down an awkward hill in and out of a ditch before crossing the road.  The church was well within my sites but it seemed a mile away.  Then we suddenly realized we were coming up on the 3 mile marker.  1 mile!  

I went on for another tenth of a mile or so to the church parking lot where Leah ran to steal the finish line string of flags and held it along with Stephen so that I could “bust” through it.  I almost fell down when I hit it! haha… I think if it had been an actual finishing ribbon I would have just bounced off of it and fallen down.  I achingly got into the car after that.  But it was time for the awards, so I begrudgingly got back out of the car and walked in to check out who won, along with the rest of the crew.  They thought they did so bad… Rebecca was 1st in women, Stephen was 3rd in men, and Leah was 3rd in her age group!  Awesome day and a great excuse to chow down on tons of Thanksgiving food.

This is the 3 mile marker where I completed a full mile without sitting.  It took me about an hour.

Friday we shot clay pigeons that were slung out of the back of a truck.  It was awesome!  Rebecca shot a gun for the very first time.  She liked the shotgun and proceeded on to the pistol, which she said she liked better since it was so light.  

Saturday morning the guys headed out early to go pheasant hunting.  I was able to join along by riding on an ATV.  It was automatic, so no footwork needed.  And it was a great stretch for my groin and quads.  I’m not used to straddling anything with the way my legs lock together all the time.  

Kent had grown Sorghum in a couple patches, which the pheasants apparently loved to eat.  I clipped one bird before Kent shot it down, then later shot all the feathers off another which still somehow flew away.  Scott bagged one, as well.  I had never been pheasant hunting before.  Pretty fun - especially the use of Molly, Scott’s dog.  She would rustle out the birds and then when one was shot down she’d retrieve it.  Very cool!

All in all, goals were accomplished and a few firsts were experienced.  And most importantly, we had a ton of fun.  

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving, too.

Chip