Therapy Update

I can't believe we are nearing the end of February and that Rebecca and I have already been in Cape Town for one and a half months!  Time is flying by.

Several folks have been asking what's new with my therapy other than the pool update.  Also that I upload a video after saying I could walk in the pool.  So that's in here, as well.

In short, I would say that the majority of my therapy is practiced by living life every day.  I try and add little things here and there, so that when you put it all together, it is enough to have me tired at the end of the day.  If I find myself not doing enough, I do more straightforward workouts like squats and lunges, or just walking outside for a ways.  I will give the last few days as an example.

Friday when we joined some friends for dinner out, I walked using my AFO (ankle and foot) braces and my crutches.  It is definitely more of a workout than the wheelchair but also way more practical.  Everywhere we go here has stairs at the entrance, stairs going up or down into bathrooms, streets on hills, etc.  Example - At the nearby coffee shop, Bootlegger's, I can't go to the bathroom using the wheelchair.  It makes it hard to take advantage of their awesome happy hour, since I have the bladder of a 3-year-old.  Motivation to walk more.

I've mentioned the pool therapy, however I doubt that will continue since the water is getting too chilly.  Cold water is annoying, sure, but it also causes my legs to spasm and for my tone (stiffness) to increase.  On Sunday, for instance, Louie especially had a hard time getting in the water.  As soon as the toes touched the cold water, the whole leg snapped back as if I had held a match to it.  Thankfully I have figured out a way to mimic the pool therapy at home, using crutches.  I crouch in the same position (you will see in the video) and use my crutches as absolutely as little as possible.  I don't mean that they aren't touching the ground - just that I'm not putting much weight on them.  This forces my leg and back muscles to work harder.

Lately, thanks to my goal accountability partner, Tom Trimmer, I have been doing a lot of pushups.  The goal was 500 for the first week.  I'm up to 80 in the morning and 80 at night and hope to continue to improve.  After putting my shoes on (can't do pushups barefoot - toes smash into the ground = pain & spasms!) I use the walker to drop myself down onto my knees.  I lie down on my stomach, wait until my leg muscles chill out, then do 40 pushups.  Then rest a few minutes and do 40 more.  Repeat at night.  It really helps getting the blood pumping in the morning.  Makes me more productive throughout the day.  If you don't have a goal accountability partner, you should get one.  Really cool.

My shower here is a walk-in, raised 6" off the ground (common here).  Something to do with the plumbing.  So each morning I step up into the shower using the hand rail the landlord installed for me.  While showering, I try and stand without leaning against the wall too much to further practice balance.

In the apartment I don't use my braces and never use the walker (except for pushups).  This allows me to work the finer muscles in my ankles and feet.  There is also a 5" lip going out into the balcony area which I try to throw Louie up onto to get him to practice stepping.  I don't say "step" because that would be inaccurate and too generous.  Someday...

Each day I spend at least 10 minutes out on the balcony meditating.  First, at least 3 minutes thanking God for everything for which I am grateful.  The next section (3-4 minutes) is inviting the Holy Spirit in to help me with everything in life, to renew my ambition, drive, and purpose, and to align my will with God's.  I finish it off with 3 things I want to accomplish that day.  I got this from Tony Robbins podcast interview with Tim Ferris a few months ago (also thanks to Tom Trimmer) and it works really well and also relieves me of stress.  You don't have to do it from a religious standpoint.  I just made it that way.  Tony says, "Trade in your expectations for gratitude and your life will drastically change."  I totally agree.

Another example of finding workouts in the day-to-day - yesterday we had a lot of pots and dishes to clean thanks to our joint effort at making lasagna (and then eating it).  I made it a workout by doing the dishes while standing unassisted.  If I start to lose balance, I just grab the sink for a second or lean against the sink while scrubbing.  Then when those are done I bend down and load the dishwasher.  Sounds simple but it works my back out a lot, which is still weaker than before the accident.  It also helps my balance.

I've been trying to eat right, too, since adding weight doesn't help my legs walk any better.  Rebecca tends to ignore this by continuing to buy sweets and make brownies.  Actually I laughed as I wrote that and she asked why I was laughing.  When I told her, she reminded me of how much I like the custard pies they have here.  Yes, that's true.  Guilty.  All the more reason to not buy them, Rebecca!!!

There are a lot of other little things - bending down to turn off the fan each morning, standing while I work on my laptop if I feel my legs getting stiff, efforts to stand faster and sit slower... just lots of little things that add up.  I can always do more, though.

Okay here are a couple videos of me "walking" in the pool.  If you look close you can see my legs through the water.

Here is one from mid-December.  I am working towards being able to lift the wheelchair over my head.  I saw a picture of a guy doing that and thought it was awesome.  I can't quite do it, but this shows my improvement in balance.  The wheelchair weighs about 30 something pounds.

I can also load the wheelchair in the back of a car and then walk around with my crutches now.  Also I can drive an automatic car now that my right foot has regained enough fine motor control.  Have I mentioned that???? That was definitely a great day!  I'm not awesome at it so I drive slow like an old person.  In fact, I do lots of things like an old person.  Me and old folks get along great, now.

Dear Lord, thank You for the progress and the healing You have given me so far.  Please let it continue.  Also heal all the other disabled folks out there, along with anyone enduring suffering.  Let them come closer to You in their suffering so that it is easier.  Remind me (and everyone else) daily how much I have to be thankful for.  In Jesus' name, Amen.  

Have a good week -
Chip

Valentine's Day Weekend

"When Cupid knocks at your door, there's no need to run!" - Andre 3000 of Outkast singing "Happy Valentine's Day".

I was extremely fearful that Valentine’s Day didn’t exist in Cape Town, since it I thought it was a US, Hallmark holiday.  However, I just read on Wikipedia that it has been around forever and started when a couple Christian martyrs, both named Valentine (or Valentinus) were executed for marrying Roman soldiers and preaching in the name of Christ.  That was over 1500 years ago.  Not a Hallmark holiday after all, it seems. 

Antique V-day card.

Like all men, I was anxiously awaiting Valentine’s Day.  I couldn’t wait to think about how I was going to show Rebecca how much I lover her.  Yeah right!  Valentine’s Day sucks.  I have never liked it.  Not only do flower shops decide to make everything 300% its normal price, but also restaurants are kind enough to offer expensive price fixe deals for you!  How nice!  Considering how the holiday has turned into an opportunity to pamper all the women out there and nothing to do with Christianity, which is why the original martyrs were killed, they might be upset if they saw what was happening!  All you women totally deserve to be pampered, though.  So don’t misunderstand me.  Men are oafs that would probably not survive a week if it weren’t for the wonderful women in our lives.  So thank you all for keeping us around!  You are in sad shape if you are a man and only showing your woman how much you love her one day a year!  So I was soooo happy when I saw all the Valentine’s Day displays in the stores here.  It is alive and well in South Africa. 

The really good news about the holiday is that it gave Sammi and Chad an excuse to come over from Pretoria to hang out all weekend.  They flew in afternoon and left Monday afternoon.  Rebecca was in class all day so I tried my best to prepare the apartment for guests.  The biggest challenge we had been avoiding was to move the double beds from the guest room into the master bedroom, and the queen (which is more like a wider-than-normal full size bed) from the master bedroom into the guest room.  The two doubles pushed together turned out to be way roomier than the so-called queen bed.  I decided to tackle this project myself.  It took me about 2 hours of sweating, slowing pulling around mattresses a few inches at a time while in my wheelchair, screwing and unscrewing bed frames, but was finally and happily able to get the job done!  Rebecca came home and said, “Chip??? How did you do this??? Did you get help?”  Nope!  “Show me how you did this!”  I told her it would have to remain a mystery and she would have to consider me a little less helpless!  Definitely a good feeling to do a man’s job again (not that women can’t do it – just that the man should to save the woman the trouble!).

We went out to dinner at a nice Greek restaurant Friday night with Sammi, Chad and a couple other friends. Saturday we drove out to Stellenbosch to go wine tasting in the country.  It’s only about an hour from Cape Town.  The weather was incredible.  The country is even less hospitable to me than the city, so I just took my crutches and got plenty of walking in.  According to my FitBit, I walked over 6,000 steps on Saturday, including 6 flights of steps and quite a bit of standing around.  We stayed at a bed & breakfast Saturday night.  Sunday we started all over again driving around and tasting great food and wine.  We even met up with a tour group consisting of some exchange students in Rebecca’s program from the US.  All in all a great and exhausting weekend!

This is a pic of the countryside in the wine region here.

Now it’s Monday and I’m back to trying to find a job.  I’ve been focusing more on that then writing the book for the moment.  However, I do have a few chapters completed.  The more I look into the job market, the rougher it seems.  They are still reeling with the aftereffects of apartheid here, including things like not allowing foreigners to buy land and further limiting how much business foreigners can do, what jobs they can take, etc.  Honestly that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  So starting a business here right now seems like a terrible idea.  I had hoped to somehow get involved with the townships and shantytowns and helping a non-profit educate or train those groups.  But it seems that traveling to both the non-profits and the townships are extremely difficult for me.  For example, I went to one non-profit called the Scalibrini Centre, which was down a commercial street.  The sidewalks were far worse than the already difficult main streets.  3 separate times in the span of a block I had to get assistance from a passerby to make it over a giant hole or over a steep slant to avoid from flipping over.  Doing that on a daily basis seems ludicrous, so I didn’t pursue that. 

As a quick side topic - the general treatment of the disabled here is somewhat of a double-edged sword.  On one hand, people are often coming up to offer assistance.  They are all very nice about that.  On the other, the reason they are offering assistance is because they consider me fairly helpless.  They often comment how they are surprised that I am out and about on my own.  I see other people in wheelchairs being pushed around the streets.  And there are even “homes for the disabled” here, where spinal cord injuries and other handicapped folks are just living through life without hardly ever venturing outside.  I've reached out to a few of them to get involved and encourage them to get out and be active.  We'll see how it goes.

Back to the job scenario – it seems that Cape Town is largely driven by real estate and tourism.  There are other jobs, but they are very specific and not really hiring.  If they are hiring, then I still don’t have a work permit.  Once I do, then they have to be able to justify to the government why I am being hired over every other citizen in South Africa.  Most of the jobs that fit my criteria are in Johanessburg.  There are scenarios where it might make sense for me to go there and work while Rebecca stays in school in Cape Town, but they don’t seem too appealing right now.  On top of all this, the pay scale is quite a bit different than the US.  Admin assistants here make a whopping 80,000 rand a year, or about $7,500.  A YEAR!  That’s crazy.  Management positions pay $30-40k, even in larger, corporate positions. 

So I’m strongly considering focusing on the book for now and not getting down about the job market until I actually have my work visa.  I should have that in another month or two!  I also have a business idea I'm developing that takes up a little time.  

Definitely a different world here!  But we had a great weekend and I am going to keep enjoying it as much as I can. 

Dear Lord, keep me positive.  Please allow me more weekends like this Valentine’s Day weekend.  It was awesome!  Fill me with the Holy Spirit.  Guide my actions, thoughts, and decisions.  Use my life to accomplish Your will.  Help me to understand the path You’d have me take.  Thank you for this great experience.  Thank you for Rebecca, for my great family, friends, and this life.  And thanks for Tucky.  In Your name, Amen. 

Have a great week!
Chip

  

Church and the Beach

            The first weekend in Cape Town I checked out a church a few blocks from the hotel.  It happened to be Methodist, which while not at all a prerequisite for me in a church, is the denomination in which I was raised.  They were also extremely friendly, helped me up the steep ramp at the entrance, and in general were eager to welcome me. 

Church selfie

Awesome stained glass windows

I knew most of the songs already.  Similar program to the US, except for the bongo and accents.

            Part of the sermon I really loved.  He was talking about ISIS and the attacks by Muslim extremists.  He said it was unfair to judge all Muslims based on the actions of a few, saying, "It would be the same to judge all Christians based on the actions of the Klu Klux Klan." I never thought of it like that but he's right.

            I love that church but it is pretty far from our apartment.  We tried out a new, small church today a couple blocks from our apartment.  It had an extremely steep ramp to wheel up which was fun.  The congregation was only about 20 people, but all were extremely nice and friendly to Rebecca and me.  They have their service in a small meeting room in a hotel.  Two funny things happened:

            1) The pastor’s son kept commenting on how cool my “bike” was and asked how I was allowed to take it into worship.  He was referring to my wheelchair.

            2) I was wearing my Chicago Bears hat, which has the NFL logo on the back.  The pastor asked if I was injured playing for the NFL.  Ha!  I laughed and said I guess I took that as a compliment.  He looked confused and then began speaking in alternating English and Afrikaans to his 2-year-old son, offering him a brownie.  They had brownies, tea and coffee after the service.

           

            It is interesting trying to find a church, as so many people do.  I am inclined to like all of them.  They all have believers that are committed to making their church work.  The idea of picking a church that “fits” us seems kind of silly, even though that’s exactly what we’re doing.  The part I don’t like is that it insinuates that other churches aren’t good enough, which of course isn’t the case. 

            On the way to church I passed by a Subway, with the smell of that unmistakable Subway bread permeating from its doors, just like in the US.  There is no escaping the US, it seems.  Everywhere you go here, the background music is 95% whatever is popular in the US, with the occasional South African artist thrown in every hour or two.  At checkout at the grocery, every single DVD for sale is an American movie.  We don’t have cable TV, and of the three main stations we get, two play popular US movies from the late 90s nonstop, and 1 plays futbol (soccer).  Along with not having cable, most people here watch US shows and movies, which they do by accessing Netflix or Hulu.  

Odd-looking modern art downtown.  Bart Simpson heads??? My guess is that it shows how culture from the West is ruining traditional African culture.  I don't know.

          I was even surprised that the vineyard in Stellenbosch we visited last week for a friend’s birthday carried Woodford Reserve behind their bar.   Also, that vineyard was beautiful and we felt spoiled as they brought us many delicious appetizers and wines, all at the courtesy of our host. 

Funny disabled bathroom sign at the vineyard.

            Yesterday Rebecca and a couple classmates hiked to the top of a small mountain here called Lion’s Head.  You can see it from our bedroom windows.  She is now the co-chair of Sports and Activities for her MBA program, so she organized the hike, however most of the students that had signed up were hung over and bailed.  

Rebecca being goofy on top of Lions Head.

            After the hike I joined them and we drove to Camps Bay to lie out on the beach.  I have been avoiding trips to the beach ever since we went to L.A. to attend her friend Sammi’s wedding.  We visited Venice Beach there and I had tried to walk in the sand.  It was a total failure.  I shuffled a few steps, fell down, got back up, tried again, and became exhausted realizing I had made it about 2 feet.  It was embarrassing and frustrating.  That was a year and a half ago. 

            Yesterday, however, I was very happy to find that it came much easier.  My knees bend and lift much easier now, so I was able to step higher through the sand instead of shuffle awkwardly through it like before.  In no time I was halfway down the beach!  Rebecca rented me a chair and the others settled down on their blankets next to me.  I enjoyed it a little too much and got pretty sunburned, unfortunately.  But I don’t really care.  I’m happy to have another little bit of freedom regained. 

Getting sunburned and loving it.

            The same Sammi I just mentioned and her husband Chad actually live in Johannesburg, now.  They are coming to stay with us next weekend and the four of us will go to wine country for the Valentine’s Day weekend.  It should be great and will likely be the next blog. 

            Now that we are settled, I am starting to get more aggressive about finding work.  My work visa is still in process, but I need to line something up.  I have been happily surprised to find that top consulting firms in the US almost all have offices in South Africa.  On top of that, it seems that there is quite a lot of focus on consulting in the public sector, NGOs, non-profits.  There is a lot of talk of how they want to aid and positively impact the people of South Africa.  I am skeptical since these same companies typically work with companies in the US with the primary aim of increasing profits.  But I will stay hopeful as I pursue a position.

            Random funny occurrence: I am typing this from another small café within walking distance for me from our apartment.  They have omelets.  I like salsa with my omelets, especially when feta cheese is involved – I don’t know why I just do.  So I asked if they had salsa and the guy says, “Oh the dancing music? Yes we actually have that CD in the back!” Ha!  I would never have guessed anyone would respond like that. 

Here are a couple more random pics:

Pretty cool, really. This is the trained behavior all over the country.

I took this at sunset while we went for a walk and roll on the promenade outside our building.

Dear Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you.  I have much to be thankful for.  Now I need Your help in finding something that will give me purpose here.  Please help me find work.  Continue to heal me.  Allow me to always be positive and thankful and to not dwell on life’s difficulties.  In Your name, amen. 

Have a good one!

Chip

Pool Breakthrough - Good News!

           This was exciting for me so I wrote a lot.  If you are pressed for time just read the last paragraph.

The pool on the top left is the one where I swam and did therapy.  

           After settling in a bit into the new apartment, I decided to explore the area a little more.  Tuesday morning, I had ventured over in my wheelchair to scope out how the heck I was gonna get in there.  The good news was that a crosswalk exactly where I needed it to me to shorten the trip from the apartment.  The bad news was that the wheelchair ramp was still under construction.  My options were an extremely steep and long ramp for use by work trucks, or walk on crutches up a flight of steps, through the entrance, then down two more flights.  The work vehicle ramp looked like a good opportunity for me to hurt myself.  With the good luck of the crosswalk, I opted to walk that afternoon. 

            I made it across the street and up the stairs without too much trouble.  I understood that the cost to enter was 20 rand, or about $1.75.  But as I pulled out the bill to pay, I saw a sign that said “Entrance: 20 R.  Disabled: 0 R.”  I asked if I needed proof other than my crutches that I was disabled, and the guy said go on in.  Sweet!  Free pool! 

            As I was about to finish descending the next two flights of steps, a man walked up and said, “That’s right!  Don’t stop trying!  That’s great!”  So that was nice.  A minute later another man walked up and said, “I saw you coming down and thought, oh no what a waste of energy!”  I annoyingly responded that it was no trouble.  He then explained that what he meant was that there was a much easier entrance I could use.  “The work truck ramp,” I thought?  He went on to explain that right next to the steps was the entrance for the police department, with ramps on both sides.  I was skeptical until I saw that there were several people in wheelchairs by the pool.  So that was good news!  Now, with the crosswalk, the FREE pool would be easy access for me!  The year quickly became more promising. 

            Another plus was that instead of pool lounge chairs like you see a lot in the US, there were wooden benches built into the surrounding wall.  Extremely sturdy and higher up than a lounge chair, it was perfect for me.  More good news.

            After relaxing a bit and taking it in, I took off my shoes and braces, grabbed my crutches, and headed to the pool.  The edge was surrounded by tile.  To me, wet tile means a great chance of my crutch slipping and me on the ground.  But when I came up and tested it, I was happy to discover that it had some sort of non-slip treatment.  More good news. 

            There were steps with a rail to get into the pool at every corner.  I threw one crutch down onto the side, walked down the steps, and threw the other crutch to the side.  Easy entrance!  More good news.  I wasn’t quite ready to swim so I stretched my legs a bit. 

            It had been a LONG time since I had tried any pool therapy at RIC, – well over a year - so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Before, I could walk with my left hand pushing hard down on a side railing – my right hand free – walking down the side of the pool.  I couldn’t really do that more than a few steps with the left hand on the rail.  I could precariously walk with a cane a couple steps before my legs would inevitably fully-extend of their own volition and I would kind of pirouette into the water. 

            Remembering those exercises, I decided to try them out.  I started with my left hand on the side (no rail – the side would have to do).  Immediately I was surprised at how much easier it was.  The pool creates a kind of weightless environment, making everything easier.  I had forgotten.  I was far better off than the last time I had tried this.  I walked about half the length of the Olympic pool – 25 meters – like that before trying to make it harder.  I just used my fingertips to push down with my left hand.  It was harder but I adjusted and used my left leg (Louie) more.  My right leg (Ralph) was killing it.  Huge steps lifting the foot far off the ground.  I wasn’t walking like Frankenstein, either.  I was bending a lot at the knees.  It was great. 

            After just a few steps with my fingertips pushing down on the side, I made it harder again.  I moved my hand to the inside of the pool wall, not really pushing at all but using it for balance.  Harder, but I adjusted again.  This was going great! 

            With just a few steps to go until the end, I decided to go for it and moved my hand from the wall.  I used just the flow of the water with my left hand to be able to walk the last few steps to the railing.  Pretty sweet!  Major improvement! 

            I swam back and was really excited about how that went.  At RIC, the pool was always a leading indicator of improvements I was about to see on land.  The idea that I could someday walk with nothing was pretty exciting, to say the least.  I tried not to get my hopes up.

            After swimming back, I rested a minute and then started again.  This time I went straight to the fingertips to warm up, then the inside wall.  Of course I wanted to try walking with just my left hand pushing against the water again.  So I tried it.  I went about 20 steps before my legs straightened out.  Not a bad first day at the pool!  I wanted to see how much the pushing against the water was helping me, so I lifted my hands out of the pool and tried walking like that.  It was MUCH harder.  However, I was about to take a good 15-20 steps again before Louie straightened out.  Awesome!  This was good stuff! 

            I went back to the pool again on Thursday.  I would have gone Wednesday but I was a bit sunburnt!  Thursday I went the easy route into the pool.  It was way, way busier than Tuesday, since it was pretty hot out.  One interesting tidbit is that a lot of the locals spontaneously decide to get in the pool as they walk by.  They aren’t prepared so they just strip down to their underwear and get in.  You don’t see that in the US! 

            I was wondering how the heck I was gonna do any therapy since the pool was packed and tons of people were sitting on the sides where I had planned on walking.  After reading a few minutes, I decided that I was being stupid for being annoyed.  I got in the water.  People were all over the edges so I decided this was another opportunity for me.  I just started walking towards the middle of the pool.  With no wall by my side, it forced me to make sure this worked!  I stepped probably 50 steps before Louie straightened out, but instead of spinning and falling I just balanced and waited for him to calm down, then continued to walk.  This went on for some time.  I was able to navigate through all the people, turning, walking a ways, turning again, etc.  I went from one end of the pool and back and then out to the middle and back again, all without touching anything and trying to use the force of the water as little as possible.  Very cool and huge advancement!  I’m very happy about this and the therapy I’ll be able to do in the pool across the street.  It should be a great year!

There are other things happening but that was the most exciting piece!

Dear Lord, thank you for this huge advancement in both my confidence and in my therapy!  Please let it continue.  Continue to heal me.  I very much want to do more and gain more function.  Thanks for all my friends and family and their great support.  Please be with all of them and fill them with Your Holy Spirit.  I love You, Lord.  Please keep me humble.  Let me see the positive in everything.  Let me continue to see challenges as opportunities.  Give me focus and purpose in life.  In Your name, Amen.

Chip