Let me start of with a big THANKS to everyone that is sending me stuff. I think I’m good for a while on food, honestly. I love it all, but I have plenty! I try to personally thank everyone but I miss a lot so here are a bunch I want to thank -
Emily Myers – Kendama Toys – very fun, Ilianna and Ron – Pound cake and Maker’s Mark fudge (my first alcohol since the accident with these today! Can’t have real alcohol because of my meds but this was a welcome exception to the rule! so good), Debbie Coriell – Bourbon balls (more cheating with alcohol and delicious, thanks!), Erin Wymore – Cake Batter Puppy Chow (oddly great), Ron and Jennifer Allen – Chocolates and Jesus Calling devotional book, Tom and Lisa Trimmer – iTunes card, The Hermitage – Gift basket, Cousin Ellee – Popcorn tin (my mom eats every day), Aunt Cha – Big thing of nuts and also a bunch of Mentos.
My dad had contacted Apple customer service to see if I could get my cracked iPhone fixed. They gave me a discount on a new iPhone which I will probably not use. However, the crazy and shocking part was getting a letter in the mail today from Apple Customer Service saying something like, “Chip, really glad the surgery went well. God bless you. Much love to you and Rebecca. - Sara” I mean… have you ever heard of this??? It came with a $15 iTunes gift card. Shocking and awesome.
Tons of cards from lots of loving people. The ones with drawings from kids are the coolest. Sorry but they are. One very cool card today was from Rebecca’s sister all the way from Vatican City. Thanks, Beth/Sister Mary Benedicta!
….
It seems that every day here is long and exhausting. I woke up this morning irritable at not getting enough sleep again. On top of that I had PT at 7:30am, meaning I had to get up earlier to get dressed, brace on, and into the wheelchair. I got in a nap around 10. Dr. Anschell visited me and I asked him questions and got some good answers. 1) The guy that comes by every night at 4am to give me a shot will be no more! I’ll get the shot at noon now. That’s great! 2) I can sleep on my stomach tonight. Huge! I’m so excited. Kind of nervous, actually. Don’t want to mess up my back. 3) They’ll start x-raying me at week 6 to see if my brace can come off. They expect week 10 or 12. Okay this is not good news. I hate that thing.
7:30-8:30am PT - I was in a sour mood. We did endurance training on the hand bike. Then practiced a few transfers and stretches. Also pushing a giant ball out in front of me and pulling it back with both hands. It was actually extremely hard.
10am - Quick nap
11am-noon - Group Therapy. Hard work on the shoulders.
Noon - Business meeting. Not sure having a business meeting here is the best idea. Maybe later. Quick visit by Erin to drop off the cake batter puppy chow.
1pm - Originally LIFE center group lesson. Cancelled. Ended up talking with Rebecca for a while with video. Definitely put me in a better mood. I thought she looked better than I had ever seen her. It’s tough here. You start appreciating things way more.
2pm-3pm - I practiced some transfers (moving to and from the wheelchair) - transfered to the mat and into a car they have for practice indoors here which was very cool. It’s a Mercedes, even. Lots of donors for this place. Then we had some real fun. They upped all my goals for the week since I had already achieved most of them. One of the new ones is wheelchair management outdoors. Since the weather was iffy today, I ended up practicing wheelies. I can now do a wheelie for over a minute and also a 360 while doing a wheelie. That was really fun. We tried jumping a curb but my brace makes it impossible to lean forward so that was a no go.
3:30-4pm - Dr. Sweet psych session. She made me lie down in bed and do this relaxation therapy, relieving pressure, stress, etc. I visualized being on a beach I had been to in Mozambique. That kind of thing. It worked wonders.
4-5pm - Totally re-energized from the wheelies and Dr. Sweet session, I tackled several goals. I did a much better job of moving my legs around in a practice to get in and out of bed. Then I moved in and out of the groin stretch position. Getting much better all around. Transfers were much better, too. We decided to tackle a real challenge and stand up without the help of that contraption I’ve been using. This time I just used a set of parallel bars and pushed myself to a standing position. It requires you to use upper body strength to hold the position, but it went really well. Couple pics below.
Okay so that was cool enough. But Kate, the therapist in the pic, asked me to squeeze my butt if I could. Nobody had tested that, yet. Mainly just kicking tests. So I tried flexing there and she said I had a small muscle response in the top of my rear. I didn’t believe her - seemed to me like either somehow my abs doing it or my lower back muscles. She insisted it was my upper glute. So if she’s right, that’s great news. She also thought my hip flexors were doing something. Again, I thought it was my abs, but she said the action was too low to be abs. Fingers crossed!
My parents were gone most of the day today so they were pretty upset they missed all this cool stuff. My mom probably would’ve had a heart attack if she saw my wheelie practice, so maybe it was good they weren’t here.
Tomorrow is a big day. I get on the lokomat for the first time, which should be exciting. Martha, another therapist, told me that the lokomat quite often will result in return of motion after the 3rd or 4th time. More high hopes being set. Kate mentioned (as did Dr. Sweet) that people that have my levels of sensation usually get at least some ambulatory movement. Very encouraging stuff. Time will tell.
Also tomorrow will be my first pool therapy session. It’s supposed to make you float more easily, somehow. Today it was set at 86 degrees, so I’m looking forward to that.
Today a bad day turned into a great day. Thanks again for all the prayers and support.
Here’s a verse that fits nicely with what I was trying to say in my first message after the surgery about where I get my strength. Romans 15:13:
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
G’night, all.
Chip
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