Days til the really hot and sweaty and annoying and cramping my progress brace comes off: 39ish
Days til moving in to new apartment and moving out of RIC: 14-21
Let me start by saying while my mood isn’t yet awesome, it’s drastically better than yesterday. The following will probably explain why.
I found an apartment building. Now it’s just a matter of moving in on the 1st or the 7th. Two different apartments with different availabilities.
Today was a good day. I got in a workout this morning on my own in the gym. They let me substitute that in place of an hour of group exercise at 11am so I could get to the Cubs game. After some weights I went to the MotoMed (see below), It moves your legs for you and you are supposed to try and help it at times to renew muscle memory and trigger brain signals yada yada yada. It has a function where you can stop the motor and push it yourself as best you can. If you don’t do anything for 15 seconds, the motor kicks back in. For weeks I couldn’t make it do anything at all and the motor would kick back in. Last week I broke a minute. I was surprisingly able to go over 3 minutes ON MY OWN today! I was pretty happy with that. I thought something was wrong with the machine, honestly. I even asked a therapist and she said it was functioning correctly. Cool.
I had ordered a wheelchair cab to pick us up at 11am. It was really efficient but made me feel weird. I went up a ramp into the cab. The same ramp dropped me off in front of Wrigley Field for the game. Somehow Jake and Rich had traded up our tickets to get us awesome seats behind home plate about 12 rows back or so. We had an amazing time and to top it off, the Cubs played really well, winning 8-2! Shocking!
Afterwards we headed to Vines for a bit. I’ll admit the weirdest part was all the people walking around. LOTS of people. It made me feel really weird. In the wheelchair, you get a lot of views of crotches and butts. It makes me realize what children and midgets see all the time. But to have it be because I couldn’t walk like everybody else was tough. Anyway here we are at Vines, where the girls ordered way too much food because they didn’t listen to Jake, who has been there 1000 times. Stephen and Rebecca left after the game because they went to run 10+ miles in training for the Soldier Field 10 Miler which is next Saturday. My dad is running it, too, under my name since I registered a while back. Sorry dad, it’s on the blog so that means it’s happening. Otherwise anyone that reads this will call you out.
So I was tired and headed back to the RIC. This time on a bus. After I got in bed and got my shoes and socks off, from old habit I tried cracking my ankles. My right foot moved in a full circle. That wasn’t a surprise - I knew I could do that now. But the weird part was that my knee also moved. I figured it was a spasm. So I did it again, and once again my knee moved. Huh. I used a bunch of energy and was able to lift my knee slightly off my bed - like 4-5 inches. Awesome! My mom was getting weepy about something or other and I called her back to check it out. My dad hadn’t been paying attention so it was a surprise for him, too. I tried as hard as I could and moved my knee a good 8-10 inches off the bed. Like bending it up towards the ceiling. AWESOME! I was/am really psyched about that. Great news. It’s so cool to point my toe and feel my whole leg move. I can’t even tell you how good it feels. I just did it, actually. Awesome.
On top of everything else, Steve Ritchie of Papa John’s Corporate stopped by to say high right before that knee stuff. There was a big event at The Drake tonight honoring PJs and our store made 60 or so pizzas for it. Here’s my star crew and also Becky from corporate:
Steve’s in charge of operations worldwide. Not a small task. I found out he reads this (Hi, Steve), which surprised me. More surprising was that he found it inspirational. I had just taken my shirt off and he was wearing a suit. Oh well.
Chrissy, my good friend from when I lived in Lexington, sent me a card and it really got to me. This verse in it is powerful:
Isaiah 40:31 - but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
I hope that’s true. It seems to be accurate so far in my recovery. I just need it to keep going, now.
Thanks again for all the prayers, cards, letters… just everything. I am continually overwhelmed and, moreso, humbled by the love and support I am receiving.
Please pray for Mark. He is a great guy on my floor who slipped and fell in the shower, compressing two of his vertebrae. He is paralyzed from the waste down, like me. It’s amazing to think something so simple as slipping in the shower can cause a life change. Pray for Mark.
Dear Lord, thank you for today. I look forward to tomorrow. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
G’night,
Chip
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