Days til brace off: 31
Days til move out and move in: 12
Today I mainly rested. Yesterday was so long and I woke up so early that I needed it. Thankfully my nurse put the hospital equivalent of a “do not disturb” on my door. I slept a good 10-11 hours and woke up too late to make it to my first therapy session at 10am. I think the rest was better than the PT for my rehab, frankly. I made sure to do everything without assistance today as much as possible to make up for it.
At 1:30 I got in the pool. I kept spasming so we did some simple squats, let kicks, and then they let me swim, which was really cool. It was too small of a pool to really get any distance, but it still felt great. I fully intend on swimming when I get out of here. I can’t run, so maybe I’ll FINALLY really swim a lot. I’ve been talking about it for years, to the perpetual annoyance of my swimmer friends. I’ll post a video after I post this blog.
Nina, Louise, Amanda and her friend all showed up while I was in the pool. They got to see me flounder out of the pool as I tried to get out without the lift. I pushed myself up onto the side of the pool and then did a backwards pushup onto my wheelchair. It wasn’t pretty but it worked. There may be hope, yet, of me getting into and out of a regular pool without fancy equipment.
We all went down to my room. When the PCT came in to get my vitals, she was patient enough to one by one take the vitals of each of my visitors. They had way to much fun getting their blood pressure checked! It was hilarious.
Erik came a little later to catch up. Then my parents and I headed over to their hotel for leftovers for dinner and the first stages of a game of Risk. It’s going to take several stages, I’m sure. My dad was smart enough to take photos of the board so we didn’t have to leave it out. Plus they can bring it to RIC. If you haven’t played it, it strangely makes you want to dominate the world. Awesome game :) The only other time I played, it was with 4 other friends and we played for 6 hours straight. I couldn’t talk to Erik for a good hour afterwards because I was so upset from losing.
Anyway that’s about it for today. I’ll leave you with this insight:
Those of us in rehab regularly refer to life as before and after the accident. Like, “Well, since the accident,” or, “Before the accident…” It’s really interesting. I am convinced this is a subconscious way of showing that we view life differently, now. Yes, we’ve changed physically. But also our views of the world have changed. This is true of everyone I’ve talked with here. I would say it is also true to varying degrees of my friends and family. I am willing to bet that all of them are much quicker now to open the door of anyone handicapped. Or to say, “hello,” instead of just looking straight on and avoiding eye contact. Those little subtleties don’t go unnoticed by those of us in wheelchairs and it’s much appreciated when people do NOT avoid us.
Okay that’s my little thought for the night. God bless you all.
G’night!
Chip
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