Days 41 and 42

Days til brace off: 37

Days til move out of RIC: no idea… 2.5 weeks?  They keep changing it

I was exhausted last night so no blog until today.  

Yesterday was cool.  I got a pass for the morning to go to church at Park Community Church’s Lincoln Park campus.  Joe Riccardi had a good sermon, as usual.  He had also arranged to have some people help me through the building’s elevators and passageways and to find my “seating” area.  That was really cool of him.  He’s a great guy.  The sermon was on Hebrews and the warning of becoming an apostate.  Heavy stuff but good, too.

I went back for lokomat therapy, only to discover that the lokomat was not working.  So with 30 minutes left, Svetlana, having just told her about my new knee development, decided to give me a muscle test.  Long story short, my right leg is way stronger and my left leg is a little stronger, too.  Great news!  3 weeks ago on the ASIA scale I scored a zero.  Nothing.  2 weeks ago I scored a 4 out of 50.  Small, small, movement.  1 week ago I scored a 15.  Huge improvement and return.  Yesterday I scored a 23.  Out of 50!  The big improvements were my right knee and hip.  So this is going well.  Granted, Svetlana may score more leniently than Sara, who knows, but it was good news and I know I’m stronger.  I can feel it.

So that was good!  After that I had pool therapy and I kind of just did a bunch of random stuff to work out my legs until they were tired, which didn’t take long.  They are still very, very weak. 

Today the big change was when the lokomat wouldn’t work, yet again.  Jason, the head of therapy, decided to use the treadmill function of the machine without the robotics.  They had been talking about trying this with me but we hadn’t done it, yet.  Anyway, it went fairly well.  See the video I post in a second.  My parents flipped out.  It was basically like walking with the walker, except no braces.  The harness system only allowed me to put about 50% of my body weight on my legs, because Jason set it that way.  Still, it was incredibly hard work and felt really good, actually.  

Please pray for Connor today.  Connor was injured about the same time as me.  He was in Illinois Masonic where I had surgery, too.  And now he is at RIC, on floor 10.  That’s where the brain injuries are.  He was hit by a drunk driver on St. Patrick’s Day while he was crossing the street.  He is making improvements daily but still needs lots of healing and therefore needs your prayers.  Here is his prayer page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Prayer-request-for-Conor/170041766482374

Just a couple days ago I was feeling absolutely miserable.  Now I am pumped up and filled with love and passion to positively impact the world.  This place changes you.  I know I am a rollercoaster of emotion but so goes it here.  Thanks for all your kind words to lift me out of my slump.  I’ll probably have more slumps in the future, but at least I know that, I guess.

G’night

Chip