Rebecca and I keep reliving the wedding and thinking about all the cool things that happened, how great it was to have most of our friends and family there, and in general how it all came together to create amazing memories. She keeps saying, “I want to get married again!” and I have to remind myself that she means to ME. Ha! We haven’t even seen the professional photos from the photographer we actually paid, yet thanks to Facebook and having tons of friends with smartphones, we have about 1000 photos already and they look awesome. If you are one of those contributors: thanks!
That, the stair climb being over, Rebecca’s marathon over, and now my therapy is only 2 days a week instead of 3 (insurance limitations). It will likely drop to 1 day a week in the new year. I only get 60 sessions a year. All that means I found myself with more time on my hands and lacking in big goals. Rebecca, too.
Right away I went to my goal/dream book and checked out what I could try and tackle soon. I write down all my goals in a book and then when I complete them I go in and write the date and details. As far as therapy goes, I am shooting for meeting the goal of walking a mile without sitting down. I’m also going to attempt a full week without the wheelchair.
I also just finished another SCI-specific book by Grant Morgan called Two Feet Back. He was about my age when he was hurt snowmobiling. Similar injury and progress, too.
So with those things in mind, I started trying to challenge myself more outside of therapy. Something had to replace those stair workouts. Friday, Rebecca and I caught a cab to a BYOB painting class, then went to an awesome Italian dinner.
I clearly have no idea what I’m doing.
Saturday we met a bunch of friends out for dinner at Uncle Julio’s. We took the bus for that and then a friend drove us home.
Sunday I took the bus and went to church (Rebecca was working), then jumped in CJK’s car and was finally able to hang out with a bunch of people at Ben’s place. I haven’t been able to before since there are a bunch of stairs. So that was cool.
Last night I took the bus, met a work acquaintance for a couple bourbons, and took the bus home. The Montrose bus, unfortunately, takes a 17 minute driver break about 0.3 miles from my apartment.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I did all those things without the wheelchair! I just put a few things in my pockets and then took the crutches. The colder weather is actually great for me because I usually get all sweaty from walking around. 30-50 degrees feels awesome outside to me (when I’m working out). The only part of it that made me nervous was the 0.3 mile walk home from where the bus dropped me off last night. It was dark but that wasn’t a big deal. I do worry when I don’t make it across an intersection fast enough to beat the light changing. But so far no issues there.
The wind, though, was terrible. First, everyone left the bus and the driver said, “Are you going to stay on? I’m going for a 17 minute break before I start again.” I said I’d get off, and then she just left me there - alone. I have a bit of a hard time getting up from the bus seat so that was interesting. But it went alright under the surprise pressure of realizing I HAD to do it, or flounder on the floor for 17 minutes.
When I got out of the bus, it felt good to be walking alone, plus I was proud of standing and stepping off the bus unassisted. I figured it was gonna be a while for me to get home so I started singing songs while I walked. Then it got windy. I kept singing songs but the wind picked up to the point that it was trying to knock me over. The street had created a wind tunnel at what had to be 30 mph, minimum. You know how you have to lean into wind like that when you walk? Well I was leaning with crutches, taking tiny steps hoping it would die down. It didn’t. Then I crossed the street and a gust of wind about knocked me down. Stepping up a curb with strong wind is also no fun. My singing turned into silence which turned into occasional cursing. I think one quick prayer I said was, “Dear Lord, please give me the strength to walk in this wind… that You created. Thanks for the challenge!” So that tedious/precarious trip got me a little down last night. But I suppose it was just another therapy session, really, preparing me for more unforeseen obstacles.
I’m pretty happy with the decreased wheelchair usage. In fact, it has made it even more annoying when I DO need the wheelchair. I’ve mentioned before that I hate how, on the bus, the wheelchair spot takes up 4 normal seats. So it’s nice to just get on there with crutches.
Other than that, wheelchair basketball is going awesome. The coaches use tons of strategy, we run all kinds of drills, and it just feels like much more of a team sport than softball did. On top of that, there are now 3 other folks that were inpatients with me at RIC playing! Tony, Jayme, and Kip are all there. We make up half of the division 3 team and we have a tournament this weekend that should be fun. It’s a really good time. Jayme has already flipped his wheelchair over twice being overly aggressive on offense. Lots of ramming into each other out there - really fun! And it’s good for endurance. You basically push up and down the court, constantly, until the whistle blows.
Oh and I also discovered that I can do pushups. Rebecca decided to do some the other night and I figured I’d see if I could do it. Before when I tried, I just didn’t have the core strength to hold my body in that plank position. But I got down there this time and cranked out 20 pushups. It was extremely difficult, and kind of bittersweet. I’m glad I can do them now but I’ve never been so weak that I did less than 50. I guess that’s another goal for me. 50 legit push-ups, post-injury. Where’s that goal book?….
Okay that’s it for now. Back to work!
Chip
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