A new journey

Well I thought I would report back to you all and tell you about my amazing Physio session this week. First of all the appointment was for after work and I thought this is going to be a bit hard because I wanted to walk into the hospital on my frame but also would have my wheelchair with me. I decide that I would go to work without my wheelchair and walk to the office from the car, providing the weather was ok. So that was my plan and on the day of the appointment, my worst nightmare was looming it was really bad weather when I got up wind, rain, hailstones and I thought there's no way I'm going to be able to keep my balance. Anyway by the time I got to work it was fine so I put my plan into motion and off I went to the office on my frame.

It was the first time ever I have managed to go to work without my manual chair and it felt great sort of felt free and my own boss in that I was doing it under my own steam. Work that day went well and I was getting more and more excited as the appointment came closer. When I finally got to the hospital I managed to walk into the room as I always did and this time I went straight into the gym and into the bars. I spend some time on the wobble board doing balance work while I was talking to my Physio. I explained that the video on my blog had been shown to my friends and the team at the Norman Rehab Centre in Poland "Poland wow" "I am waiting on the response from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy website following the posting "We then went on to discuss the new possibilities and I posed the question of whether or not I could walk unaided given time "I don't see why not the skies the limit now" its something to work towards"

I then went off to the stairs, last time I tried the stairs I was quite nervous and needed a lot of help from my Physio and one of the other Physiotherapist's but this week was a different story, this week I did it on my own. Then came the hard bit an exercise to help me gain better control of my knee and believe me took a bit of thinking about and at first I thought this isn't going to work for me because in the past whenever I have had my knee in the bend position and tried moving it, it always shot out straight because of the spasticity in the muscles. This time though it worked for 2 reasons, 1 I was able to bend my knee without any problem to get it on to the step and 2nd there is no tightness there anymore. This then allowed me to gain complete control of what it was I was aiming to achieve and it felt fantastic to have that amount of control over my movement whereas once over I would need constant help to achieve specific movements in my legs, if only to resist the spasticity.

Following that exercise I then proceed back up the stairs and it was a lot easier this time to the point where I sort of forgot what I was doing for a moment and opps slide back briefly into my old way, but don't worry was only for a matter of seconds and I clicked back in.Then the fun started, I was allowed to try the crutches again, only this time it was even better than last week, in that I didn't need as much support this time, in fact my Physio was hardly holding me this time and the odd thing was I was hardly putting any weight through the crutches, it was if I didn't have hold of them. Well that was it I was off no stopping me and before I knew it I had walked out of the gym and to the treatment bay, perched on the bed for a few minutes and then set off again back to the gym. Every step becoming easier and easier as if I was floating or walking on air.