Mid-June Update

Hello, everyone! (Or should I say, "hi, mom"?) Just kidding ...

I am feeling great right now! I wish I could always feel like this.

I hate to admit this, but I have been a little lazy about my physical therapy. It's easier to zip around here in my wheelchair -- or especially in my Jazzy -- than it is to plod around on the walker. BUT I am forcing myself to follow the "no wheels in the house" rule to increase my activity. After all, my therapy is MY responsibility. If I am ever going to walk again, I am going to have to work harder.

Speaking of therapy, I'm not sure if I told you this or not. My home therapy ended a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, I am now officially TOO MOBILE for in-home therapy for the first time in TWO years! Woohah!

However, my outpatient therapy is still pending paperwork, insurance approval, etc. So I am currently receiving no actual PT -- except the stuff I do myself here at home and ... in the pool!

In the photo above, you can see our neighborhood pool. It's hard to describe how much it means to me to be in that water where I can swim, walk, float, dance, and even jump up and down. I can walk down into the pool (5 steps) with my cane, although I still struggle some with climbing the four steps up to where I pivot to sit on the wheelchair. (When I can't make it all the way up, I sit and scoot.)

Once I am in the pool, I am free, free, free! I feel so utterly, incredibly normal in the pool. I walk back and forth across it, I swim laps (one direction on my back, the other on my stomach), I do my exercises, and I jump and spin and move around just because I can. For purposes of therapy, I try to go at least three nights per week and spend at least one hour of constant motion in the pool. Sometimes, I go an extra night or two if I am feeling well and not too sore.

And WOW, the pool activity does make me sore! Muscles in my shoulders, arms, back, and even my feet are coming back to life. Ironically, my legs don't hurt much -- could it be because I have been exercising them so much more than the rest of my body?

Because I always associate the pool with vacation (since I never had unlimited access to one until we moved here five years ago), I instantly relax when I enter the water. I usually have to force myself out the of pool, because the limp and the gravity return as the water grows more shallow toward the steps. Suddenly I am aware of my weight -- and my own limitations -- again. But for several hours per week, I find a much-needed respite from the struggle that my life has become.

So far, my summer has been amazingly simple and wonderful. We are swimming, reading, making homemade popsicles, and just generally taking life a little more slowly and casually.

It makes me incredibly, unbelievably happy.

Happy summer!