***OCTOBER*** Tuesday, October 1, 2013 October Begins Its the beginning of new month. Hopefully it will be as awesome a month as Im hoping for! I really want to get right hip-flexor to bend and lift up so that I can practice a standing-march in order to train my legs for walking. It is really frustrating to have my left leg bend and step up so easily, and then my right leg just wont do it. it looks like it wants, but the hip-flexor on the right side just isnt strong enough to raise my foot off the ground. I have figured out how to transfer my weight off of my right leg, but my knee doesnt bend up. Which kinda confuses me...I want my knee to bend up, but Ive been told that I need to get my hip-flexor to bend my leg up. I mean, I guess it makes sense...I cant do one without the other. Its kinda annoying that I have one leg taking steps sooo easily, but the other leg is stuck, not moving. Its as if the message from my brain to my right leg muscles is barely getting through.; like its super static-y. Well, today I got a visit from mi madre, which was great because I always perform better with an audience! Tuesday, October 8, 2013 Photo Shoot Today was a very productive, impressive day. Rosemary and I welcomed Sara, a photographer interning at the San Francisco Chronicle, for a photo shoot of our workout session. It was way fun to be the star of the show! And Rosemary made sure to keep me busy with all types of exercises! I started out with arm circles...my favorite...NOT. Then I leaned my chair back and stretched out my arms. Next, Rosemary stretched my legs by raising my straight leg as far up as she could get it. When she finished, I lowered my chair back down to a sitting position and did some alternating ankle-flexes. And then, alternating leg-lifts. Afterwards, I leaned my chair all the way back again and did a bunch of crunches. Along with the standard crunches, Rosemary had me do some crunches with my arms extended out in front of me, and I did crunches with my hands out, reaching to touch my toes. Next came the tandem-walking. We ended up doing 3 rounds of walking, my right leg continuing to remain stick-straight every time! Its super frustrating and Rosemary has told me that my right leg looks like it wants to bend, but it just doesnt have the strength to bend and take that forward step. Grrr. After 2 tandem-walking rounds, I took a rest and did some sit-up/back extensions and some weighted leg lifts. And then Rosemary had me do these things with my ankles where she hold my foot out in front of me in a flexed position, and I point my toes forward repeatedly on her command. Lastly, we did a 3rd,final round of tandem-walking. Throughout the workout, Sara snapped tons of pictures...all of which Im sure I look fabulous in! ;) Sara interviewed both Rosenary and I separately, so well see where this goes! Friday, October 11, 2013 THANK YALL! Last night at Jia Tellas was a total success! I want yall to know how stunningly generous you are, dropping an amazing $879.00 down on raffle tickets and donations ALONE! I havent even heard the total from Jia Tellas lunch and dinner service! I truly hope that everyone who came out, enjoyed themselves, not only with their yummy meals, but also had a good time socializing! And I also truly hope that you will add Jia Tellas to your list of hot spots! I feel like I should apologize for my anti-social-ness last night! Its all a part of my brain injury, I think! ;) Ive actually gotten much better tho...When I first got sick, I used to fake that I was sleeping when my friends or family-friends came to visit me in the hospital! At least I didnt fake-snooze around yall last night! Ill admit that having this disease and being in a wheelchair has totally changed my outgoing personality. I honestly think that the thing that affects my self-confidence most, is my voice. I cant really raise the volume of my voice yet, and I still have issues with my breath-support (like the amount of air in your lungs that allows for noisy laughter). And in the bar at JTs, it gets pretty loud! So, Im sorry if I seemed rude or too quiet..I swear I talk more in smaller groups of people in quieter settings! There were some humorous things that happened over in the back corner of the bar last night. ;) Ill share a few with ya now, as you probs werent there sharing in the laughter, or its only funny now that the Benefit is over: I had to defend my claim of being anti-smoker! I had gone outside with my dear friend so that she could have a smoke. I guess that my absence in the bar caused a few questions of where I went. Apparently, another friend told my date that I had gone outside with my gal pal for a smoke! And seeing as how I was near a smoker, I came back in smelling like cigarette smoke that had left her cigarette and waded over to rest on me and stink my clothes up. My friends and I laughed as I had to deny being a smoker to my questioner! Haha! Can you just imagine me rollin out front with a cig between my lips and a lighter tucked in my lap? At the end of the night, a family friend had sold one of the M4M t-shirts to a lady who wanted me to sign the shirt w/a sharpie marker before she took it home. Being the amazing person that I am, I agreed to sign it and did as I was instructed by the family-friend. I wrote the name of the woman who purchased the t-shirt...all the while thinking, Hmmm. Shouldnt I be signing my name, not hers? But I was tired and ready for bed, so I didnt speak up! So now theres a woman out there (you know who you are!) sporting an M4M shirt with her name on the back, not mine. Lol! (*Side note: If I ever see you at JTs, Ill fix it!) My dear friend offered to put in a dinner for us. so I obviously took her up on that. She went and ordered us some drinks, and came back and sat down at our table. Time ticked away and our food still hadnt arrived. Because I was busy saying hello to different folks, our meal order was the last thing on my mind. Two hours later, we were asked by another friend where our food was and if we were sure that the order was placed. I shrugged and threw the spotlight over to my dear friend who supposedly placed our order. I placed the order...with some bartender that was in training. That explained it! So, we finally talked my dear friend into RE-ordering with a more experienced staff-member, and *poof* 5 minutes later our food appeared! Tuesday, October 15, 2013 Ill Keep It Short... Well, today I discovered that I CAN bend my right leg and step forward. The only problem is the having that right leg step forward, takes all of the strength I have stored up in the left leg to keep it standing upright. I gathered up all of my gusto, and willed my right leg to step forward. Unfortunately, my left knee couldnt hold strong, and I started to collapse! Thank God for that rock-climbing harness. Without it, Rosemary undoubtedly wouldve let me sink down to the ground. We made sure to try it again, just to be sure! Second times a charm. Exact same thing happened! My right leg bent and stepped forward, but my left leg couldnt remain strong and sturdy. So, I learned that I need to make my left leg stronger, enough so that it can hold up my bodyweight while Im really trying to STEP forward with the right leg. Im kinda at a loss as to what to do precisely, I just know that I want to build the strength in my left thigh (I should probably work on strengthening BOTH!). I also want to have my acupncturist, Kevin Zhu, focus on the amount of feeling, or lack there of, in my right leg. I recently noticed my intense lack of sensation I have in my right leg (compared to my left) during a massage. My feeling on the left leg is definitely far from perfect, but it is SO much better than on the right leg. I think that gaining more feeling in my right leg, will help me with walking because moving my right leg forward currently is like teaching a manican to walk. I have such little sensation, that Rosemary has to tell me if/when my right leg is moving. My sensation has improved over the years, but I would like to see if acupuncture could speed up that process! ;) I have my first acupuncture appointment (in months!) on Saturday. Wednesday, October 16, 2013 Different Approach So today Rosemary and I tried something to help me increase my muscle mass in my legs. (I decided that after yesterdays tandem-walking fiasco, I wanted to take a different approach at this, and build up my leg muscles for a bit, instead of tandem-walking.) Rosemary had me lean my chair all the way back so that I could try bridging my hips up. Apparently, doing these would help me tone my legs more. She had me focus on pushing down through my heels, keeping my arms plated on the armrests of the chair, using my hamstring at the backs of my thighs to push my hips up,and working the section between my belly-button and my hips. Although I didnt bridge my hips up all the way, my hamstrings and tummy-muscles were working hard under my instruction, and Rosemary could see my hips raise and all the muscles that were supposed to be working, engage! Since my body was doing so well, she had me try bridging-up with only one leg as my base......that was hard work! She held up one leg, off of the footrest, and I pushed down through the other foot/heel. I dont know if this is supposed to happen or if my muscles are just working overtime, but my calves got so sore on the leg that wasnt working as my base! After bridging, I did 4 sets of 25 crunches...unfortunately for me, my chair was already leaned back. so crunches seemed like an obvious instruction for Rosemary! Then, it was pull-up time. I rolled over to the TRX, and did 2 sets of 10 strong pull-ups. Rosemary decided to take the wheelchairs headrest off while I was doing my pull-ups so that I wouldnt keep running in to it. After my first set of pull-ups, I told Rosemary about how I have this fear of my head falling too far back and my neck snapping! She assured me that I have gotten much stronger than I think, and said that is why she hates my wheelchair. It makes you think you cant do things that I know you can. Youve become kinda dependent on that headrest, when I know you can hold your head up on your own! And same thing with you just being in the wheelchair...Its making it hard for you to see yourself walking! I know that my fears and doubts in myself are pretty much all psychological, and I also know that I need to get over them...I just dont know how! That seems like a whole nother chapter in my book of how to get well! Last but not least, I did sit-ups/back hyper-extensions. I havent done a lot of these lately, but no worries...I still got it. ;)
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 00:40:02 +0000
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