Exciting News!
I was lying on my bed this morning, waiting to be transferred to the shower chair (they have special wheelchairs for giving people showers). My legs were straight and my left leg felt uncomfortable, so I bent it. Now, I've bent it before, even back when I was on the Neurology floor at the hospital, but those bends were small bends, just an inch or two off the bed. This time I bent it all the way up. I had a harder time straightening it, but I was able to push my foot (another new ability) and let gravity make my leg slide down. I did this a few times and I was surprised that I could do it. I showed the CNA and then I said something about wishing I could do it with my right leg. And then I did it! I bent my right leg almost all the way up! And I did it several times!
I went to social dining and kept this news to myself there because most of the people around me have conditions that are getting worse and I didn't want to rub it in that I was improving. So I kept quiet about it until I got to therapy and could tell the therapists, but I was mostly looking forward to writing this post.
In therapy, we tried something new: the sit-to-stand lift, also called a "Sera lift" (this isn't the exact model, but it looks something like that). We tried it three times. Each time they tried strapping me in in different ways. Before we started, they warned me that it was going to be uncomfortable, no matter how we did it. The first time, I felt like my neck was being squished, so my shoulders hurt. The second time, there was a strap around my waist that came up to my breasts and hurt there. The third time, which was probably the best try, I felt faint when I stood. (This is normal; it's just like when I felt lightheaded when I first got into a wheelchair. It has to do with lack of circulation. In any case, I told them I think we should keep doing it on a regular basis (maybe once a week) because even if I'm only up for a few seconds, I still think putting weight on my legs helps to wake them up.
After that, the PT (Kathie) had me pull my wheelchair up to a step (like the kind used in step aerobics). She moved the foot rests on the wheelchair out of the way and told me to put my feet on the step. I was able to lift my left foot almost high enough, but not quite, but I was able to lift my right leg an inch or two, which is a lot for my right foot! Once I had my feet on the step, she just had me do some exercises to work on core strength and balance.
After therapy, I went back to my room and opened up the box containing the 5lb free weights that my sister Mimi sent me for my birthday (thanks Mimi!). It had a sheet that showed some exercises, but only a few could be done without standing. So I searched the internet for info on free weight exercises for people in wheelchairs, but found very little. I did find one description of one exercise, and I found a video of a guy who demonstrated various wheelchair exercises, two of which involved free weights. It was actually a pretty good video, with some good exercises, not totally what I was looking for. This video has a few good ideas for free weight exercise too. (Thanks to Chelsea for suggesting looking on YouTube. There wasn't a whole lot there, but I found that video there.)
That's it for now.
I went to social dining and kept this news to myself there because most of the people around me have conditions that are getting worse and I didn't want to rub it in that I was improving. So I kept quiet about it until I got to therapy and could tell the therapists, but I was mostly looking forward to writing this post.
In therapy, we tried something new: the sit-to-stand lift, also called a "Sera lift" (this isn't the exact model, but it looks something like that). We tried it three times. Each time they tried strapping me in in different ways. Before we started, they warned me that it was going to be uncomfortable, no matter how we did it. The first time, I felt like my neck was being squished, so my shoulders hurt. The second time, there was a strap around my waist that came up to my breasts and hurt there. The third time, which was probably the best try, I felt faint when I stood. (This is normal; it's just like when I felt lightheaded when I first got into a wheelchair. It has to do with lack of circulation. In any case, I told them I think we should keep doing it on a regular basis (maybe once a week) because even if I'm only up for a few seconds, I still think putting weight on my legs helps to wake them up.
After that, the PT (Kathie) had me pull my wheelchair up to a step (like the kind used in step aerobics). She moved the foot rests on the wheelchair out of the way and told me to put my feet on the step. I was able to lift my left foot almost high enough, but not quite, but I was able to lift my right leg an inch or two, which is a lot for my right foot! Once I had my feet on the step, she just had me do some exercises to work on core strength and balance.
After therapy, I went back to my room and opened up the box containing the 5lb free weights that my sister Mimi sent me for my birthday (thanks Mimi!). It had a sheet that showed some exercises, but only a few could be done without standing. So I searched the internet for info on free weight exercises for people in wheelchairs, but found very little. I did find one description of one exercise, and I found a video of a guy who demonstrated various wheelchair exercises, two of which involved free weights. It was actually a pretty good video, with some good exercises, not totally what I was looking for. This video has a few good ideas for free weight exercise too. (Thanks to Chelsea for suggesting looking on YouTube. There wasn't a whole lot there, but I found that video there.)
That's it for now.