The Hill I Climb

Monday, April 19

12:45 pm

I had PT this morning at nine with Brian. I stood up without assistance, stayed standing for three minutes (while playing a game stacking cones to keep my hands occupied), then sat back down. I did six sets of that. (Christine would like to emphasize the casual way he just mentioned stacking cones to “keep his hands busy,” when he could barely pick up a cone a week ago!!) Then I did core work: like before, I sat on the edge of the padded bench and did crunches, leaning back to the wedge positioned behind me and sitting back up. Brian told me to do 10 of those, so I did 12. Then he casually stated, “Okay. Now we’re going to do two more sets.” Dammit, I thought. I did 10 on the second set and 8 on the third. Still, average of 10, not too bad. Next, he had me lean over to the side and touch each elbow to the bench. I did an uncountable number of those. (Uncountable mostly because I cannot remember.)

When PT was over at 10, I went back to my room and my buddy (psychologist) Matt came by and we chatted for half an hour. We spent most of it talking about woodworking while my favorite nurse April stayed and listened.

After that, I had walking practice, i.e., I was tortured by Zane. He put me on the treadmill (in the harness) and started me out at a fairly slow speed. After five minutes or so, I stood and rested (I was not allowed to sit down), and then I started again at a steeper incline and walked uphill for about eight minutes, at maybe 2.8 mph on a 2% incline. After another standing rest, I had to go as fast as I could on a flat trajectory. I did an additional session or two like that.

I stepped off the treadmill with Zane and walked on the yellow track without the harness and only the support of Zane behind me. I walked 50 feet, then I walked 30 feet up and 30 back, then finally walked 60 feet up and 60 back.

I’m bushed.

8:00 pm

I had lunch early this afternoon before Lori came and got me for OT. She had tested my grip strength about two weeks ago, and it was about 9 foot-pounds of pressure on each hand. Today, she tested my grip strength again, and it was 20 foot-pounds.

For the first time, Lori had me redo games that I’ve done before—two games that I described in the post about my first day here. The first was the game involving the open boxes full of cubes separated by a tall divider. Last time, I think I was able to move only one cube from one side to the other with my right hand and maybe three cubes with my left hand. Today, in one minute each, I managed to move 30 cubes with my left hand and 24 with my right hand.

You can see in the videos that my right hand is still significantly weaker than my left, although both are improving.

The second repeat game is the one reminiscent of the peg-and-hole game at Cracker Barrel. Last time, I was unable to pick up the pegs with either hand. Today, in under two minutes, using one hand, I was able to pick up the pegs and put them each in a hole until the grid was filled, and then take each peg out of the hole and put it back in the dish. I was able to do that with each hand (though again my left was better than my right).

I was quite pleased, and Lori seemed happy with what I was able to do, too. I was rewarded with some stretching, which as always felt really good, mainly because I didn’t have to do anything except lie there.

I went straight from OT to arm and hand recovery with Eliza. She wired me up to the electrical stimulation, and I did push-ups on my hands and knees like the other day. We did three sets of 30 of those, until my arms slowly gave way and I fell on my face. We then moved to the roller on the wedge (see previous videos), and I did two or three sets of that exercise as well.

By this time, my muscles were toast. But I was done for the day!

Linda arrived at 4:30, and I was so glad to see her, but I wasn’t very good company. I was so tired. I informed Linda that I’d broken up with my girlfriend Cathy Ter (a.k.a., catheter) this morning. I no longer need her. Linda was as pleased as I was about the breakup—maybe even more so. This estrangement holds great implications for my independence, and it’s great to put Cathy behind me before I go home. I’m relieved!