“Look No Hands”

Hi again,
Days after I posted my last blog something exciting happened. I was able to stand up in my walker, get my hips into position and lock them on my own, and then let go of the walker with my hands! I still have to have my knees be blocked by a piece of Styrofoam because they aren’t blocking themselves yet, but being able to do this is awesome!
When I did this, I was so excited that I actually got happy tears in my eyes. The reason it’s so exciting is before I went to Costa Rica for the Stem Cell I never had the opportunity to even try standing in a walker. The therapists at Barrow's didn’t think it would even be possible. Then once I started working on standing while in Costa Rica, it was so hard! I couldn’t put much weight at all on my legs therefore my arms had to compensate for all that weight. I had to put so much pressure on my arms. It also took two therapists to get me stable in the walker. One had to stand behind me to hold my hips in place and the other had to block my knees. Even with their help, holding me up, my arms got so tired because I had to put so much pressure on them to hold myself up. I could only stay up with all that help for about a minute at the most and it took all my strength to last that long.
Then as time went on, I continued to work hard here at SOS therapy. I continually improved. Here are the steps I went through with standing, as I improved in the last 4 months.

1) First, I couldn’t tuck my pelvis under me to stand in the correct position. I needed help with this and my arms still took most of the pressure of my body weight while holding on to the walker.
2) Next, I grew by being able to tuck my pelvis under in the right position without help. Next, I could hold my hips in place for a long time by myself as long as I was holding on to the walker.
3) Later, I was able to let go of the walker with my hands if my therapist helped to hold my hips locked in place. He only had to put a little pressure on my hips. I could stand like this for quite a while.
4) Then as time went on, my therapist would help me get my hips into position then let go and I could let go of my hands from the walker. I could only do it without my therapist touching me or me touching the walker for 30-45 second intervals.
5) Now, this Wednesday the 21st, after working on standing for a half hour or so, I got up, got my own hips into position and locked by myself and let go of the walker with my hands. I was able to stand up with no one touching me and without touching the walker for several 3 minute or so bursts followed by my record time so far of 5 minutes. Yeah! I could of gone even longer but I stopped at 5 minutes, very proud of my accomplishment. I can’t wait to go longer next time. Scott was able to watch me do this later in the week and he too is very proud and amazed by how much I am improving and how far I have come. The therapists are also amazed by my progress and impressed by how quickly I’m doing it. It’s exciting!

When I did water therapy last week, my therapist Jodi was very excited because she said when I was walking with her in the pool that my knees were starting to lock themselves as I walked under water. She puts pressure on them as I walk and my right leg hardly needed any pressure put against it and it was stepping really good. My left leg did doing pretty good and I hope it catches up to my right leg soon. Some days my right is better and other days my left is better when walking in the water.
My attitude continues to be positive. I am so grateful for all that has come back so far and I feel very blessed. I hope for more improvement and I will continue to work hard. I’m so excited about having had the opportunity to get the stem cell. I feel so happy with my life. Things are good!