Hi everyone. I have wanted to update my blog for awhile so here I go. I now only go to SOS Physical Therapy for both water therapy and “land” therapy as I call it. I work out there 3 times a week between 3-4 hours each visit. It’s a lot of work but I love it.
I also work out at home with my sister-in-law once a week. We have fun working out and catching up on what has been going on in each other’s lives. She helps me use my standing frame to do kind of like backwards sit ups. This works out my back really good. We also lift weight and do lots of sit ups.
Things have continued to improve these last 3 months. I can now do many things that I do in everyday life much easier now that I have more strength and balance. My abs, sides, and back are very strong now. I work out on the mat for about 2 hours. Here are some of the things I do there. I work out on the total gym keeping my upper body and core muscles very strong. Also when laying on the total gym, I can push myself up using my legs. Their still not very strong because all of my leg muscles aren’t connecting yet but I can still do it a little and this is exciting to me. Just imagine it like a squat with me laying down.
I also work out at home with my sister-in-law once a week. We have fun working out and catching up on what has been going on in each other’s lives. She helps me use my standing frame to do kind of like backwards sit ups. This works out my back really good. We also lift weight and do lots of sit ups.
Things have continued to improve these last 3 months. I can now do many things that I do in everyday life much easier now that I have more strength and balance. My abs, sides, and back are very strong now. I work out on the mat for about 2 hours. Here are some of the things I do there. I work out on the total gym keeping my upper body and core muscles very strong. Also when laying on the total gym, I can push myself up using my legs. Their still not very strong because all of my leg muscles aren’t connecting yet but I can still do it a little and this is exciting to me. Just imagine it like a squat with me laying down.
Then I work hard on my abs, and back on the mat. One of the ways I do this is I get on all 4’s like crawling and they push me with consistent pressure and try to knock me off balance. I can hold strong in the 8 different directions they push me in. This is a big improvement because before the stem cells I would fall if the wind blew. :)
Next, I get in a plank position and hold it like 6 inches off the matt without letting myself go down. It’s exciting to have abs that are very strong again. I also work on standing without the braces in the walker. I still can’t keep my knees locked without something blocking them. They use a Styrofoam thing to bock my knees and I can stand tall. I improved a lot with this in the last month. I used to only be able to stand up in the walker in the correct position for about a minute without getting tired. I had to use my arms on the walker and I was struggling with using my arms too much. I now can do it at least 4-5 minutes and with no hands once I’m up. My therapist does still help me get my hips in the right spot but each week I am getting closer to doing it myself. It’s a big deal. I am finally able to put my weight on my legs and line up just right. It feels great! It is also much easier now to hold my hips in just the right spot. I can now rotate my pelvis forward into the correct spot. This was impossible for me to do before and now it comes natural. I can also tell when I am not standing evenly or am off a bit and I can correct it on my own.
In the pool I also like to work on getting my abs, back, sides, butt, and hip flexors all stronger. I can walk in the pool if I’m holding on to the therapists with my hands. I also work a lot on standing from a sitting position in there. I can use a noodle and pedal my legs like I’m riding a bike. It’s cool. This is working my hip flexors a lot. Now with my new strength I can swim laps doing the breast stroke or the back stroke. Of course I don’t use my legs while doing it but I’m still good at it and it’s fun! I also continue to work on getting my legs to move more on their own. They still only move a little. I can only hope for more connections with them, but as for now I’m very happy with what is now working well so far.
I‘ve been checked a few more times with a full body scan as to see if my sensation continues to improve. It does. I can feel more and more each time with soft touch, pressure touch and sharp touch. I also continue to feel ice more. I can feel all of the sensations on my ankles and feet and certain areas on my legs and bootie. I do feel it now all the way to my waist on my front and back too. The sensation is still not the same as where I feel normal but I can definitely feel.
Something that I have been doing that I feel so happy about is, I have also been in contact with many other spinal cord injury patients. I love talking with them and helping them in any way that I can. I think that they mostly find me through this blog. I am just so happy to help lift their spirits and to give them hope. I don’t care if they decide to get stem cells or not but it’s my mission to at least tell anyone that I know about my experience and then it’s up to them to choose if it’s for them or not. I wish so much that I was told of this opportunity right after my accident. The Dr.’s here never told me this was even an option. Even though it’s not approved here yet, I wish that I would have been made aware of it. But now I can help let people know and we all can continue to hope for the future. :)
The one area that is still very frustrating to me is that I still continue to get reoccurring UTI’s. These are frustrating to deal with and the Dr.’s still haven’t figured out how to stop them from happening.
Something was said to me in a card I received recently that struck me as funny, they said ” It must seem like forever since you have been able to do the things you want to do” I sat and thought for a second bummed out that some people still think of me that way, like I can’t do things as before. The thing is, I can’t think of anything that I don’t do that I would like to. Of course I would like to walk or run but I’m pretty fast in my chair. :) I still have fun shooting hoops with the boys or playing baseball or catch with the football with them. My husband always says jokingly to me , “Gee, I wish I had a stay at home wife that actually stayed home sometimes” I’m on the go as much as any other mom would be working out, doing errands, cooking meals, doing laundry, being a taxi for the kids, visiting friends, & of course volunteering. I am also very busy with the boys and their sports. They’re both on Club baseball teams and are very busy with school.
Our family is going snow skiing again this year over Spring Break. I loved skiing before I got hurt. I tried adaptive skiing last year for the first time. I did it twice and was doing blues from the top by the second day. It was so much fun. I just love being out there skiing right with my family. I will post pictures when we get back. I’m excited because I bet it will be much easier this year now that I have my core working good.
Well, we went skiing and it was great. Scott and Parker snowboarded and Hunter ad I skied. It was easier now that I have my core working. It’s a lot of fun and great to be out there enjoying the day with my family.
Take care everyone and I will update again in the future.
Next, I get in a plank position and hold it like 6 inches off the matt without letting myself go down. It’s exciting to have abs that are very strong again. I also work on standing without the braces in the walker. I still can’t keep my knees locked without something blocking them. They use a Styrofoam thing to bock my knees and I can stand tall. I improved a lot with this in the last month. I used to only be able to stand up in the walker in the correct position for about a minute without getting tired. I had to use my arms on the walker and I was struggling with using my arms too much. I now can do it at least 4-5 minutes and with no hands once I’m up. My therapist does still help me get my hips in the right spot but each week I am getting closer to doing it myself. It’s a big deal. I am finally able to put my weight on my legs and line up just right. It feels great! It is also much easier now to hold my hips in just the right spot. I can now rotate my pelvis forward into the correct spot. This was impossible for me to do before and now it comes natural. I can also tell when I am not standing evenly or am off a bit and I can correct it on my own.
In the pool I also like to work on getting my abs, back, sides, butt, and hip flexors all stronger. I can walk in the pool if I’m holding on to the therapists with my hands. I also work a lot on standing from a sitting position in there. I can use a noodle and pedal my legs like I’m riding a bike. It’s cool. This is working my hip flexors a lot. Now with my new strength I can swim laps doing the breast stroke or the back stroke. Of course I don’t use my legs while doing it but I’m still good at it and it’s fun! I also continue to work on getting my legs to move more on their own. They still only move a little. I can only hope for more connections with them, but as for now I’m very happy with what is now working well so far.
I‘ve been checked a few more times with a full body scan as to see if my sensation continues to improve. It does. I can feel more and more each time with soft touch, pressure touch and sharp touch. I also continue to feel ice more. I can feel all of the sensations on my ankles and feet and certain areas on my legs and bootie. I do feel it now all the way to my waist on my front and back too. The sensation is still not the same as where I feel normal but I can definitely feel.
Something that I have been doing that I feel so happy about is, I have also been in contact with many other spinal cord injury patients. I love talking with them and helping them in any way that I can. I think that they mostly find me through this blog. I am just so happy to help lift their spirits and to give them hope. I don’t care if they decide to get stem cells or not but it’s my mission to at least tell anyone that I know about my experience and then it’s up to them to choose if it’s for them or not. I wish so much that I was told of this opportunity right after my accident. The Dr.’s here never told me this was even an option. Even though it’s not approved here yet, I wish that I would have been made aware of it. But now I can help let people know and we all can continue to hope for the future. :)
The one area that is still very frustrating to me is that I still continue to get reoccurring UTI’s. These are frustrating to deal with and the Dr.’s still haven’t figured out how to stop them from happening.
Something was said to me in a card I received recently that struck me as funny, they said ” It must seem like forever since you have been able to do the things you want to do” I sat and thought for a second bummed out that some people still think of me that way, like I can’t do things as before. The thing is, I can’t think of anything that I don’t do that I would like to. Of course I would like to walk or run but I’m pretty fast in my chair. :) I still have fun shooting hoops with the boys or playing baseball or catch with the football with them. My husband always says jokingly to me , “Gee, I wish I had a stay at home wife that actually stayed home sometimes” I’m on the go as much as any other mom would be working out, doing errands, cooking meals, doing laundry, being a taxi for the kids, visiting friends, & of course volunteering. I am also very busy with the boys and their sports. They’re both on Club baseball teams and are very busy with school.
Our family is going snow skiing again this year over Spring Break. I loved skiing before I got hurt. I tried adaptive skiing last year for the first time. I did it twice and was doing blues from the top by the second day. It was so much fun. I just love being out there skiing right with my family. I will post pictures when we get back. I’m excited because I bet it will be much easier this year now that I have my core working good.
Well, we went skiing and it was great. Scott and Parker snowboarded and Hunter ad I skied. It was easier now that I have my core working. It’s a lot of fun and great to be out there enjoying the day with my family.
Take care everyone and I will update again in the future.
