I thought that walking unassisted required more than just a bare mention in my last blog so I'll write a bit more this time. On Monday (4th July, rather fittingly, as my physio, Sue, pointed out, Independence Day) I took my first walk unassisted with Sue watching. I didn't walk very far, but it was an important milestone.
Like eating early on, walking requires quite a lot of concentration and things go to hell (with legs going in the wrong place) anytime something distracts me (like talking to someone). No doubt things will become more automatic, though, as time wears on.
To give you an idea of what it feels like, it as if you are walking on a tightrope. You know that at any moment you could fall and you have to use your concentration to reduce the chance of that happening.
Stopping or changing direction does increase the risk of me falling. As does reaching for a hand hold. Although having a hand hold is more comforting focusing on it distracts me and stopping or changing directions places more demands on my balance.
It was over four months since the accident and so much of my physiotherapy has been focussed on walking again that it was a nice milestone to reach. Still, the physiotherapy doesn't end there because I'm still a bit shaky and Sue has to chose where to stand carefully in case things go wrong and I start to fall. There is still more work to be done on increasing my strength in my trunk and therefore my balance.
Hopefully, that gives you an idea on what it feels like.
Cheers,
Mike
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8 comments:
Hi Mike ,
You cant know how much I long to walk along Paraparaumu beach and watch an all blacks game with family !!!Well done you bet me to it .Bill at the moment ,is slogging through an immersion course in arabic writing and speaking .He is finding it tough but is hanging in there in the advanced class .Needless to say he speaking arabic in his sleep which makes forpoor night time companionship !!!!I joined him in Buraimi for a week but after a food poisining episode am back in Abu Dhabi enjoying my apartment .
Well done on the walking Keep it up .Only indoor walking here The walking groups meet in the malls before the shops open [better scenery at Paraparaumu ]
Susi
Talofa lava Mikey
That's another great piece of news and PB!! Malo, malo on all the hard work and yes your descriptions were very apt - it must seem so strange (and frustrating!!) not be able to do day to day things automatically any more. So keep it up and know that we're all out here cheering you on.
Bugger! Just been bitten by yet another mossie. It is very hot and humid in Samoa today. I'm sitting outside my room tapping away on my laptop - having purloined a long phone lead. Work is going well and I had a great social night at the NZ High Comm last night. One of the staff but on a boyz night to watch the ast test. There were a few girls allowed but they had to be rugby freaks - I made the grade! They had hired a video projector to give a huge screen and set up the huge lounge like a rugby stand. So we sat on tiered seats and watched the game - lots of beer was drunk - but not by me. Great game but there were some very rude comments about the ref!!
Catch you again soon and watch out for some more mail
Much love to you all
Fasofua
Mary
Cool man! Great to hear of more progress. It was so fantastic to see you a couple of weeks ago. You were looking so good and it was great to catch up.
Keep up the good work. Oh and we hope you are enjoying le tour!! ( we know you wil be watching it closely). It is starting to get very exciting indeed.
Lots of love,
Mark and Zoe xxx
Well done mate. A great milestone to finaly reach. I am sure they will the first steps of many. One small step for man, one giant leap forward towards recovery!!!
Hope you watched the All Blacks game on Sat again, another great result for the office banta over here..
Miles
Hi Mike,
Heard about your independent steps from 3 different sources . . the village of Wgtn continues to work well - hoped to catch you at the Beach House yesterday when we were up celebrating Ruth's 88th b/day - but we missed you so Greg got a driving lesson instead . . . that was interesting - there aren't many empty streets up the coast any more!
Look forward to ongoing news about your steps,
Janne
Mike...Have you given Sudoku a try yet.It's pretty addictive and once you get your strategies sorted out,speed becomes the master.
Mind you,I'm still on the one star order of difficulty.
Cheers
barb patu
Hi Mike,
Great to hear that you have been able to get out and about and been able to walk along Paraparaumu Beach. It must be great to experience that again. Your description of feeling like being on a tightrope was a very good way of describing what it must be like but hopefully the rope is getting thicker or the ground not so far away!!. Hope that you are faster at Sudoku than I am - the most maddening thing is getting near the end and finding those doubled up numbers!!
Best wishes - its amazing to watch your progress
Regards
John C
Hey Mike,
Sounds like really hard work, but also much improvement- well done you!
Will keep firing though the emails when I can.
Lou :-)
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