Tuesday April 26, 2011

Hey everybody! Missed you yesterday. Therapy was tough and I was a little tired.

I have been working hard and making lots of progress. Yesterday my steroid dose was reduced again as planned. Yesterday was also the first day in over three weeks that I did not feel dizzy. This is a good sign. I am continuing to make progress as the medication is decreased. I was a little excited by this and may have pushed it a little too hard in therapy yesterday. While so much about my outlook on life has changed, I am still me LOL. I can't help but push it a little, but I am learning to recognize my limits. I definitely crashed after therapy yesterday.

Today my physical therapist wrote orders for me to be able to use the forearm crutches around my room independently. So except for transports, I am up and walking! It is amazing how quickly your body is weakened by being in bed. The time in the hospital and my limited mobility since has taken its toll, but my strength should return quickly with increased activity. I will be running in no time. Then again, who am I kidding?! I used to say that the only reason to run was if someone was chasing me and even then I would take a minute to decide if I could take them first! When I got back to my room with my sticks, the first thing I did was go to the window and adjust the blinds to where I wanted them. It seems like a small thing but I have been lying in this bed for days just wanting to be able to angle the light juuuuust a little! Don’t get me wrong the nursing staff here have been amazing and would have been more than happy to do it for me, but I just wanted to do it myself. I think the nurses here are used to providing a little more assistance than I am willing to accept, so they spend a lot of time just peeking in on me ;) 

I have also been working with the occupational therapist to practice things I will need to do to get back to work, like carrying my clipboard with the crutches and taking notes (turns out this is a lot harder than you might think). We also worked on some around the house basics. I found out that going to the kitchen for a glass of juice requires some planning and just a bit of finesse! At least for a little while, my life will require some planning and attention to detail, but it will be manageable.

The therapists think that there is a good chance that if things continue to go well, I may be able to go home by the end of the week and transition to outpatient therapy! In light of this, I had an interesting conversation with the recreational therapist. She pointed out that when I go home, there is a chance that I won’t be immediately going back to work (imagine that). So, what do I plan to do all day? In the past, on my days off I would basically sleep in, watch TV, take a nap, watch more TV and go to bed. However, this would only serve to increase my physical weakness. So, it looks like I need to come up with a new hobby that does not require eye-sight, driving, physical coordination, speed or mobility. Any suggestions?

Talk to you later!