Today I was teased with what it will be like to finally walk normal again and it felt awesome. I had my second physical therapy appointment this afternoon with Carl. Although physical therapy can be somewhat painful I really enjoy it; I get to spend time with a buddy, get out of the house and each session I get closer to being 100%. Today's session started with a thigh massage, we all know you can't beat that. After the massage comes the not so fun part, stretching. Because of the surgery the doctor had to cut through the muscles in my leg to attach the plate to the bone; needless to say my thigh muscles are very stiff and tender. Even though the stretching can be painful and at times it can feel as if the muscle is tearing, in a twisted way it actually feels good. After the stretching we went over to the treadmill where I got to practice walking without using 100% of my body weight. It sounds funny to say practice walking, but it really is like starting from scratch. I put on a harness that went around my thighs, waist and had a vest that attached to it with hooks on the shoulders. The hooks attach to a frame above the treadmill that is tied into an air weight system. Carl set the system at 70lbs which means it was taking 70lbs off my body weight so I was only using about 52% of my actual body weight when walking. Although I had this support system on and to some may have looked funny I think I had the biggest smile on my face just from the feeling of being able to walk normal again. An incident like this really makes you thankful for what you have and that things could always be worse.
So I was looking forward to getting my Christmas Tree and decorations up this year but was unable to bring the stuff up from the basement myself. I had some friends (Jason & Cecily, and Mike N.) get together and decide that Tuesday would be the day. They called to make sure Tuesday evening would work for me. Hmmm… let me check… yup I'm free. I was excited by the fact that they thought of me and decided to do this without me asking for their help. I guess that's what makes great friends; they know that right now is a difficult time and they think of you without having to ask. Cecily was the project manager on this task, she had the guys bring the stuff up from the basement and put the tree together. Then Cecily went to work with a keen eye for detail spacing all the ornaments throughout the tree. I also learned a lesson… by placing some of the ornaments further back on the branches it gives some depth. Who would have thought, certainly not me. Tuesday evening the decorations were out, the tree was up and everything was looking really great.
