Day 14--Rehab & Some More Rehab

August 23, 2008
Day 14

Physical Therapy Turns Into A Field Trip

My PT session today turned into a field trip outside. My Therapist strapped 35 lbs of weights to the bottom of my wheelchair and said, "Lets Go!" We went outside and he made me go up and down this ramp. Now, I have to tell you that this was the first time I had been outside of the hospital since checking in; 14 days. It felt so good to breath fresh air, feel the wind and sun on my skin. I was in heaven! I have to laugh as I write this because it seems that all of the basic things of life that I take for granted every day, are fresh and new to me again and I am writing about them as if I had just experienced them for the very first time....yet that is exactly how I am feeling when these things happen.

It is a great feeling to be able to take care of myself. As I complete each new day of PT, my skills of moving around, grooming; the daily life activities that I need to do to survive are getting easier and easier. Again, there is nothing like bathing yourself or wiping your own bottom! These are the things that make me happy today!! LOL! Laugh all you want, but if the day comes, and I pray it doesn't, where you are unable to wipe your own bottom, you will fully understand what I am telling you and why I am feeling the way that I do. You will also find that it doesn't take much to make me happy! :)

Today's Humor

1. For the past 2 evenings, I have been transferring from my wheelchair to my shower bench. From there, I shower (of course), dry, put on clean clothes and then transfer back to the wheelchair. Today, my Therapist said that for him to check off his list that I am able to do this life task, he must observe me doing it. I asked him how much my showering did he need to see...what he going to sit there and watch me or what? He laughed and said, "WHAT?" I asked if he was come kind of pervert! Of course, I was just kidding him and he knew that...but it was funny how serious he was when he was telling me that he had to observe my shower routine; as if he was going to stand there and watch me do everything...ok Mr. Fredrick (his name), here I am moving over to the bench....here I am stripping off my clothes...ok, now here is how I soap up the wash cloth to clean my arm pits....etc! He's like, DUDE! No, I am just going to be there to see you go in and come out; just so I can say that I observed your ability to do this! I was like, OK! I just wanted to make sure I understood what was going to happen. It was sooooooo funny to see his facial reactions to my inquiries of his actions. He could have killed me at this point!
2. Late this afternoon, housekeeping came in to clean my room. Housekeeping consisted of 1 guy. He came in and asked if it was OK to clean. I told him yes. So he proceeds to clean. He asked me if I liked football....and I do, a little and in trying to be nice and polite, I told him yes. He got the biggest grin on his face and began to spout out statistics and teams and players and stats and I was just pretending like I understood everything he was saying. Again, I was being nice in the hopes he would get done and move on. So I picked up my computer to do some work and he is just chatting away about football. He said he has never found anyone here that likes to talk about football until now. He was all excited about my interest in football. So he is talking, cleaning and I am stuck. He finishes his noble attempt at cleaning and then sat down in a chair and continued his football chat. Here I am, trying to look disinterested and busy and he wants to talk to his new best friend who appears to love football. Finally, he says goodbye and that he will see me tomorrow. OH NO, I HAVE A NEW FRIEND!