More Progress

Today was another physical therapy day and we headed off expecting a rather routine session. Stand up, do the 'stutter walk', do the same ol' exercises, and spend some time on the stationary bike.

Well, it didn't quite turn out that way.

First, Scott had me stand without my boots (the ones my brother calls "Klingon mukluks"). Well, OK. That's a little different.

Then he told me to start walking. Without the mukluks. So I figure we'll just take a few steps to test the waters a bit. Boy, was I wrong! That dude had me walk around the ENTIRE PT room! OK. So it's not a 5 mile hiking trail. Heck. It's not even a 1/4 mile track, but it's a pretty good distance for me! And without the mukluks!

So we're strolling along with my "stutter step" where I move the walker forward, step 1 foot and then the other up to it, stop, then do it again. All of a sudden Scott tells me to try to walk normally...flowing my steps 1 after the other without pausing. After a moment of sheer panic, I give it a shot and I did it! At first I could only get 3, maybe 4 steps in a row, but pretty quickly I was able to just keep going!

Sure, I still had a little balance trouble, my depth perception was a bit off so I could not always tell where the floor was, and Scott was still holding onto me just a little, but I was getting it done!

So we get back to the table and I get ready to start the exercise routine and I get told we're upping the weights. As it turned out, that was no big deal, either. I was able to complete all reps of all sets without difficulty! Sweet!

So we get done with those and they tell me to get into my chair and roll over to the stationary bike. Ummm, no, I don't think so. I tell them I wanna WALK over! So they agree, and I do. And even better than before!

Now all I have to do is be able to walk with my head up instead of watching my foot placement and without Scott spotting me and I can start walking at home! You KNOW what I'm gonna be trying REAL hard to do Thursday!