Another “Soon To Be” Graduation

I love my therapists. They have all been so amazing!! They challenge me and push me to be the best version of my new self.

Listen, I get it, I won’t be the person I used to be. That’s okay! But being better and recovering as fully as I can is exactly what I want to do and the new person I want to be.

PY was extra challenging yesterday! I did more testing, which a lot of the challenges in this I either just passed or was almost there.

She put me in front of a flight of stairs; 20 steps or more, and told me to simply climb the stairs. Great! Right? The catch…I cannot use handrails at all and I was timed! I went up the flight of stairs and did the Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore dance from 50 First Dates.

I was so elated!! I walked down the stairs and squealed with delight! She asked if the squeal was a good or bad thing. I said it was a good thing and asked if I could do it again!! This was the first time I had done this in TWO YEARS!

We then traveled to the hall and she had me do more timed tests - I call them challenges. She had me walk forward for 20 meters; 5 seconds! She then had me walk backwards for the same distance; 9 seconds! I really don’t know the average, but she was happy with my time; so we are good!

She had me jump; again, haven’t been able to in two years (what are jumping jacks?) and I did it! Not far though. I had to stick my landing! 42cm was the furthest I could go.

She then had me skip; haven’t done this in two years either! Oh my goodness, it was hysterical!! I laughed until I cried and was snorting out of control! I had my hands on my knees, leaned over! She bent down, looked at me, and out of sincere concern she asked if I was okay; because she couldn’t tell if I was upset or happy! I laughed even harder, wiped the tears from my eyes and let her know I was laughing because what I just did was not so graceful! She actually agreed with me on this but told me I did it though!

We did some more tests and then went over to the parellel bars where I would do heel raises, toe raises, and then walk on my toes without holding onto the bars! She exclaimed that she could tell I’ve been working on this at home because I showed such huge improvement! The first time I did this a couple of weeks ago, I could barely lift my heels off the floor. She gave me the homework to work on heel raises for the next two weeks! Now…heels were coming all the way off the floor! She said my calves were getting a lot stronger and to keep working on it!

We then ended our time on the treadmill! She stated that I should get one for home as I cannot drive whenever I want to the gym! It’s a lot safer, she said and I can challenge myself with an incline; which is just what she did!

We went for about a mile, walking briskly one minute and then running/jogging for 30 seconds. We kept doing that and in the last little bit I did a walking cooldown for 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Boy was I sweating!

But I did it. I’m getting stronger.

One step at a time.

I may have been a sweating, out of breath mess; but you better believe I straightened my “crown”, got my homework for the week (seeing my pig once a week - her pen is down a dirt hill) and then she dropped a bomb on me!

I maybe graduating in two weeks…the next time I see her! She said I’ve hit all my goals this far and now I need to keep getting stronger to hit my next goal; which is running a race! THEN I can come back and see her for my next goal to set and crush!

Here’s my BIG question for you all…who is going to do a race with me?