Starting with physical therapy (PT). She is a former Army Medic of 9 years. She lives to train….
We start with some balancing warm ups. I have to stand on a circular wobbly board and slowly rock back and forth and keep it stable. Do not lose my balance!
Once my ankles are warmed up, I then stand on a blue foam mat with my feet together. Then I stand shoulder width apart and close my eyes. All the while keeping my balance. This one was a tricky one. I then had to step up on a step and raise my knee up and opposite arm up and HOLD! Ten times on each side and hold for up to three seconds without holding on to anything for balance support. Now while doing all of this I did have on a nifty safety belt.
We then went outside to walk some hills as my house has hills everywhere. In fact, my garden is up on a hill and my fruit trees line the side of it. We then stepped on and off of curbs as those are slightly tricky for me. We walked inside and climbed up two flights of stairs and then went down two flights of stairs. We had to walk a hallway with a ramp. She told me to go up the ramp as fast as I can, then stop. She then told me to walk backwards down the ramp. I did this a few times. She also had me walk up the ramp backwards, which was a lot easier than walking down!
We went inside and walked the halls and we worked on turning, as I turn with a shuffle. With worked on a smoother turn and a sharper turn so it looks mildly normal.
She then hooked me up to a belt with a resistance cord attached to the wall. I had to walk away from the wall as far as I could and then take two slow steps back - go forward again, and two steps back again. She then brought out the circular wobbly device to put my right foot on. We have found that my left leg is my weaker leg and we have to try and build it up again. So I face away from the wall and wobble my right foot, not holding onto anything, and working on my balance.
Next I turn 90 degrees and wobble my foot again Which was a challenge as I was being pulled still at a different angle. I turn 180 and do the wobble again. It may sound easy…but this was a challenge. Especially for a person who has balance issues!! She has tasked me with some balancing homework and to take pictures of my hills and terrain areas I walk in so she can better help me.
Whew! That tired me out!!
I’ll talk about occupational therapy (OT) and speech tomorrow!
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