15 February 2005

I had physio and Hydro at MECRS this morning. I was a bit anxious this morning, knowing that I won't be sharing a taxi with the retired doctor who lives in Gatehouse St. I was worried that the taxi won't turn up on time - like the ones I had late last year when every Tuesday morning I had to share a taxi with this mystery lady (apparently she lives in Carlton but the taxi drivers could never find her). Tim took Lillian to childcare before my taxi turned up. I didn't even have time for my morning coffee! - I was ready before 8.30 a.m. - the scheduled time for taxi pickup. It looked quite miserable outside - dark and wet - almost like a winter morning. I waited for a while in the study. Every time there is a sound of car engine, I looked out the window to check if it's my taxi. Finally, I saw a taxi coming from the other side of the street. I grabbed my stick and my backpack and opened the front door. It was my taxi except there is another passenger in the front seat. I had to take the back seat. This is quite difficult because it's not something I'm used to and there's less space to get in.

I got to the centre about 8.45 a.m. I went straight to the waiting area outside the physio gym. I could see Fiona in her office - that's a good sign, at least I know she's not caught up in a meeting. I waited till about 9.00 a.m. She was still in her office. I went into the gym and set up the mirror in front of the walking rails and started my walking practice. The gym was basically empty - a few patients were there waiting for their sessions to start. After a couple of laps (of walking), she came out and watched me walking. She commented on how much better my walking is but of course, I couldn't see that and didn't feel it. She sent me to walk on the treadmill (I think this has become part of the routine in my sessions with her now). She increased the speed a bit more but it was bearable for me. After I finished the 5-minutes treadmill, she asked me how I went with that speed. I told her that I didn't really notice the difference in the speed and it seemed fine to me. She said next time she'll get me to do a bit more - 10 minutes instead of 5 minutes. By this stage, the gym was getting more crowded. Michelle had set herself up doing the calf stretches. I met her when I was an in patient. She had an aneurysm and her left side was affected. She also has a baby - but her baby is a bit older than Lillian. I hadn't seen her for quite some time. She told me that she lives in Sunbury (not sure where that is but it sounds pretty remote anyway) and it's not covered by the rehab services (for taxi pickup) so she couldn't be treated as an out patient. Every few months, she comes back to MECRS as an in patient for a few weeks. She said she has passed her driving test so now she can drive here and be treated as an out patient. She has always been very nice and friendly but I have always been concious of the time spent in social chatting does not help me recovering physically so I had to get back to my exercises. That has always been a problem for me - I don't want to be seen as a snob but I felt anxious about the precious time I have in physio sessions so I never really had too much time to chat to the people I know.

Someone has switched off the light. A physio came to ask me if it bothers me without the light. I was wondering what's going on and then I noticed Sally (the girl who had an aneurysm 8 years ago) is there in her motorised wheelchair and she has very dark sunglasses on. She complained that she couldn't stand the light(even with the sunglasses on) and asked the staff to switch off all the lights.

Fiona gave me some exercises to do - mostly to do with starting running. I was exercising in the dark but it didn't bother me at all since I never liked the brightness or the glare of the sun anyway. Lisa, another physio at MECRS, told Sally that she'll have to switch on the lights - they're worried that people may fall over in the dark and it's too dangerous. So the lights were on again.

Neil came to help me with my exercises in the afternoon. He added another book to the Mt Everest pile and I was still able to reach the top of that pile. He also got me to do Prema's hip flexion exercise - stepping on a step with my left foot (in front of a mirror) and make sure that I don't stick out my left leg. He was a bit concerned that when he got me to walk up the stairs last week, my left leg was sticking out (Tim thinks it looks like a dog lifting up its leg to p on a tree). I suspect this is another compensation that my leg muscles do in order to achieve what I want it to do - a bit like when I first tried to eat madarins with my left hand, my elbow was sticking out and my OT, Danika, told me to hold a spoon or a pen under my arm when I eat with my left hand so I could not stick out my elbow. It took me a while to correct it but now it comes naturally!

I had another driving lesson this afternoon. I still felt a bit scared on the road - especially when a bus decided to overtake me from the left! I think I still need a lot more practice before I'm confident enough to drive on my own. The biggest problem I found today is that I couldn't turn the steering wheel very fast and as a result, I couldn't do the reverse parking properly. I told my driving instructor that I couldn't do it very well before anyway - Tim used to laugh at me when I had to park in front of our house because he'd be in the study and he could see me going in and out of the spot so many times before I could park the car properly. I'm having another lesson on Saturday and hopefully that's enough practice before my test on Monday.