24 February 2005

Rosemary came this morning to help me with my exercises. She mentioned that she is going to have a massage session with Judy as well - Neil had one last week and his shoulder was much better after that so she thinks she'll have one, too. Rosemary also mentioned that the three of them will have a meeting to discuss what they can help me. I think I'm so lucky to have people like them helping me. I still feel quite tired this morning so we finished a bit earlier today because I still have to go to MECRS this afternoon.

After Rosemary left, I had some lunch quickly and was ready well before the taxi pick up time. The taxi has been turning up early for the last couple of weeks so I thought I'd better be ready early this time. I waited in the study for a while but there was no sight of the taxi. I lost my patience when it was around 12.40 p.m. I called MECRS just in case they have forgotten about me. They told me they've booked a taxi for me for 12.15 p.m. and told me to wait for it. I suspect there are other passengers sharing the taxi with me. The taxi finally showed up at 12.45 p.m. and sure enough, there were two other passengers. We got to MECRS just about 1 p.m. and my hydro was meant to start from 1 p.m. I walked to the pool as quickly as I could. Everyone else was already in the pool by the time I got there. I didn't mind it so much because I know my exercises so well that I can actually finish everything within half an hour if I want to. I wasn't in a real hurry to go to my physio session anyway because I don't think I would miss out too much anyway. In the past, I would get out of the pool at least 10 -15 minutes earlier so I could get to my physio session within reasonable time. These days, I stay in the pool for a bit longer so I can also work on the range of movement in my left arm.

I got to the physio gym at around 2.10 p.m. I was going to start with some walking practice but the walking rails have been occupied so I found a vacant physio bed and sat down. When Fiona came out of her office, she set me up on the treadmill straight away. She set the same speed as two days ago but with only my ankle brace I found it really hard to lift up my foot after a while and at one stage she thought I was going to fall over so she reduced the speed a little bit. After the treadmill, she got me to stand on my left leg and step up my right foot on a physio bed. She was surprised that I can do it without holding on anything and commented that how much better I've become. She reminded me that the first time she got me to do this she had to set me up standing against the wall so I wouldn't fall over. I think one of Rosemary's exercises may have contributted to this. She thought this was too easy for me so she set up an obstacle course in the walking rails for me to try - it's set up like a horizontal ladder and I have to lift up my leg to walk over each bar without touching it. She asked me to do this forward first and then sideways - with the support of walking rails first and then without. I found it a bit hard but she told me it's meant to be. She said this is actually pretty high level stuff I'm doing and there's no point giving me something easy. I think this is pretty good news coming from her - they have finally adopted Gavin's attitude. I actually had a pretty good session - not only Fiona gave me the more advanced exercises to do but I also had her for the full hour and I didn't have to share it with other patients.

I found out from Fiona that I only have the swim group tomorrow morning and no gym work. The person who is supposed to take me in the gym session will not be available tomorrow morning. Initially, Fiona asked me if I wanted to cancel the swim group so I don't just go in for the one hour and I can start from next week. I thought I might as well attend since it's the first swim session.