17 June 2005
I think people must think I don’t update my diary anymore. The truth is I still update it but I haven’t been able to finish any lately so the website has not been updated for a while. I think one of these days I’ll probably have go back to the half finished diary and try to finish it all.
I had my usual appointment with Gavin this morning but because I have arranged for my personal trainer(as requested by him)to attend as well, my appointment was half an hour earlier than my usual time. Gavin said this would give us a bit more time.
When I got there, my personal trainer, Mary, has already arrived. She was walking out as I was walking in. She said she had to move her car and I was pleased to find out that the receptionist has given her a swipe card to access the staff carpark. I spoke to the receptionist about this on Wednesday and was quite impressed that she remembered to arrange parking for Mary. I told Mary where the physio treatment room is so I could meet her there after she parked the car.
Gavin taped my foot while he was explaining to Mary why he is taping my foot. He asked me to get up and walk so he could show Mary what he’s trying to do with me. He told her what I was like when I first went there in March. I was quite surprised to find that he remembers my condition so well and was able to pinpoint exactly what the problems were and what the treatment has been. He was able to imitate how I used to walk so Mary could see how I walked before. I don’t think I remember how I used to walk. As I was walking up and down the room, I overheard him telling Mary that she needs to push me hard and there is no danger in working me hard. Mary reminds him that I still need to walk home from the Melbourne uni gym after my personal training session. He said that’s fine, I can probably rest for half an hour after my session before I walk home.
He then asked me to get on the trampoline and show Mary what I have been doing. As I was doing that, he was explaining to Mary the purpose of this exercise. I now understand why he doesn’t normally explain to me what I’m doing – it’s quite technical and it’ll probably go straight over my head. There was too much information for me to take in already.
After another patient has finished with the leg press machine, he asked Tracy to put me on that and do single leg press and then the running lying down to show Mary. My leg got quite sore just from doing the single leg press. Tracy let me rest a little bit before I moved on to the running one. She helped with supporting my left leg. I found it’s getting easier since Wednesday. When Gavin came back, he told Mary that this is what they do before they get patients to run – they get them to do this first while the bench is almost horizontal because it takes away almost 30 percent of the weight and then they gradually elevate the bench till it’s almost perpendicular to the ground so it’s like running on the gound. He also mentioned to Mary that many people think that one cannot make much progress a year after stroke/brain injury but it’s not true. He told her that he sees me making progress every week. It’s very encouraging to hear that.
After the leg press, Gavin asked me to go back to the trampoline. That was enough to show Mary I guess. I’m going to see her next Monday. I forgot to ask her if she has taken all that in. I hope she has made a mental note of all the information. I must say I was quite impressed with Gavin. At one stage, I was a bit concerned that he doesn’t seem to know my condition very well. Today’s session has restored my confidence in him. Not only he knows what I was like before, he knows my current status very well. The most important of all is that he seems to know his stuff really well and seems to have a plan and strategy on how to improve my gait.
I stayed on the trampoline for a while and was wondering if my session has finished because I started half an hour earlier today and it’s been an hour already. I did a few laps of walking practice and then back to the trampoline again. Just when I thought maybe I could probably go home, Gavin came out and asked me to do something else. He actually gave me a choice this time. He said I could do the jumping in the walking rails first or I can do the theraband exercise for the leg first. I didn’t have a preference. He suggested that I do the jumping first because I might find that easier. I went to the walking rails and Tracy came over to help me. I had to ask her to teach me how to jump. I found it’s easier to hop on to my left foot but almost impossible to hop on to my left foot. Tracy said it’s probably because it’s easier for me to push off through my right foot and land on my left foot. I practised this for a while without much success. Sometimes I find it so frustrating that I have to relearn everything. I complained to Tim last night that it annoyed me so much watching some current affairs program on TV that some single mothers were complaining that the government doesn’t give them enough money to live on. I think they are just so ungrateful – they take it for granted that they can walk, run and do things with their kids while for me, I can’t do much with Lillian and I can’t even walk properly or at a normal speed.
When Gavin came back, he asked me if it’s ok for someone to video me doing something with my arm. He said he meant to do it earlier for some students but he forgot and I’m probably a better example anyway. I agreed. He introduced to me another physio, Belinda. I have seen her around before but didn’t know that she’s also a physio. She asked me what tasks do I find hard to perform. I told her that I don’t really know. There seems to be nothing I can’t do these days. She looked at Tracy and seemed quite surprised. They then asked me what do I find challenging do to with my arm. I told them fastening up my bra strap behind my back is still challenging but not impossible. I was a bit worried that she might want to film me doing that. She said she wanted to video me doing some reaching. She put a plastic cup with some water in it and left it on the rail. She asked me to pick up the cup and drink from it and then put it back. I didn’t find it too hard as I have fully mastered this skill back in November last year – thanks to Neil and Rosemary. Belinda asked me to do it a few times while she was filming from different angles. She also asked me to pick up some pegs she set up for me and squeeze them. These were pretty easy as well. She then asked me to pick up the cup and drink from it again. I told her that I’m probably not a good example for her because I have practiced very hard to do this last year. She didn’t quite understand so I told her that I couldn’t drink a cup of tea with my left hand before and it took me months of practising to actually be able to do that and it’s actually harder to do it with a mug. She thought it would be good to get me to do the same but with a mug so she went and got a tea cup and filled it with water. She put it on the rail and asked me to pick it up. The handle of this tea cup is so small and I found it quite difficult to pick it up with my thumb and indes finger. I finally picked it up but spilled a bit of water when I was bringing the cup close to me. I tried to pick up the cup again after I put it back on the rail but just couldn’t find a confortable way to hold the handle with my fingers. I tried it with my right hand and then tried it with the left hand. This time, it was so much easier. Belinda thought this was interesting. She asked me what’s my sensory like on the left hand. I told her I feel pins and needles the whole time in my left hand. She said that explained why I could pick up the cup with my left hand after doing it with my right hand first because the lost of sensation in the left hand, it doesn’t give as much feed back as the right hand but after picking it up with the right hand, the left hand was able to learn and get the feedback. She then showed me the video so I know what it looks like. She said I’m actually a good example because it’s pretty hard to tell my left arm/hand is effected so the students will have to look very hard to find problems. I think I’m pretty lucky that I had Neil and Rosemary to help me with my arm exercises so it has recovered quite well. The next challenge is to find out what else do I need to do to have a full recovery of my upper limb functions.
Gavin asked me to wait for a few minutes as I was just about to leave because he wanted to talk to me about something. He told me that the hospital staff told him that my sessions have run out. I thought this is odd. He said they told him my private health insurance pays for 25 sessions. I reminded him that when I first started at Epworth I asked him how many sessions do I have there and he told me 50 or 60 sessions. He agreed and told me that he calculated if I go there twice a week , my insurace should last me 6 months. He doesn’t know what happened so he asked me to find out from my private health insurance. I know it’s not his fault but it annoys me that I have to do this when I thought it’s all been sorted from the beginning.
I had my usual appointment with Gavin this morning but because I have arranged for my personal trainer(as requested by him)to attend as well, my appointment was half an hour earlier than my usual time. Gavin said this would give us a bit more time.
When I got there, my personal trainer, Mary, has already arrived. She was walking out as I was walking in. She said she had to move her car and I was pleased to find out that the receptionist has given her a swipe card to access the staff carpark. I spoke to the receptionist about this on Wednesday and was quite impressed that she remembered to arrange parking for Mary. I told Mary where the physio treatment room is so I could meet her there after she parked the car.
Gavin taped my foot while he was explaining to Mary why he is taping my foot. He asked me to get up and walk so he could show Mary what he’s trying to do with me. He told her what I was like when I first went there in March. I was quite surprised to find that he remembers my condition so well and was able to pinpoint exactly what the problems were and what the treatment has been. He was able to imitate how I used to walk so Mary could see how I walked before. I don’t think I remember how I used to walk. As I was walking up and down the room, I overheard him telling Mary that she needs to push me hard and there is no danger in working me hard. Mary reminds him that I still need to walk home from the Melbourne uni gym after my personal training session. He said that’s fine, I can probably rest for half an hour after my session before I walk home.
He then asked me to get on the trampoline and show Mary what I have been doing. As I was doing that, he was explaining to Mary the purpose of this exercise. I now understand why he doesn’t normally explain to me what I’m doing – it’s quite technical and it’ll probably go straight over my head. There was too much information for me to take in already.
After another patient has finished with the leg press machine, he asked Tracy to put me on that and do single leg press and then the running lying down to show Mary. My leg got quite sore just from doing the single leg press. Tracy let me rest a little bit before I moved on to the running one. She helped with supporting my left leg. I found it’s getting easier since Wednesday. When Gavin came back, he told Mary that this is what they do before they get patients to run – they get them to do this first while the bench is almost horizontal because it takes away almost 30 percent of the weight and then they gradually elevate the bench till it’s almost perpendicular to the ground so it’s like running on the gound. He also mentioned to Mary that many people think that one cannot make much progress a year after stroke/brain injury but it’s not true. He told her that he sees me making progress every week. It’s very encouraging to hear that.
After the leg press, Gavin asked me to go back to the trampoline. That was enough to show Mary I guess. I’m going to see her next Monday. I forgot to ask her if she has taken all that in. I hope she has made a mental note of all the information. I must say I was quite impressed with Gavin. At one stage, I was a bit concerned that he doesn’t seem to know my condition very well. Today’s session has restored my confidence in him. Not only he knows what I was like before, he knows my current status very well. The most important of all is that he seems to know his stuff really well and seems to have a plan and strategy on how to improve my gait.
I stayed on the trampoline for a while and was wondering if my session has finished because I started half an hour earlier today and it’s been an hour already. I did a few laps of walking practice and then back to the trampoline again. Just when I thought maybe I could probably go home, Gavin came out and asked me to do something else. He actually gave me a choice this time. He said I could do the jumping in the walking rails first or I can do the theraband exercise for the leg first. I didn’t have a preference. He suggested that I do the jumping first because I might find that easier. I went to the walking rails and Tracy came over to help me. I had to ask her to teach me how to jump. I found it’s easier to hop on to my left foot but almost impossible to hop on to my left foot. Tracy said it’s probably because it’s easier for me to push off through my right foot and land on my left foot. I practised this for a while without much success. Sometimes I find it so frustrating that I have to relearn everything. I complained to Tim last night that it annoyed me so much watching some current affairs program on TV that some single mothers were complaining that the government doesn’t give them enough money to live on. I think they are just so ungrateful – they take it for granted that they can walk, run and do things with their kids while for me, I can’t do much with Lillian and I can’t even walk properly or at a normal speed.
When Gavin came back, he asked me if it’s ok for someone to video me doing something with my arm. He said he meant to do it earlier for some students but he forgot and I’m probably a better example anyway. I agreed. He introduced to me another physio, Belinda. I have seen her around before but didn’t know that she’s also a physio. She asked me what tasks do I find hard to perform. I told her that I don’t really know. There seems to be nothing I can’t do these days. She looked at Tracy and seemed quite surprised. They then asked me what do I find challenging do to with my arm. I told them fastening up my bra strap behind my back is still challenging but not impossible. I was a bit worried that she might want to film me doing that. She said she wanted to video me doing some reaching. She put a plastic cup with some water in it and left it on the rail. She asked me to pick up the cup and drink from it and then put it back. I didn’t find it too hard as I have fully mastered this skill back in November last year – thanks to Neil and Rosemary. Belinda asked me to do it a few times while she was filming from different angles. She also asked me to pick up some pegs she set up for me and squeeze them. These were pretty easy as well. She then asked me to pick up the cup and drink from it again. I told her that I’m probably not a good example for her because I have practiced very hard to do this last year. She didn’t quite understand so I told her that I couldn’t drink a cup of tea with my left hand before and it took me months of practising to actually be able to do that and it’s actually harder to do it with a mug. She thought it would be good to get me to do the same but with a mug so she went and got a tea cup and filled it with water. She put it on the rail and asked me to pick it up. The handle of this tea cup is so small and I found it quite difficult to pick it up with my thumb and indes finger. I finally picked it up but spilled a bit of water when I was bringing the cup close to me. I tried to pick up the cup again after I put it back on the rail but just couldn’t find a confortable way to hold the handle with my fingers. I tried it with my right hand and then tried it with the left hand. This time, it was so much easier. Belinda thought this was interesting. She asked me what’s my sensory like on the left hand. I told her I feel pins and needles the whole time in my left hand. She said that explained why I could pick up the cup with my left hand after doing it with my right hand first because the lost of sensation in the left hand, it doesn’t give as much feed back as the right hand but after picking it up with the right hand, the left hand was able to learn and get the feedback. She then showed me the video so I know what it looks like. She said I’m actually a good example because it’s pretty hard to tell my left arm/hand is effected so the students will have to look very hard to find problems. I think I’m pretty lucky that I had Neil and Rosemary to help me with my arm exercises so it has recovered quite well. The next challenge is to find out what else do I need to do to have a full recovery of my upper limb functions.
Gavin asked me to wait for a few minutes as I was just about to leave because he wanted to talk to me about something. He told me that the hospital staff told him that my sessions have run out. I thought this is odd. He said they told him my private health insurance pays for 25 sessions. I reminded him that when I first started at Epworth I asked him how many sessions do I have there and he told me 50 or 60 sessions. He agreed and told me that he calculated if I go there twice a week , my insurace should last me 6 months. He doesn’t know what happened so he asked me to find out from my private health insurance. I know it’s not his fault but it annoys me that I have to do this when I thought it’s all been sorted from the beginning.
posted by Teresa Liu at 11:45 PM
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