29 September 2005
Tim came back from his trip on Tuesday morning and we picked up Lillian from my parents’ place on Tuesday night. Life should be more normal now that he is back.
I went to my usual hydro at MECRS on Tuesday morning. Next week is my last session there. I think Gavin is right in saying that I can work harder on land and I don’t really need to have hydro anymore. I tend to agree except that one place I can really test out the condition of my ankle inversion is in the pool. I remember a few months ago when I tried to swim in the hydro pool, my ankle was inverting so badly it was hurting me so I had to stop. Over the months, my condition seemed to have improved that now I can do a few laps without my ankle inverting. There were times that the inversion started without reason but when I looked back at those occasions, there were the times I didn’t do much exercise during the week. I think as long as I work hard on my legs, the inversion tends to be more manageable.
I had personal training on Tuesday and yesterday. I told Mary, my personal trainer, that I would like to have three sessions a week when my hydro finishes. I’m also thinking of joining the gym so I can do more work during the week. It’s good to have her working with me showing me how to use various machines but there will be a time that I should be able to exercise independently. When I first started personal training, I thought all the people who go there will be like Elle Macpherson or Cindy Crawford and I was a bit embarrassed about my own appearance. After a while, I got to see other people who go there for personal training and I realised that most people who go there are not glamourous at all. In fact, most of them are overweight or quite unfit. I shouldn’t be so mean but I'm starting to think that maybe normal people don’t go to personal trainings. It suits me fine at this stage because I’m still not strong enough to use all the machines yet and Mary sometimes has to set up certain exercises manually for me to do. For example, she set up theraband to work on my hamstrings because the minimum weight on the machies is 5 kg and I found it a bit heavy to do the leg curls.
I caught up with Neil after my personal training session and he walked me home. It’s always good to see him. He said he had two important things to tell me about. At first, I thought I must have done something really bad – Is he going to check up on my exercise program or something? I was actually a bit scared because he looked quite serious. The first thing he mentioned was my diary/blog. He said I should make sure I keep or print out a copy because if blogger.com goes down I will loose all my diary and I should keep a copy for Lillian to read. That’s really good suggestion. I always thought my diary is safe because it’s on a website but I haven’t thought about what happens if the website no longer exists or something goes wrong with it. Gee, he got me worried for one second. I thought I had done something really bad…
The second thing he brought up was about trans fats and how studies done on mice with brain injuries show that trans fat delayed the recovery of brain injury. He said I should watch what I eat because it may have an impact on how my brain rewires. This is interesting because I’ve never heard of trans fat before. Apparently, it’s in a lot of snack food such as chips. I probably had a lot already but just didn’t know about it before.
When I was having lunch, something suddenly occurred to me. I should be grateful for all the things I have. I’m so lucky that Tim has been so supportive at least I don’t have financial worries. I’m also lucky to have friends like Neil and Rosemary who have done so much to help me in my recovery. Sometimes, I almost feel guilty that I can go to Epworth for physio and can learn to run again. I don’t know why but I suddenly remembered Maurice, the guy in my ‘Life Moves’ program who reminds me of Chopper Reed. I remember him telling me that he wanted to ask Professor Disler, a rehabilitation specialist at MECRS, when can he run again. He said he just wants to be able to run again. I know there are times that I feel my progress is slow and I get a bit bored when Gavin teaches me how to run. When I think about what I have or what I can access, it makes me feel guilty not working harder. There he is, trying to find out if and when he can run again and here I’m complaining that the practices Gavin got me to do is a bit boring. I think it’such a privilege to be able to go to Epworth and have Gavin as a physio. Another reason to have private health insurance.
I had massage this morning with Judy. I found out today that she used to be a pilot with Qantas. The topic came up when we were talking about Tim’s trip to America. I told her that he had to stop over Auckland because there was no direct flight to LA from Melbourne on that day. She said Qantas has direct flights to LA 5 times a week and it started in October 99 or something like that. I wondered why she would know so much about. She told me she knows because she was flying it. I cannot believe how talented she is – a PhD in Physics, Master in Music and a Qantas pilot. I wonder if there is anything she cannot do!
I went to my usual hydro at MECRS on Tuesday morning. Next week is my last session there. I think Gavin is right in saying that I can work harder on land and I don’t really need to have hydro anymore. I tend to agree except that one place I can really test out the condition of my ankle inversion is in the pool. I remember a few months ago when I tried to swim in the hydro pool, my ankle was inverting so badly it was hurting me so I had to stop. Over the months, my condition seemed to have improved that now I can do a few laps without my ankle inverting. There were times that the inversion started without reason but when I looked back at those occasions, there were the times I didn’t do much exercise during the week. I think as long as I work hard on my legs, the inversion tends to be more manageable.
I had personal training on Tuesday and yesterday. I told Mary, my personal trainer, that I would like to have three sessions a week when my hydro finishes. I’m also thinking of joining the gym so I can do more work during the week. It’s good to have her working with me showing me how to use various machines but there will be a time that I should be able to exercise independently. When I first started personal training, I thought all the people who go there will be like Elle Macpherson or Cindy Crawford and I was a bit embarrassed about my own appearance. After a while, I got to see other people who go there for personal training and I realised that most people who go there are not glamourous at all. In fact, most of them are overweight or quite unfit. I shouldn’t be so mean but I'm starting to think that maybe normal people don’t go to personal trainings. It suits me fine at this stage because I’m still not strong enough to use all the machines yet and Mary sometimes has to set up certain exercises manually for me to do. For example, she set up theraband to work on my hamstrings because the minimum weight on the machies is 5 kg and I found it a bit heavy to do the leg curls.
I caught up with Neil after my personal training session and he walked me home. It’s always good to see him. He said he had two important things to tell me about. At first, I thought I must have done something really bad – Is he going to check up on my exercise program or something? I was actually a bit scared because he looked quite serious. The first thing he mentioned was my diary/blog. He said I should make sure I keep or print out a copy because if blogger.com goes down I will loose all my diary and I should keep a copy for Lillian to read. That’s really good suggestion. I always thought my diary is safe because it’s on a website but I haven’t thought about what happens if the website no longer exists or something goes wrong with it. Gee, he got me worried for one second. I thought I had done something really bad…
The second thing he brought up was about trans fats and how studies done on mice with brain injuries show that trans fat delayed the recovery of brain injury. He said I should watch what I eat because it may have an impact on how my brain rewires. This is interesting because I’ve never heard of trans fat before. Apparently, it’s in a lot of snack food such as chips. I probably had a lot already but just didn’t know about it before.
When I was having lunch, something suddenly occurred to me. I should be grateful for all the things I have. I’m so lucky that Tim has been so supportive at least I don’t have financial worries. I’m also lucky to have friends like Neil and Rosemary who have done so much to help me in my recovery. Sometimes, I almost feel guilty that I can go to Epworth for physio and can learn to run again. I don’t know why but I suddenly remembered Maurice, the guy in my ‘Life Moves’ program who reminds me of Chopper Reed. I remember him telling me that he wanted to ask Professor Disler, a rehabilitation specialist at MECRS, when can he run again. He said he just wants to be able to run again. I know there are times that I feel my progress is slow and I get a bit bored when Gavin teaches me how to run. When I think about what I have or what I can access, it makes me feel guilty not working harder. There he is, trying to find out if and when he can run again and here I’m complaining that the practices Gavin got me to do is a bit boring. I think it’such a privilege to be able to go to Epworth and have Gavin as a physio. Another reason to have private health insurance.
I had massage this morning with Judy. I found out today that she used to be a pilot with Qantas. The topic came up when we were talking about Tim’s trip to America. I told her that he had to stop over Auckland because there was no direct flight to LA from Melbourne on that day. She said Qantas has direct flights to LA 5 times a week and it started in October 99 or something like that. I wondered why she would know so much about. She told me she knows because she was flying it. I cannot believe how talented she is – a PhD in Physics, Master in Music and a Qantas pilot. I wonder if there is anything she cannot do!
posted by Teresa Liu at 11:02 PM
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