9 September 2005
I went to Epworth this morning for my usual physio session. I didn’t feel very energetic this morning because I had a bit of tempature last night and Lillian woke up in the middle of the night crying wanting to come to our bed. She got what she wanted in the end but it took me a while to get back to sleep. If I didn’t have physio this morning I think I would probably just stay in bed all day.
I suspect I have caught some kind of flu virus because I have been feeling quite tired over the past few days and also my body is really aching. Sometimes, it’s a bit hard for me to tell whether the aches are due to exercising or flu virus because I get muscle pains everyday from working so hard. Take my arm for example, although I had a massage plus I didn’t do any arm exercises in personal training yesterday, it is still sore from Wednesday’s workout. Today I feel even worse, not only I have a sore arm/shoulder, my leg is killing me, too. Thinking about my appointment with the neurosurgen next Monday doesn't help either. I'm actually quite nervous about my appointment because I'll findout my scan result then. I think I must be very stressed out about it because I even had a nightmare about it a few nights ago.
When I went to physio this morning, Gavin asked me how did I pull up from Wednesday’s session. I told him my shoulder is still sore. He asked me if it’s the soreness from the joints or from the muscles. I told him I couldn’t tell and just pointed the spot I felt it’s sore. He looked at it and said it’s exactly where I should feel it and it means the exercises are working.
After my usual warm up exercises, I reminded Gavin about what we talked about on Wednesday. I told him that I had problem stepping over a wide drain when we went to the farm in Canberra and he asked me to remind him today so he can get me to do some exercises. He set up a couple of sticks for me on the floor about 30 cm apart and asked me to walk from one end of the room and step over them. He said when we walk we normally scan what’s on the floor and then don’t need to look at it again but people who had brain injury don’t have that ability anymore so I will need to practice stepping over it but not keep looking down. I think that's probably true because I noticed that's what Lillian does now. One day, she was at one corner of the room and was walking towards me. There was something in the middle of the floor and I thought she was going to trip over because i didn't think she saw it. To my surprise, as she was walking towards the obstacle, she didn't even look down and she actually knew it was there and stepped over it. This shows that we must have a natural ability to do it. I think it's great to look at how Lillian develops because I'm learning a lot from her. I remember Danika, the OT from MECRS, used to remind me that when I'm reaching for an object, I should keep my wrist extended. i thought it's strange at the time but then I noticed that's how Lillian does it when she was about 7 months old. It must be a natural movement then.
I practiced that a few times and he gradually increased the distance between the two sticks and finally added a box in my path as well. I had to walk from one end of the room and step over the sticks and the box and walk towards the other end of the room.
I found the physio treatment room reminds me of a ballroom dancing studio where Tim and I used to go. I see the same faces every week and it's hard not to check out their progress. I noticed another patient of Gavin's there and i think she is walking so much better today. I don't know what happened to her but she used to swing her leg out like I did but today her leg stopped circumducting and she was able to flex her knee and drag her leg through.
After these exercises, Gavin set me up on a physio bed to do some arm/shoulder exercises. When I was doing the chest press, I told him that I do this in personal training as well because Mary said this is the same as doing the pushups against the wall. He said that’s right. I asked him why is it that I cannot stick my left elbow out as I’m pushing the weight upwards, is it because my tricep is weak or is it something else. He thinks it’s due to the weakness in my shoulder that prevents my elbow from sticking out because I don’t get much range of motion there.
This is only meant to be a short diary today because I think I should go back to bed and rest now :)
I suspect I have caught some kind of flu virus because I have been feeling quite tired over the past few days and also my body is really aching. Sometimes, it’s a bit hard for me to tell whether the aches are due to exercising or flu virus because I get muscle pains everyday from working so hard. Take my arm for example, although I had a massage plus I didn’t do any arm exercises in personal training yesterday, it is still sore from Wednesday’s workout. Today I feel even worse, not only I have a sore arm/shoulder, my leg is killing me, too. Thinking about my appointment with the neurosurgen next Monday doesn't help either. I'm actually quite nervous about my appointment because I'll findout my scan result then. I think I must be very stressed out about it because I even had a nightmare about it a few nights ago.
When I went to physio this morning, Gavin asked me how did I pull up from Wednesday’s session. I told him my shoulder is still sore. He asked me if it’s the soreness from the joints or from the muscles. I told him I couldn’t tell and just pointed the spot I felt it’s sore. He looked at it and said it’s exactly where I should feel it and it means the exercises are working.
After my usual warm up exercises, I reminded Gavin about what we talked about on Wednesday. I told him that I had problem stepping over a wide drain when we went to the farm in Canberra and he asked me to remind him today so he can get me to do some exercises. He set up a couple of sticks for me on the floor about 30 cm apart and asked me to walk from one end of the room and step over them. He said when we walk we normally scan what’s on the floor and then don’t need to look at it again but people who had brain injury don’t have that ability anymore so I will need to practice stepping over it but not keep looking down. I think that's probably true because I noticed that's what Lillian does now. One day, she was at one corner of the room and was walking towards me. There was something in the middle of the floor and I thought she was going to trip over because i didn't think she saw it. To my surprise, as she was walking towards the obstacle, she didn't even look down and she actually knew it was there and stepped over it. This shows that we must have a natural ability to do it. I think it's great to look at how Lillian develops because I'm learning a lot from her. I remember Danika, the OT from MECRS, used to remind me that when I'm reaching for an object, I should keep my wrist extended. i thought it's strange at the time but then I noticed that's how Lillian does it when she was about 7 months old. It must be a natural movement then.
I practiced that a few times and he gradually increased the distance between the two sticks and finally added a box in my path as well. I had to walk from one end of the room and step over the sticks and the box and walk towards the other end of the room.
I found the physio treatment room reminds me of a ballroom dancing studio where Tim and I used to go. I see the same faces every week and it's hard not to check out their progress. I noticed another patient of Gavin's there and i think she is walking so much better today. I don't know what happened to her but she used to swing her leg out like I did but today her leg stopped circumducting and she was able to flex her knee and drag her leg through.
After these exercises, Gavin set me up on a physio bed to do some arm/shoulder exercises. When I was doing the chest press, I told him that I do this in personal training as well because Mary said this is the same as doing the pushups against the wall. He said that’s right. I asked him why is it that I cannot stick my left elbow out as I’m pushing the weight upwards, is it because my tricep is weak or is it something else. He thinks it’s due to the weakness in my shoulder that prevents my elbow from sticking out because I don’t get much range of motion there.
This is only meant to be a short diary today because I think I should go back to bed and rest now :)
posted by Teresa Liu at 9:17 PM
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