11 October 2005
I had personal training with Mary this morning. My leg was very sore when I woke up this morning. I think it’s from the running and jumping I did in physio yesterday.
It’s kind of strange not going to my hydro on Tuesday mornings since I’m so used to it now and I think my body actually misses the warm water. I know I can just have a hot bath but it’s a bit different in a hydro pool because I can move around and do a bit of swimming as well.
On my way to the gym, I was really concentrating on my arm swing. Gavin said people don’t actively swinging their arms when they walk, the arms just swing when they walk. I notice that my arms tend to swing normally when I walk if I can relax my left arm. As I walked passed the Trinity Foundation building on our street, I noticed there were a couple of guys standing there discussing something about the building and pointing at it. One of them saw me coming, smiled at me and said:”you duffer, what did you do to yourself?” I think he probably thought I broke my leg because I was wearing my ankle brace. I know he meant well but I didn’t think it was necessary for me to tell him my life story so I just told him it’s not very exciting and walked off.
Going across the road was a bit challenging this morning – only because this person thought I was going too slow and decided to overtake me. That alone is ok but then he decided to stop when he got to the other side and I almost bumped into him. I had to stop and start again. I found my gait and speed changed as I stopped and started again. I guess Gavin is right in saying that outdoor walking is better than walking on treadmill because it’s uneven surface and in this case, I had to adjust for other people’s unpredictable behaviour. These days, when I cross the road, I always press the button with my left hand but sometimes I wonder if people notice that something is wrong with my left arm/hand.
I didn’t look at my watch until I got to the gym – it’s just about 10.50 a.m. My watch is usually a bit fast and my appointment with Mary was 10.45 a.m. I didn’t think it matters even if I’m 5 minutes late because from experience she is rarely there on time. To my surprise, when I walked into their office, they were all there – Mike, Ann-Marie and Mary. Mary said she’s starting to get worried (because I was running late). I think ever since Gavin told me what he thought of her, I found it’s almost becoming like ‘self-fullfilling prophecy’ because even a comment like that tends to annoy me. She told me that she’s got some new exercises for me. She took me to the downstairs area of the gym. I don’t actually like going there because the stairs slow me down and I think we waste a lot of time in our session just walking around. The new machine she mentioned a few weeks ago has arrived – a hack squat leg press. She said she wanted me to try it and see how I feel. I tried it and found my it really works my quads. She also got me to try a machine that works the calves. We tried this a while back but it was too heavy for me back then. Now, it’s a lot easier for me to do the calf raises on this machine. In fact, it was getting too easy for me that she had to add some weights on.
I met up with Rosemary after personal training and she walked me home. When I got out of the gym, Rosemary said I looked so perky she almost didn’t recognise me. It was so nice to see her since I haven’t seen her for a while.
When we were crossing the road, she pointed out to me that I was so much faster than before and I could cross the road quite comfortably without using the strategy I was using before. I think that’s true because I can’t remember the last time I used my old strategy in crossing the road. The problem I have now is sometimes I get caught in the middle of crossing the road because the green light has been on for a while and just as I start crossing the red light starts flashing and it’s quite stressful trying to quickly walk to the other side.
I picked up some mails in the mail box when we got home. There is a letter for me but no sender details. The writing and the ink look really familiar but I couldn’t tell who is it from without opening it. I put it away and thought I’d open it after Rosemary has gone. I really enjoyed catching up with her except Jill, the social work from ARBIAS, turned up on time for our appointment at 12.30 pm. I told Rosemary before Jill came that I had this appointment but it’s probably ok because Jill is usually late. For once, she is actually on time and for once I wished she wasn’t so I could talk to Rosemary a bit longer.
Jill came to talk about closing my file. She thinks I'm doing so much better since she last saw me and doesn't think I need them much longer. I managed to persuade her to get someone to catch the tram with me a few times. It's something I want to practice doing but a bit scared to do it on my own. As we were talking, she mentioned something about she can spot people who had ABI from alchohol abuse. I asked how and she told me they have special gait. I was intrigued. I thought all people who have had brain injuries would walk like I do but apparently not. She said these people tend to have their knees turned out when they walk.
After Jill has left, I went back to open the letter I had collected earlier. To my surprise, it was actually from Rosemary. She described it as ‘an email by post’. It’s so nice of her to send me a note with comments on my blog. I think it’s always so nice to know that people actually read it. I know she and Neil and also Neil’s mother in the US have always been reading it. The letter was written in a true ‘Rosemary style’ – with it’s grace and elegance. I don’t know how to describe it but I think it’s just the very refined mannerism makes it very ‘Rosemary’.
It’s kind of strange not going to my hydro on Tuesday mornings since I’m so used to it now and I think my body actually misses the warm water. I know I can just have a hot bath but it’s a bit different in a hydro pool because I can move around and do a bit of swimming as well.
On my way to the gym, I was really concentrating on my arm swing. Gavin said people don’t actively swinging their arms when they walk, the arms just swing when they walk. I notice that my arms tend to swing normally when I walk if I can relax my left arm. As I walked passed the Trinity Foundation building on our street, I noticed there were a couple of guys standing there discussing something about the building and pointing at it. One of them saw me coming, smiled at me and said:”you duffer, what did you do to yourself?” I think he probably thought I broke my leg because I was wearing my ankle brace. I know he meant well but I didn’t think it was necessary for me to tell him my life story so I just told him it’s not very exciting and walked off.
Going across the road was a bit challenging this morning – only because this person thought I was going too slow and decided to overtake me. That alone is ok but then he decided to stop when he got to the other side and I almost bumped into him. I had to stop and start again. I found my gait and speed changed as I stopped and started again. I guess Gavin is right in saying that outdoor walking is better than walking on treadmill because it’s uneven surface and in this case, I had to adjust for other people’s unpredictable behaviour. These days, when I cross the road, I always press the button with my left hand but sometimes I wonder if people notice that something is wrong with my left arm/hand.
I didn’t look at my watch until I got to the gym – it’s just about 10.50 a.m. My watch is usually a bit fast and my appointment with Mary was 10.45 a.m. I didn’t think it matters even if I’m 5 minutes late because from experience she is rarely there on time. To my surprise, when I walked into their office, they were all there – Mike, Ann-Marie and Mary. Mary said she’s starting to get worried (because I was running late). I think ever since Gavin told me what he thought of her, I found it’s almost becoming like ‘self-fullfilling prophecy’ because even a comment like that tends to annoy me. She told me that she’s got some new exercises for me. She took me to the downstairs area of the gym. I don’t actually like going there because the stairs slow me down and I think we waste a lot of time in our session just walking around. The new machine she mentioned a few weeks ago has arrived – a hack squat leg press. She said she wanted me to try it and see how I feel. I tried it and found my it really works my quads. She also got me to try a machine that works the calves. We tried this a while back but it was too heavy for me back then. Now, it’s a lot easier for me to do the calf raises on this machine. In fact, it was getting too easy for me that she had to add some weights on.
I met up with Rosemary after personal training and she walked me home. When I got out of the gym, Rosemary said I looked so perky she almost didn’t recognise me. It was so nice to see her since I haven’t seen her for a while.
When we were crossing the road, she pointed out to me that I was so much faster than before and I could cross the road quite comfortably without using the strategy I was using before. I think that’s true because I can’t remember the last time I used my old strategy in crossing the road. The problem I have now is sometimes I get caught in the middle of crossing the road because the green light has been on for a while and just as I start crossing the red light starts flashing and it’s quite stressful trying to quickly walk to the other side.
I picked up some mails in the mail box when we got home. There is a letter for me but no sender details. The writing and the ink look really familiar but I couldn’t tell who is it from without opening it. I put it away and thought I’d open it after Rosemary has gone. I really enjoyed catching up with her except Jill, the social work from ARBIAS, turned up on time for our appointment at 12.30 pm. I told Rosemary before Jill came that I had this appointment but it’s probably ok because Jill is usually late. For once, she is actually on time and for once I wished she wasn’t so I could talk to Rosemary a bit longer.
Jill came to talk about closing my file. She thinks I'm doing so much better since she last saw me and doesn't think I need them much longer. I managed to persuade her to get someone to catch the tram with me a few times. It's something I want to practice doing but a bit scared to do it on my own. As we were talking, she mentioned something about she can spot people who had ABI from alchohol abuse. I asked how and she told me they have special gait. I was intrigued. I thought all people who have had brain injuries would walk like I do but apparently not. She said these people tend to have their knees turned out when they walk.
After Jill has left, I went back to open the letter I had collected earlier. To my surprise, it was actually from Rosemary. She described it as ‘an email by post’. It’s so nice of her to send me a note with comments on my blog. I think it’s always so nice to know that people actually read it. I know she and Neil and also Neil’s mother in the US have always been reading it. The letter was written in a true ‘Rosemary style’ – with it’s grace and elegance. I don’t know how to describe it but I think it’s just the very refined mannerism makes it very ‘Rosemary’.
posted by Teresa Liu at 11:52 PM
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