7 July 2006

Fisrt dairy entry in over a month. The latest news is that I saw Professor Kaye on Monday after my recent MRI scan. I was really nervous about the appointment and insisted that Tim accompany me to the appointment. When we walked in Prof Kaye's office, he smiled and said 'it's good to get you out of the gym'. I have bumped into him a few times at the gym before so he knows I'm a gym junkie. The good news is that my scan result is normal. There are no changes since my last scan. Prof Kaye was very impressed with my improvement and he said it's amazing to see some of the things I do at the gym. I think he might be referring to the running I do on the step machine. One of the exercises I do is set the step machine to the highest level so I can run very fast on it. Gavin said it's good practicew for my running so I have been doing that for a while now. I was a little bit embarrassed when he carried on a bit about my progress. I guess he remembered how bad I was right after the operation so from not being able to wiggle my toes to going to the gym is a big improvement. I told him that one thing I found strange is that specialists often don't tell you that you have to work very hard to get better and the harder you work the faster you improve. Tim also told him that it's frustrating that most rehab specialists will tell you that you will never recover but they won't tell you that if you work hard you will recover more than if you just give up. I haven't put this in my blog yet but I told Prof Kaye that I couldn't do pushups or chin ups before and now I can do both.

I didn't know I can do chin ups until last Friday in physio. I have been having problem with my lfet knee since Tuesday so I couldn't do my running practice last Friday. Gavin got me to do so upper limb exercises since I couldn't do much with the legs. I was actually craving for a good workout by that stage because I had to cut back on my sessions due to my knee problem. He asked me to do a few set of push up s first. He told me to go down lower that I should feel I almost can't get up. It's much harder to go down lower. After the pushups, he asked me to do the chin ups and tricep dips on the machine. I tried to use the machine almost a year ago and it was very difficult back then and I always wondereed if I can do it now every time I go to the gym. The machine at the gym is quite hard to get on so I haven't actually tried. Gavin asked me to try the chin ups and the dips in sitting first. The machine is really desiged for kneeling but it's much harder for the patients to do them in kneeling so there is a box under the machine for patients to step on to get on the machine in either sitting or kneeling.

The machine is designed in such a way that you can adjust it to your body weight so it's easier to do the chin ups. Gavin set the number/level for me but when I tried it was quite easy in the tricep dips so he had to adjust it harder. He said he under estimated me. I told him it could be due to BodyPump classes because they sometimes do tricep dips in the classes. The chin ups was hard but not impossible. After a few sets, Gavin asked me to get off the machine and then try it in kneeling. To my surprise, it's not that hard to do it in kneeling. I'm quite excited by this new achievement. When I told Tim about it, he just think I'm cheating a bit with the chin ups because it's assisted by the machine and it's not the real chin ups. I suppose he expects me to do chin ups like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2.

Apart from my sore knee, everything is fine. I've started taking juggling lessons from Kate, one of Neil's students. Apart from studying, she also works at a circus and teaches people juggling. When Neil mentioned this to me, I thought I should take it up because I'd be kicking myself later if I had this opportunity and didn't take it. I also signed up for a boxing short course with Neil. It's cardio boxing but the instructor is from a real boxing background and he teaches a lot of boxing techniques in the course. I have been to cardio box classes with Tim many times and I really hate it. I guess that's the reason I signed up - I really hate it but I think it's good for me. Things I hate doing are often good for me - pilates, aerobics and walking down the big stairs in physio. I think I used to hate the stairs the most, then pilates and then boxing and aerobics but nowq it's more like aerobics, boxing, pilates and stairs. I know my rehab time is limited because I will have to increase my work hours eventually so I'm just trying to do as much as possible now so I won't have any regrets.

I have also discovered a new class - BodyBalance. It's another one of those Les Mills fitness class. It has a combination of TaiChi, Pilates and Yoga. I went to my usual aerobics class on Monday night and Donna, the usual instructor for the class, was away. Mary, another instructor, took the class. I spoke to her afterwards and she thought I had a broken leg. I told her I had a stroke because it's too hard to explain all the details. She told me she teaches BodyBalance and it might be good for me to try it out. So, there I was. I have to be honest to say that I didn't enjoy the class. It's too alternative for me. I'm not really into those mind- body type of exercises or even meditation. However, I might try out a few other sessions just to see if it improves. Maybe it will be like boxing, I really hated it when I signed up for the course but now I learned a lot more I'm beginning to like it more.