Day 84-90. Feb 6-12th

 A positive week with lots of milestones reached but I’m realising that it’s not just a case of putting ticks in boxes. It’s more breaking barriers and building on the skills and techniques needed to overcome each hurdle.

Monday and Tuesday were two great days. On Monday I was able to walk on my sticks with the team holding on to me very lightly. On Tuesday I managed without anyone holding me. It wasn’t far ( although it felt it at the time) but it was something we had originally set as a target for the end of the week.

 On Wednesday  I was able to stand from seated, walk a short distance, turn and sit unaided. I then stood back up and walked back to my original seat. The practical application of this is so that I can use a toilet on my own. Maybe a little TMI but this forms an essential part of  giving me back my own independence and personal dignity.

Coming back to the building on skills. From the video you will see that I am kind of shuffling on the sticks. It’s a similar technique to using a walking frame, moving the sticks forward together then moving my feet forward to where the sticks are. It’s effective but I’ve spent a lot of the rest of the week practicing trying to do step through walking. It sounds automatic doesn’t it but the mental effort of breaking the act of walking down into individual movements is just exhausting. It’s difficult concentrating on where your feet are at every moment and it’s so easy to lose balance but I’m determined to crack this as quickly as possible.

I’ve had some problems with my wounds this week probably due to the stretching and rubbing involved while walking on my prosthetics but overall the team have confirmed that my arms and legs  and finally my bottom are healing nicely.

And finally on Friday I went on a little excursion 🙂..Okay, so it was to St George’s for my first Covid vaccination but it was nice to go there voluntarily and conscious this time !