Mama and Rabbi announced that we were going to do a few new things the next day at PT in addition to all of the things we had done the previous day. So after I was walked by Rabbi, they added hurdles!! Yes, my Olympic track dreams were still alive. Positioned back between the parallel bars with my leash on, they had set up these yellow hurdles every foot or so apart. Cue the Chariots of Fire music because I was gonna breeze through these. They were 8 inches high. woohoo. Go me. Actually 8 inches was a LONG way to lift my left leg. Felt like I was trying to step over a mountain. Most normal, average, everyday people when they see something like this, just automatically lift their leg and step. No big deal. I had to concentrate and tell my mind when to lift. It was not automatic. So when I did step, it was this weird, clunky, gripping the parallel bars for dear life, knees pointing this way and that, flamingo-walk type step. Down and back 5 times. Might wanna turn the music down a bit, I guess I'm not quite at full beach-running mode just yet.
The other new thing they introduced was THE LADDER. It isn't a vertical ladder like most people envision. It's a plastic fold up ladder laid flat on the ground. It kind of reminded me of the thing that you see on ESPN that football players are running through at the combine. Schweet! I was gonna go all NFL on this bad-boy. Well, as NFL as I could go with a leash on anyway. It turned into more of a strange dance-type thing. I had to start on one side and step into the center square (between the rungs) one foot at a time and then out at a diagonal on the opposite side. Then go back the other way until I had made a zig zag pattern working my way "up" the ladder and back down. Doesn't sound hard, but my left leg still wanted to drag, especially when I get tired, and by this point in the therapy session it was TIRED. So, it truly was hard work (and I don't mean like the Gatorade commercials).
PT and OT wear me clean out, as a general rule...drained, physically exhausted. But this horrible thing called insomnia has been plaguing me lately too. So, my body is tired, my eyes are tired but my brain will not shut off long enough to allow me to fall asleep. If I do happen to doze off, the dreams are of a quality that only the best movie theaters would produce and promote. They are in color, highly detailed and very action packed and generally I can tell you about my dreams days after they occur. So even if I am asleep, I wake up not feeling rested because I've had an adventurous "rest".
When I was working constantly (pre-stroke), I would listen to books on CD as I worked. After all, who really has time to sit down and read a book? At least that was my belief. I saw pretty much any type of activity that was sitting AND not working on something in conjunction to the sitting, as a waste of my time. So I was "up" on several authors just from listening to them. Post-stroke I had a couple books to listen to, but since my cd player was in my work room, and I wasn't allowed to work/couldn't work (the Warden's rules and my body's inability) it made no sense to me at all to sit back there in my work room just to listen to a book. So Tommy tried to help me out by bringing the cd player into the living room. That was horrible. Now I felt even lazier. I was just sitting and listening to a book but not doing anything. THAT, in my opinion, was worse than actually sitting down and reading a book and not working. So, he lovingly went to the public library and checked out some books for me. Actual, physical books. The first day he brought home 3 or 4 books from my favorite authors and I was going to attempt to read them instead of listening to the CDs. Operation Rest Your Mind was about to get started.
Now keep in mind, I have a Master's Degree in English. I CAN read. I USED to read constantly. I just replaced reading with other activities several years ago and have never gone back. The first day, Tommy got me situated on the sofa (we have the most comfortable sofa in the world) with a book, my phone and charger, my 28 oz mug of water (McGruff would be so happy that I'm continuing to drink water), and a book. I was really apprehensive about this. But I obliged and went along with it. Amazingly, it worked! I found that when I was physically holding the book and reading it, I had to concentrate on what I was reading so the rest of my brain shut off. It no longer went a million miles an hour while I was reading. I don't know if my brain has always worked like this or if it is just post-stroke brain having to remember what each word is and such, but I actually could concentrate on Just One Thing. Within the past two weeks I have read 38 books. I put books on hold using the Library's website and as soon as we get the notice that they are available, Tommy picks them up. I've read practically every James Patterson, Stuart Woods, and John Sanford book the Metropolitan Library System has in its distribution list. Starting on a few new authors now. I think the library workers are starting to wonder what Tommy is doing with all of these books every few days. One day I read 2.5 books from the time he went to work until dinner time. I still feel like I'm wasting time. This is not acceptable.
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